A's Prospect From Matt Olson Trade Makes Triple-A Debut
Earlier this week, the Oakland A's promoted 21-year-old pitching prospect Joey Estes to Triple-A Las Vegas, which is big news for a few reasons. The first is that he was part of the return in the Matt Olson trade with the Atlanta Braves, which means a few more eyeballs will be on him as he continues his climb to the Majors. Another is that he's still just 21 and he's knocking on the door to making it to The Show. Finally, with his promotion to Triple-A, we also get to look at some of the Statcast data on his pitch mix, so let's dive in.
In his start on Saturday, Estes finished with a final line of 4.2 innings pitched, four hits allowed, three earned runs, three walks, and six strikeouts on 85 pitches (48 strikes). He also allowed two home runs, with both coming off his four-seam fastball. The righty threw five different pitches, his four-seam (36%), changeup (29%), slider (22%), sinker (11%) and one lone curveball.
The results are fine, and the two home runs in Albuquerque are almost to be expected as the home of the Isotopes is one of the most hitter-friendly parks in the Pacific Coast League. That's especially true with Estes being a fly ball pitcher. He held a 33.3% ground ball rate in Double-A Midland this season, which is right in line with his career rate.
Estes is the A's #19 prospect on MLB Pipeline and #21 on FanGraphs, which projects him as a back-end starter in the future.
As far as the radar readings go, Estes' four-seam maxed out at 95.3 miles per hour and averaged 92.8. One factor to keep an eye on here is that this pitch was clocked as low as 89.5 mph in his final frame, with the last four-seamer he threw coming in at 90.8. Could have been fatigue as that was his 81st pitch, but he was also having trouble commanding the pitch all night, so he could have also purposefully taken a little off in order to try to nab a strike. Again, something to keep an eye on.
He has also eclipsed 100 innings for the first time of his pro career, with his previous high being 99 innings back in 2021 while he tossed 91 innings last season in his first year in the A's system.
His changeup sat at 85.5 mph on Saturday, while his slider maxed at 84.9 and sat at 81.7. The sinker that he threw nine times was actually his hardest clocked offering, maxing out at 96.1 and averaging 93.8. The one curve was 79.8 miles per hour.
In a conversation with Zack Gelof over the weekend in which he was talking about the differences between Triple-A and the big leagues, the A's second baseman said, "In the minor leagues I feel like it's more development based, and here it's about winning."
Joey Estes is still in the development phase of his career, but by this time next year he could be helping the A's secure some victories.