Oakland Athletics 2024 MLB Draft Review
Following the 2024 MLB Draft, we’re taking a deeper look at each individual draft class. Below, find one overarching takeaway from the draft, plus a full scouting report on the most interesting pick on days two and three. You can see all 30 draft reviews here.
Draft Theme: College Performers
A year ago, the A’s seemed to prioritize small school college performers, and this year was similar, though Oakland jumped on a number of power conference players with excellent careers. At No. 4 overall, the team got one of the most well-rounded hitters in the class in first baseman Nick Kurtz who has hit each year. In the second round, they selected third baseman Tommy White, one of college baseball’s most prolific and consistent home run hitters. It was more than the two physical corner infielders, as the A’s grabbed White’s teammate LHP Gage Jump, who dominated in LSU’s rotation, and then in the third round selected SS Josh Kuroda-Grauer, whose .428 average this spring was second to only Charlie Condon.
Most Interesting Day 2 Pick: OF Rodney Green Jr., 4th round
Green’s tools and build are eerily similar to 2021 supplemental first-round pick and fellow California product Dylan Beavers. Green has an elite frame at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds with standout raw power and speed tools and is a career .283/.398/.549 hitter in three seasons with California. Green has a low handset with some moving parts to his swing, but he can flick the ball with ease to all fields when he makes contact—and he can do so with impressive impact potential. There are real contact questions that Green has to answer, and he owns a career 30.1% strikeout rate in college with a 33% miss rate and 24% in-zone miss rate. He might simply lack the bat-to-ball skills to be an average pure hitter, though he does make strong swing decisions, stays within the strike zone and has a career 14.5% walk rate. He’s a plus runner and eager basestealer who went 45-for-51 (88.2%) with Cal and is also a plus defender in center field who can chase down balls in the gaps with impressive athleticism. His arm is just fringy, though he should still be an impact defender given his range and glovework. Green’s power, speed, athleticism and batting eye could get him selected inside the top three rounds for a team that thinks it can help him make more contact.
Most Interesting Day 3 Pick: LHP Riley Huge, 13th round
Huge has a fitting name for his 6-foot-3, 240-pound frame and was a standout performer in his second season with Winthrop after starting his career at the junior college level. He was among the national leaders in strikeouts for most of the season, and racked up 91 strikeouts in his first 10 starts and 54.2 innings with a solid 8.9% walk rate to go with it. Huge doesn’t have massive pure stuff, but he has dominated Big South hitters with an 89-92 mph fastball, an average breaking ball around 80 mph and a mid-80s changeup he deploys nearly a third of the time to righthanded hitters. He fits as an early day three prospect in terms of pure talent and age, though he could work into day two given his handedness and performance.
