A's Promoting Another Top Pick in 2024 Draft

Jason Burke | Aug 27, 2024

Mar 20, 2024; Mesa, Arizona, USA; General view of the field prior to a spring training game between the Oakland Athletics and Chicago Cubs at Hohokam Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports / Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

The Oakland Athletics are making promotions quickly these days. We have the likely re-arrival of top prospect Jacob Wilson today, the recent debut of No. 2 prospect Nick Kurtz in Double-A Midland, with Will Simpson following him heading into this week. Word is also going around that 2024 third rounder Joshua Kuroda-Grauer is getting a bump up to High-A Lansing.

Was only a matter of time... JKG is on the move up to High-A!

After piling up 21 hits in just 12 games in Single-A, Josh Kuroda-Grauer is heading to High-A Lansing where he'll reunite with fellow Scarlet Knight Ryan Lasko!#TCD pic.twitter.com/HYjCqsklir

— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) August 26, 2024

Over the course of 12 games with Stockton, JKG went 12-for-54 (.389) with a .476 OBP and walked more (7) than he struck out (5) and added four steals in five attempts. While he's not known for having much power, maxing out at six homers in 2023 with Rutgers, that hit tool is looking pretty solid. MLB Pipeline rated it as a 55 on the 20-80 scout scale, along with a 60 run grade, a 50 arm and a 50 in the field.

One attribute that the A's have been targeting with recent additions is the ability to make contact, and Kuroda-Grauer certainly has that. From Pipeline: "He almost never strikes out and seldom swings and misses, combining his contact skills with an advanced approach that points toward becoming at least an above-average hitter in the future."

Pipeline has him ranked as the A's No. 13 prospect straight out of the Draft and gives him an estimated time of arrival in the big leagues of 2027.

Obviously getting to the next level after just two weeks in pro ball is a big deal, but the rest of this season will still be about getting his feet under him on this new journey as a professional baseball player, with the likely starting place for him heading into 2025 being right back at Lansing in order to continue building that foundation for the future.

Kuroda-Grauer will be joining A's 2023 second rounder and fellow Rutgers product Ryan Lasko in Lansing. The duo were teammates in college for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Lasko received his promotion to Lansing just a month ago and has been producing at a similar rate to where he was with Stockton.