Former New York Mets Prospect to Debut with Oakland A's

Jason Burke | Aug 21, 2024

Mississippi State's J.T. Ginn (3) releases a pitch in the third inning. Mississippi State played Youngstown State on Saturday, February 16, 2019. Photo by Keith Warren Msu Youngstown State J.T. Ginn / Keith Warren, Keith Warren

The New York Mets acquired one year of Chris Bassitt from the Oakland Athletics back in 2022, and it cost them right-handers Adam Oller and J.T. Ginn. Oller is now on the Miami Marlins after making his team debut on Monday, but Ginn has been in the minor leagues, working his way up the ladder. On Tuesday, he reached the top rung.

The Oakland A's announced that they have placed Scott Alexander on the IL with left rotator cuff tendonitis, and have called up Ginn to take his place in the bullpen.

Ginn, 25, is already at a career high in innings this season with 102 2/3 between Double-A Midland and Triple-A Las Vegas, and the most he's thrown since 2021 when he tossed 92. The past two years he has tallied a combined 69 innings due to injury, with 26 2/3 coming last season, so this year's total is a pretty big jump. He's appeared in 21 games this season and started 20 of those.

The move to the bullpen makes sense here since the A's will be able to limit his innings moving forward while also giving him a chance to be in the clubhouse with the guys that he'll likely be spending some time with next year.

Entering the 2024 season, Ginn was ranked as the team's No. 17 prospect on MLB Pipeline, but a combination of underperformance and recent draftees being added pushed him off of the current top-30.

On the year, Ginn is 8-4 with a 5.26 ERA with a 1.47 WHIP, allowing 111 hits, walking 40 batters, and striking out 97 of them. His home run rate did jump up a bit with the move to Triple-A Las Vegas, with the righty allowing 10 homers in 72 1/3 innings, after giving up three in 30 1/3 with Midland. Part of that could be the park factors of the Pacific Coast League, with his home run rates in the minors never going past one per ten innings before that stop in the PCL.

The big key for Ginn to have success in the big leagues will be continuing to have excellent command of his arsenal. FanGraphs doesn't think too highly of his secondary offerings (slider, curve, change), and give him the upside of a fifth starter long-term if he has that command working.

The good thing about bringing him up now is that he will get a taste of what works and what doesn't at the big league level, and he can take that knowledge into the offseason ready to compete in 2025. JP Sears and Joey Estes would appear to be locks for the rotation next season, with Mitch Spence another likely candidate. With Luis Medina and Ken Waldichuk set to miss some time to begin the year in '25, that could leave the door open for someone like Ginn to land a spot on the roster come opening day.

It worked for Joe Boyle last season. He debuted, shoved, and then was in line to get a spot in the rotation for the first month of the season before landing on the IL. It's unlikely that Ginn will start any games at this point in time with his innings count already a bit high, but that could also allow him to go all out a little more than he normally would, too.