Latest Mock Has Oakland A's Landing a Top Two Talent
For months now, nearly every publication that ranks draft prospects has had the same two players at the top of their rankings in Georgia outfielder Charlie Condon and Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana. While in most league's drafts, those would end up being the top two picks, Major League Baseball's selection process is a bit different, so a top-tier talent can slide down. That is exactly what happened in Baseball America's latest mock draft.
With the fourth pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, BA has the Oakland A's selecting Bazzana. The A's have been targeting position players heavily in the first round for nearly a decade, and they haven't picked a pitcher with their top spot since they took both A.J. Puk (6th overall) and Daulton Jefferies (37th) in 2016.
There are two reasons for this. The first is that they feel confident in their own ability to target and develop pitchers. The A's have a long track record of bringing in players and making them better. The other part of the equation could be that they also prefer to have the advanced metrics they receive in the minor leagues available before targeting an arm. The A's have landed a slew of pitchers in recent trades, and a handful of them have shown some real promise.
Joey Estes was compared to Tim Hudson after a recent start, and Lucas Erceg was acquired from the arm farm in the Milwaukee Brewers system for cash and is now a key piece of the bullpen.
Now you may be wondering why Bazzana would fall to the A's at four, and that's a good question to ask. Sometimes what teams in the MLB Draft do is to take a player a few spots early in an effort to get him to sign for under that pick's value. That is called an under slot pick. The first overall selection in this year's Draft has a slot value of $10.57 million, so if Cleveland takes a top-10 talent that may end up somewhere in the 5-10 range, then they could offer that player more than they would get if the draft played out normally, but also save money for the rest of the team's draft.
Baseball America thinks this could be the case with West Virginia shortstop JJ Wetherholt, who they project could take an $8.5 million deal as the top overall pick, which would save the Guardians $2 million for later. The reason teams do this is to acquire a talent that may not be ready to sign for their draft slot, so they have more money to work with to get a first or second round talent in the later rounds as teams pass them by due to sign-ability questions.
The A's did this last year by selecting Jacob Wilson sixth overall, saving $1.1 million, and then used some of the money they saved to pick Steven Echavarria early in the third round for $2 million over slot.
As for Bazzana, some scouts consider him the best overall prospect in the draft. The 21-year-old is a native of Australia, and in 60 games with Oregon State this season, he has hit a ridiculous .407 with a .568 OBP, 28 home runs, and has twice as many walks (76) as strikeouts (37), which is good for a 12.5% strikeout rate. Those stats are a pretty good indicator of why scouts think he's the best player in the Draft.
If he falls to the A's, then Oakland should happily take him with the fourth overall pick.
JASON BURKE
Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum.