A's Prospects Max Muncy, Royber Salinas Named to Fall Stars Game
Oakland A's prospects Max Muncy and RHP Royber Salinas have been named to the Arizona Fall League's Fall Stars Game. The 21-year-old shortstop was selected by the A's in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft and made it all the way to Double-A Midland this past season.
In his 51 games with Midland, Muncy batted .302 with a .387 OBP, hit four home runs, stole four bags, and had a 124 wRC+. He also walked at a 9% clip and struck out 23.2% of the time. Not a bad showing for a player on the younger side making his first appearance in what is considered the toughest jump (High-A to Double-A) outside of the move to the big leagues.
In 19 Fall League games, Muncy is batting .216 with a 293 OBP and four home runs and four stolen bases. His strikeout rate has held at 23.1%, and his walk rate has taken a very slight dip to 8.5% in the small sample. It's late in the year, and while his average and on-base aren't quite as high, he's still showing some pop in his bat, which could translate into good things next season as he aims for Oakland.
In High School, Muncy was coached by former big-leaguer Jack Wilson, the father of A's top draft pick in 2023, Jacob Wilson.
Right-hander Royber Salinas is the other A's prospect that has been named to the Fall Stars Game. After coming to the A's in the Sean Murphy trade last offseason, Salinas, the team's #24 prospect, reported to Midland and tallied 67 1/3 innings pitched and racked up a 5.48 ERA, but a 4.21 FIP. He struck out close to 31% of the batters he faced, but he also ended up walking 10.8% of them as well. Lowering that walk rate will be something he needs to work on for 2024.
In the Fall League he has a 7.80 ERA across 15 innings, spanning five starts. His walk rate is up, strikeout rate is down, and he's getting hit fairly regularly with a 10.8 hits per nine allowed. It's a small sample size and it's late into the year, so we shouldn't make any big assumptions off of his performance thus far. That said, he is Rule 5 eligible this offseason, and may need to be added to the 40-man roster by the November 14 deadline to protect him from being taken from the A's system.
Salinas was a strikeout machine in the lower levels of the minor leagues with the Atlanta Braves, and in his first season in the A's system that just hasn't translated as much. He's still an intriguing arm in the system that can touch 99 and has a nice fastball/slider combo. With the high walk rate though, he'll likely need to clean up his mechanics in order to be an impact arm in the A's rotation.