The A’s announced a series of roster moves today, recalling left-hander Hogan Harris and selecting utility player Tyler Wade. In corresponding moves, righty Adam Oller and infielder Nick Allen were optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. To open a spot for Wade on the 40-man roster, outfielder Cal Stevenson was designated for assignment.
Wade is back in the majors for what’ll be a seventh straight year. A longtime prospect of some regard with the Yankees, the left-handed hitter settled into a depth role in the Bronx. He never tallied more than 145 plate appearances in a season, though he got into 103 games as a frequent pinch-runner and defensive replacement in 2021. Wade’s plus speed has allowed him to swipe 38 bases in his MLB career.
The 28-year-old got his most notable playing time after being traded to the Angels heading into 2022. He picked up 163 trips to the plate but only connected on one home run with a .218/.272/.272 batting line. The Halos outrighted him off their 40-man roster and traded him back to the Yankees last summer. He didn’t return to the majors with New York and elected minor league free agency at year’s end.
Wade hooked on with the A’s on a non-roster deal and has appeared in ten games for Las Vegas. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit but has walked six times while striking out on just seven occasions. Between his contact skills, speed and ability to cover any infield position and all three outfield spots, he’s earned a look on the big league bench. Wade doesn’t have any minor league options remaining, so the A’s will have to keep him in the big leagues or designate him for assignment now that he’s secured a spot on the 40-man roster.
While Wade steps into the infield mix, Oakland sends Allen out for the moment. The defensive specialist has long been regarded as one of the better prospects in the A’s system. He’s an excellent gloveman at both middle infield positions but faces questions about his offensive upside. Allen limped to a .207/.256/.291 line over 326 plate appearances as a rookie last season. He’s gotten starts in just five of the first 13 games this year and opened the season in a 1-16 slump. Oakland has given Aledmys Díaz and Kevin Smith most of the shortstop run in the past few days.
Wade’s promotion necessitated bumping a player from the 40-man roster. Stevenson loses his spot despite starting the season with eight hits and six walks over 29 plate appearances for Las Vegas. The 26-year-old outfielder hasn’t gotten much run at the major league level, appearing in 23 games last season with the A’s and struggling to a .167/.261/.217 line after being acquired in the Christian Bethancourt trade.
A former tenth round pick, Stevenson has been involved in a few trades as a professional. He’s also appeared in the Blue Jays, Astros and Tampa Bay organizations and put together an impressive .294/.409/.420 line over parts of five minor league seasons. Stevenson has never gotten much favor from prospect evaluators despite his plate discipline, largely because of limited power potential in his 5’9″ frame. Oakland will have a week to trade him or look to run him through waivers.
Are the A’s going to try and pass a young lefty swinging CF through waivers or are they going to trade him? It seems like teams would take a shot at claiming Cal if they need a backup OF with options and have someone ready to move to the 60 day.
Cal has been performing well in Triple-A.
This a Surprising move since he is kind of our next pure Center fielder now that Cristian Pache has been traded away.
I guess they could try and plug JJ Bleday or Cody Thomas into CF if Esteury Ruiz were to get injured.
Or, move Ramon back to CF from RF.
Personally, rather seen Dermis Garcia get DFA’d as we have more DH candidates to replace him (Jordan Diaz).
So the A’s are going to do Nick Allen dirty just like the Warriors did James Wiseman? AWESOME. So great. Really competent on the A’s end.
Aledmys Diaz is a 1/10 SS, Nick Allen is platinum glove level. Why.
Because they’re not going to win and don’t want to give Allen MLB service time for batting under .100.
He’s still young and struggling pretty badly, going back to AAA might be best for him at this point.
Yes, if you look he has 17 PA in 8 games – the A’s are doing exactly the same thing, not playing him, then pointing to his poor small sample stats and not allowing games for him to learn from, when other players are allowed to be awful instead, like Anthony Lamb getting way more chances than Wiseman simply because of his height.
He had plenty of chances last year though and if he’s still having the same problems it’s not a hard call to send him back down. I’d say they were trying to manipulate his service time but at this point I don’t think expectations are that high anymore, I’d just be happy if he worked out as a solid defensive/utility player with mediocre hitting skills.
He already shows out defensively, but he has to OPS around .600 to be a net positive player, that’s how elite his D is. I would hope this guy the A’s put lots of money into would get every shot. Maybe they think playing him at Las Vegas’s hitters paradise he can run into regular hits there and develop his hitting game more, much like Jordan Poole did with his overall game.
So for those scoring at home Nick Allen is both being treated like James Wiseman, but also could be Jordan Poole with a hitting tune up. Please do not forget it is way harder to get 1 AB a game and try and run into form, that’s the baseline of my whole argument here.
Even Belanger managed a 68 ops+ in the ’70’s. Dude can’t hit, like at all.
Are you seriously going to use last year (weird year for stats, no one hit for AVG) rookie stats? Bad analysis much?
Allen has been terrible, also he’s not even close to being on the same level of prospect as Wiseman was for the Warriors.
Nick Allen has an Ozzie Smith with glove +Jose Altuve with bat ceiling, he was a 1st rounder who the A’s paid way overslot to get him away from college – we all literally just saw Altuve blossom older but youre arguing that’s impossible for Allen? Why?
Um…Altuve was an AS at 21. He also had an .864 ops as a teenager in the minors. It’s called baseball-reference.com.
And he was a 3rd rounder. You must be thinking of Richie Martin. He sucks too.
You are correct, but I’m referring to Altuve’s power and overall hitting profile blossoming at age 26. Allen and Altuve have a very similar physical build and swing, hence the comp. Allen absolutely does not have the hitters eye Altuve does—yet. That can be developed and many players have.
Great moves. The esteemed RingCentral Oakland Coliseum will soon be known as “Hogan’s Castle” after young Hogan Harris leads the A’s to their first World Series title in decades
Nick Allen is a weak ground ball machine… still should have gotten a longer leash only 17AB
Can we just drop the pretense of the A’s as a major league ballclub making decisions based on winning ballgames and developing talent? We’re just the smokescreen for a real estate deal so let’s have some fun with it. Let’s just run with the Major League movie premise and assume there are some sort of wacky backstories for Wade and Harris that allowed them to join the cast.
John”Rachel Phelps”Fisher
The A’s are a loooong way from moneyball they look like they only win by luck now. Their pitching is just toast – they are pitching like its a home run derby going on.
Can’t stay ahead forever. Wealthier clubs buy off front office management and the secret’s out. Rays are the current “moneyballers” right now.
Harris had a rough debut yesterday… 1 hit, 5 walks, 162.0 era. Maybe he can get that down to the A’s average era of 8.3.