A's Spring Breakout spotlight: Steven Echavarria
This year Major League Baseball is doing something pretty cool by bringing the focus to some of the top minor leaguers around the game in what they're calling "Spring Breakout." Essentially, it'll be a game played between teams of every organization's top prospects with the games being played from March 14-17. For the A's, their game will be on Friday, March 15 against the San Francisco Giants at 4:05 as Game 2 of a doubleheader. The first game will be a regular spring training contest.
The full roster for the A's can be viewed here, but each day this week we're going to spotlight one member of the A's Spring Breakout roster. Today, that player is right-hander Steven Echavarria.
The 18-year-old ranks as the A's No. 7 prospect on MLB Pipeline and Baseball Prospectus and has yet to make his professional debut outside of six innings in instructs. He was selected by the A's in the third round of the 2023 Draft and signed for a huge over-slot deal at $3 million, nearly triple the pick's value.
On the day that Oakland called up Tyler Soderstrom and Zack Gelof to make their A's debuts right out of the All-Star break, we asked GM David Forst if there was a player that fell to the A's that they weren't expecting. His answer was Echavarria.
This season he'll be working on his four-pitch mix that includes a 96-98 mph fastball, a sweeping slider, a curveball, and a changeup. In 50 high school innings last season he held a 0.28 ERA, allowing all of two earned runs all season. He also gave up 21 hits and walked 14 batters while striking out 80.
While the plan isn't to use him as a position player, it's worth noting that he also played some first base at Millburn, hitting .305 with 15 walks, five homers, and five stolen bases in 82 at-bats. He led the team in ERA and home runs.
This year it's likely that he begins the season in Stockton to get his feet wet before moving up to Lansing. He's still quite young and years away from making his debut, but on Friday we all may get our first glimpse of him on a mound.