A's Draft Pick Could be Determined Early
The Oakland Athletics hold the fourth pick in the upcoming MLB Draft, which will be held on Sunday, July 14, and the way the mock drafts have been looking recently, there is a good chance we could determine which player the A's will select when the Cleveland Guardians make the first overall pick.
Baseball America still has the Cleveland Guardians selecting JJ Wetherholt of West Virginia with the first pick, which, if the Draft shakes out the way they're seeing it, would leave the A's with either outfielder Charlie Condon of Georgia, or second baseman Travis Bazzana of Oregon State.
The reasoning given is pretty simple: With the Guardians taking Wetherholt, the Cincinnati Reds, who hold the second pick, would take either Bazzana or Condon. The Colorado Rockies have been eyeing a pitcher with the third selection, which would leave the player that the Reds don't take available for the A's at number four. In the BA mock, Bazzana winds up in green and gold.
If Cleveland takes either Bazzana or Condon, then the A's could end up with Wetherholt, or BA believes they could even take Texas A&M outfielder Braden Montgomery (among other college bats) and sign him to an underslot deal. Montgomery is currently mocked to the Pittsburgh Pirates at number nine.
The Montgomery pick is the path that MLB.com has the A's traveling down, though the path to get there is much different that the one that Baseball America laid out. They have Cleveland taking Bazzana, then the Reds going with Jac Caglianone out of Florida with the second overall pick. Pipeline then follows that up with Colorado not selecting an arm, and instead going with Condon at three. Their belief is that if the Guardians don't take Bazzana, he'll end up with the A's.
There is a little added pressure for the A's front office when it comes to this pick since they won't have a top-10 selection next year despite having MLB's third-worst record and being on pace for their third straight 100+ loss season. This is because there is a new rule that goes with the lottery process that if a revenue sharing recipient (like the A's) holds a pick in the lottery two years in a row, they can't have a pick in the first nine in the third year, which would leave them with the tenth pick.
There is also a rule that if a team pays into revenue sharing (like the White Sox) and lands a lottery pick, they can't hold a lottery selection the following year. The White Sox are currently six games worse than the A's and hold the fifth overall pick, so they're fairly locked into that 10th overall selection in next year's draft.
Neither franchise seems to be in great position right now as they build for the future, and the lack of top-tier draft picks next year sure isn't going to help them get out of their predicaments the old fashioned way of tanking to the top.
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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.