Photo credit: @Athletics

By: Ana Kieu

The Oakland A’s are the hottest team in baseball right now.

The A’s recently made a trade with the Mets for closer Jeurys Familia, who’s a Dominican native, but let’s shift our attention to the A’s farm system and what prospects they might potentially have that other teams could want. After all, the A’s are in buy mode as the trade deadline approaches, as they sit in third place in the AL West with a 59-43 record.

In the past, when the A’s have been in a position to be a contender, Billy Beane and company have been very aggressive in making the necessary additions to ensure that the A’s make the playoffs and to give the A’s the best chance at playing as deep into October as possible. Just a few years ago, Billy Beane made deals involving Yoenis Cespedes and Jon Lester, Josh Donaldson and Brett Lawrie, and Jeff Samardzija and with Addison Russell. All of those deals were completed in 2014 and were meant to give the A’s a good shot at being a true contender in the AL West.

The same can be said for this year’s A’s roster, in terms of how aggressive they will likely be, and Beane himself has already come out publicly on record and mentioned how he expects the A’s to be buyers. Now, will the A’s buy to the point where they mortgage the future to address current needs? Probably not because their core is finally starting to show off in Oakland and their farm system is starting to look better, but that also gives the A’s some valuable trade chips to potentially include in deals. What are some of those chips? Let’s take a look.

First things first, the two untouchables for the A’s will likely be their top two prospects in left-handed pitchers, Jesus Luzardo and A.J. Puk. Luzardo currently pitches down in Double-A and is expected to arrive in the MLB come 2020. So far this season, Luzardo has a 2.16 ERA over 83.1 innings of work and many scouts have projected him to be at least a No. 3 starter, if he is capable of staying healthy. In terms of the entire league, Luzardo is currently the 20th best prospect in all of baseball. Moreover, A.J. Puk, who was the A’s No. 1 draft pick during the 2016 Amateur Draft, figures to be a big part of the A’s future as many project him to be a No. 2 starter, and maybe even an ace down the road. Unfortunately, Puk has missed this season so far and will stay sidelined recovering from Tommy John Surgery, but that doesn’t mean that the A’s are going to give up on him–given that he is only 23 years old and is currently the 26th best prospect in baseball.

Now that the untouchables are out of the way, Sean Murphy is a prospect to watch as the deadline approaches, as he’s the A’s third best catcher.  Murphy was selected by the A’s during the third round of the 2016 Amateur Draft and is sort of blocked by both Josh Phegley and Bruce Maxwell at the MLB level. Anyways, what makes Murphy attractive is his ability to hit for power–especially from the right side of the plate–along with his defensive skills, which some scouts believe are tremendous.

Another name to keep an eye on is the A’s fourth best prospect and the 71st best prospect in all of baseball, Jorge Mateo. Mateo has the ability to play both shortstop and outfield and is highly-touted by scouts who absolutely love his raw skills at the shortstop position. But, of course, some scouts are skeptical as to whether or not that will end up being his full-time position down the road. Some ultimately believe that Mateo will eventually play either second base or center-field. Depending on the direction the A’s go, this could determine if Mateo will be used as trade bait or not. The A’s have Marcus Semien locked down through 2021 and Franklin Barreto under control through at least 2023.

Last but not least, one other prospect to monitor leading up to the trade deadline and even this coming offseason is the A’s fifth best prospect, an outfielder named Austin Beck. Beck projects to be a center-fielder eventually because many scouts note that he has tremendous speed and the right level of athleticism to be successful at that position. However, some scouts are a bit concerned about some of the holes that Beck has in his swing, but believe those holes could improve over time. Currently, the A’s look to have Dustin Fowler out in center-field for the foreseeable future, as Fowler is under control through 2023, but that could always change, depending on which way the A’s go.

Ultimately, none of us truly know what Beane might have up his sleeve as potential ways to upgrade the current A’s roster, but what we do know is that we can expect the A’s to make the necessary upgrades, but these will likely be upgrades that won’t hinder the future outlook of the organization.

The A’s have experienced that in the past and it appears as if they have finally learned their lesson, especially after saying last season that they needed to commit to a core group of players at the MLB level, and that core is being led by the likes of Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, and Stephen Piscotty. So the last thing the A’s need to do is set themselves back and take a step backwards after all of the progress that the organization has made in the past few years.