Evaluators Split on Sacramento A's Farm System
As the baseball world gears up for the 2025 season, farm system rankings are coming out, and the industry seems to be drastically split on where the Sacramento A's system should fall.
One the one hand, Baseball America believes that the A's have nearly a top-10 system, anchored by first rounders Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson. On the other side of the coin, The Athletic's Keith Law didn't even have Wilson listed in his top-100 prospects, and without him being ranked highly, the entire system fell towards the bottom of the pack.
Baseball America placed the Athletics at No. 11 in their rankings, saying, "The Athletics’ system is headlined by first-rounders Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson, and the organization’s depth is stronger entering 2025. It’s paramount that the A’s hit on both Kurtz and Wilson considering it remains an open question as to whether they’ve produced enough high-end talent to sustain a long-term winner."
In every prospect list, Kurtz and Wilson and one-two in the A's system in some order. They were both also high first rounders, with Wilson going No. 6 overall in 2023, and Kurtz being selected at No. 4 overall last season.
Law ranks the A's way down at No. 27, ahead of just the Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, and Los Angeles Angels. On the bright side, two of the team's division rivals are listed below them (along with a frequent trade partner).
His reasoning: "’I'm going to keep sticking the names of fictional places where the Gassotonia Athletics’ city name should be until they land somewhere because the whole thing is ridiculous.
"Anyway, their system isn’t good, but it is interesting — they’ve expanded their palates, so to speak, drafting and trading for some higher-upside guys here and there; we’ll see how it works out in the end, but I would much rather see them roll the dice to try to get a critical hit than draft guys who couldn’t beat a single kobold on the first level."
A kobold is a low-power or low-level enemy in fantasy games according to Wikipedia.
Another part of the disconnect between these two evaluations of the A's system is where they have Tommy White ranked. For Baseball America, they have him as the team's No. 10 prospect, while Law has him as the No. 3 guy, and in his write-up he doesn't seem terribly impressed with "Tommy Tanks."
Meanwhile, BA thinks there are seven better prospects than White, which also led to the A's system being ranked more highly with their publication.
This discrepancy is fun because it leaves room for either A's fans or fans in Oakland to be happy. Either the A's are a team on the rise with a decent farm system that they can draw upon for reinforcements, or they're awful and may never have a winning season again.
Take your pick!
Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.