Former Kansas City Royals Pitching Prospect Turning Corner with Oakland

Jason Burke | Aug 29, 2024

Feb 22, 2024; Surprise, AZ, USA; Kansas City Royals pitcher Mason Barnett (86) during photo day at spring training in Surprise, AZ. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

As we discussed earlier this week, the Kansas City Royals are plenty happy with the production they've received from new closer Lucas Erceg after bringing him in at the trade deadline. Yesterday's blown save against Cleveland accounted for the first run he's given up in a Royals' uniform. The A's are also enjoying the early returns from the group of players that came back their way. One name in particular may be separating himself from the pack: Mason Barnett.

Barnett, 23, has made five starts in the A's organization, all of them with the team's Double-A affiliate in Midland, Texas. In those five starts he has compiled a 3.49 ERA with a 1.20 WHIP across 28 1/3 innings pitched. The stats are nice, but it's the progress that he's showing that is intriguing here.

Pitching at the same level for the Royals, Barnett held a 4.91 ERA in a larger sample of 91 2/3 innings, along with a 1.36 WHIP. Part of the difference could be a small sample size, but he has also shown some tangible improvement as well.

With the Royals, he held a walk rate of 9% and was striking out 27.8% of the batters he faced. In his first few games in the A's system, Barnett is walking just 5.9% of hitters, and striking out even more, up to 29%. This includes last night's performance where he went seven innings gave up six hits and three earned while walking one and striking out nine.

His worst outing with Midland, a five inning performance where he allowed six runs , walked three and struck out four, was against the Wichita Wind Surge, a team that the righty was facing for the fifth time this season, and the fourth time since the beginning of June.

FanGraphs ranks Barnett as the A's No. 11 prospect, while MLB Pipeline has him a bit higher at No. 6. Baseball America is more in line with FanGraphs, placing him at No. 12. They also project a future for him as a fourth or fifth starter with an improvement to his four-pitch mix, with the fallback option being for him to rely on his fastball/changeup combo as a multi-inning reliever. FanGraphs believes that his slider is his best pitch, giving it a current grade of 50 with the possibility it becomes a 60 on the 20-80 scouting scale.

That's all for the future. As of right now, Barnett is looking like a solid addition to the A's organization, and could be an arm that they call upon during the 2025 season.