A's Zack Gelof Showing Off His Tools
The A's called up top prospects Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom to begin the second half of the season, and in their brief stints in the big leagues both players have shown glimpses of the potential they have at this level.
Gelof has had a little more success thus far, going 9-for-33 (.273) with a .351 on-base percentage, one homer (and one ball off the top of the wall), three rbi, and two stolen bases. The 23-year-old isn't quite on an Elly De La Cruz type of run to begin his big-league career, but he does come in with a 150 wRC+, 50% above league average in the second half of the season. Outside of JJ Bleday, he's the hottest regular in the A's lineup right now.
Even with all of the acclaim and all of the hype that has surrounded Gelof since he was selected by the A's in the second round of the 2021 Draft, he is still finding ways to impress.
One notable tool that Gelof has that is only listed as a 55 on MLB Pipeline's 20-80 scout scale is his running ability. A 55 isn't bad, but it does hide the fact that Gelof is one of the 20 fastest players in baseball with a sprint speed of 29.5 ft. / second. Esteury Ruiz is the 12th-fastest player in baseball with a sprint speed of 29.8 ft. / second.
Part of the reason that his sprint speed has been obscured could be that he hasn't been a huge stolen base threat until the season, totaling 13 and 10 swipes in '21 and '22 before putting up 22 steals between Triple-A and Oakland.
At the plate, the second baseman is striking out 29.7% of the time, which is high, but not too much higher than he was in Las Vegas this season (27.9%), or in Double-A Midland last year (27.4%). As he gets acclimated to this level and continues to develop, those strikeouts should dip a little bit.
With Ramón Laureano returning to the A's roster shortly and Tony Kemp getting reps in left field since the arrival of Gelof, manager Mark Kotsay is going to have some interesting decisions to make when it comes to playing time in the short-term for the veteran Kemp.
In the longer term, where the A's find room for Jordan Díaz will be an interesting saga that has yet to unfold completely. Over the last week Díaz has gotten three starts at DH, one at first, and one at second. The team said last year that Jordan was too young to be a full-time DH (he's 22) and essentially kept him in the minor leagues while he learned how to play second base this season.
With the arrival of Gelof, Díaz is back at DH--but for how long? That's something we'll have an answer to in due time, but for now, watching Zack Gelof has been a delight and gives A's fans a pretty good reason to tune in during what has been a pretty rough season on and off the field.