A's Add Former Yankees, Braves Prospects on Minor League Deals
According to the transaction pages for the Las Vegas Aviators and Midland RockHounds, the A's have signed three minor league free agents. Two of those prospects were formerly in the Atlanta Braves system, while one was with the New York Yankees the past two seasons.
Jeisson Rosario, a 24-year-old outfielder, had spent the past two seasons in the Yankees system, but was originally signed by the San Diego Padres in 2016 and ended up being part of the deal that sent Mitch Moreland to California from Boston in 2020. New York claimed him off waivers from Boston in March of 2022.
Rosario is a left-handed bat and spent nearly half of his time in the field playing in right (52 games, 51 starts) this past season, while splitting the rest of his games between center (18, 14) and left field (31, 31). He played in 106 games with Double-A Somerset in 2023 and batted .218 with a .360 on-base percentage, 10 home runs, and 11 stolen bases. He finished with a 105 wRC+ (100 is league average).
The one big red flag with Rosario is that he has been in Double-A for the past three full seasons, and while his walk rate sat at 18.2% this season, up 3.4% from 2022, his strikeout rate also skyrocketed from 18.9% in 2022 to 29.6% this past season. The A's are likely hoping that he got bored at the same level for the third year in a row and believe enough in his skill set to see some progress made in 2024 with a new challenge.
He has been assigned to the Triple-A team in Las Vegas and has two options remaining.
The next signee, Hoy Park, is coming from Atlanta's system, but was originally signed by the Yankees back in 2014. He was traded from New York to the Pirates, and then traded again to the Red Sox, then from Boston to Atlanta. Park, a 27 year-old left-handed hitter, is now with the A's on a minor league deal.
Park actually made it to the big leagues with Pittsburgh back in 2021 and 2022, getting into 68 games total and batting . 201 with a .291 OBP and a .637 OPS. He spent all of 2023 in Triple-A Gwinnett, getting into 101 games and batting .262 with a .385 OBP, six homers and 16 stolen bases. His walk rate was also pretty high at 15.4%.
The Seoul, South Korea native has gotten time all over the diamond in his time in the minors, playing every position aside from catcher and first base. This past season the Braves used him primarily in right field or at DH, but he also got a handful of games at third (9) and second (12).
For those keeping score at home, that it two left-handed bats that have played predominantly right field and draw a ton of walks that have both been assigned to Triple-A. JJ Bleday is also a left-hander that draws a ton of walks, but he spent more time in left and center with Oakland. Seth Brown is the other left-handed outfielder on the current roster in Oakland. Could one of those players be on the move as we talked about just a couple of days ago in an effort to clear up some space?
The final addition the A's made is left-handed starter Domingo Robles, who has been assigned to Double-A Midland. Funnily enough, Robles was originally signed by the Pirates before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2020, and then signing as a free agent with Atlanta after the 2022 season.
Robles, 25, tossed 119 1/3 innings with the Braves' Double-A team in 2023, putting up a 3.39 ERA with a 3.50 FIP. He struck out 24.1% of the batters he faced and walked just 6.5%. He had first appeared in Double-A back in 2019 when he was still with the Pirates, then had the 2020 season canceled and put up ERAs over six in both '21 and '22. He seemed to get back on track this past season, which is a good sign.
The lefty got two starts at the beginning of the season in Triple-A and gave up 14 hits and eight earned runs across 7 2/3 innings. He was sent down to Double-A for nearly the rest of the season, until his final appearance of the year out of the bullpen with Triple-A Gwinnett. He gave up three hits, three runs, walked three and hit a batter in two innings of work.
Robles isn't a particularly hard thrower, with his sinker clocking in at a max of 91.9 miles per hour in his final appearance of the season. That said, his changeup, which he threw 33% of the time, elicited eight swings and got five whiffs. He also mixed in an 80 mph curveball and an 86 mph slider on that day.
For now, all of these additions look to be depth options for the Oakland A's. However, we're still in the early days of the hot stove, and if the team makes some trades, these three guys could see their names rise on the depth chart.
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