Is Ryan Noda's Time with the A's Coming to an End?

Matthew Kalinowski | 2 Hours Ago

Sep 22, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; Oakland Athletics infielder Ryan Noda hits a two-run double against the New York Yankees in the sixth inning at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

The A's former Rule 5 Draft pick is on the outside looking in regarding roster construction. After starting the 2024 season slowly, Ryan Noda spent a little over four months with Triple-A Las Vegas, playing in just over 100 games for the Aviators. He spent time at first base and all three outfield positions to get him more at-bats. In Triple-A, Noda hit .224/.391/.486 with 22 home runs and 89 walks.

When Noda was called back up to the A's in September, after earning Pacific Coast League Player of the Week honors in mid-August, he had two hits in nine at-bats with two walks and five strikeouts.

Noda sees lots of pitches every at-bat and he does a great job drawing walks, which made him valuable for a struggling A's team in 2023. He drew 77 walks in 128 games with the A's in 2023, hitting .229 with 122 wRC+, 22% above league average.

However, with Noda struggling at the plate with the big league club in 2024 and struggling to hit in a hitter-friendly PCL, his time with the A's may soon be coming to an end.

The A's drafted Nick Kurtz out of Wake Forest with the fourth overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, and the expectation is he could move quickly through the minor leagues. The A's got aggressive and promoted Kurtz to Double-A Midland after he slashed .400 with four home runs in seven games with Low-A Stockton.

Before Kurtz was sidelined for the rest of the season with a hamstring strain, he played in five games for Double-A Midland, hitting .308. GM David Forst said in his end-of-year Zoom meeting that he hopes the No. 2 prospect will make up some of the lost at-bats in the Arizona Fall League.

The A's No. 24 and No. 29 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline, Brennan Milone and Will Simpson, played primarily first base this past season and performed well. In 127 games for Double-A Midland, Milone hit .278 with 15 home runs and a .802 OPS. While Simpson, across 127 games at High-A Lansing and Double-A Midland, hit .282 with 18 home runs and a .860 OPS. Milone may earn a promotion to Triple-A Las Vegas for the start of the 2025 season, while Simpson will likely remain in Double-A Midland to see more at-bats there.

Not to mention, former No. 1 prospect Tyler Soderstrom has first base locked down with the big league club. Forst mentioned in the end-of-year meeting that Soderstrom could see more action behind the plate with the amount of first-base talent moving through the system, but for now, he is the starter at first base.

This brings us back to Ryan Noda, with all of the talent in the minor leagues ready to push for their promotion to the big league club, he could be the odd man out. Noda does still have two options left, so the A's could decide to keep him and let him play in Triple-A. However, several teams will be looking to upgrade their first base position this winter, and he has some tools to build upon.

With the A's moving to a minor-league park for the foreseeable future, it will be more challenging than ever to convince free agents to play for them. This means the A's may need to work the phones and make some trades if they want to upgrade any part of their roster this winter. Noda could be a player many teams are interested in, with his high walk rate and lefty-bat that could be useful for many teams.