Green and Gold Futures Prospect Weekly: Taylor Charges Into Triple-A, Huggins Flips the Script at Double-A
By Ethan Price ·
Green and Gold Futures Prospect Weekly covers the last 7 days of action for the Athletics farm system.
Devin Taylor Earns His Las Vegas Ticket
Devin Taylor (AA/AAA, OF, Rank: 5) went 8-for-26 with 2 home runs and 7 RBI across his final week at Double-A Midland, drawing 6 walks against 7 strikeouts, and then got the call he had been making a case for all summer: on September 1, the Athletics assigned him to Las Vegas. He wasted no time in Triple-A, going 3-for-5 with 2 home runs and 7 RBI in his first 11 plate appearances as an Aviator. The production at every stop this season has been consistent enough that the promotion feels less like a reward and more like a logical next step. At Double-A he slashed .323/.409/.534 with 14 home runs and 54 RBI across 325 plate appearances, and his last 30 days at Midland show a .324/.448/.549 line with 6 home runs and an 18.4 percent walk rate, among the best run of his season.
Taylor is a bat-first corner outfielder with a 55 hit tool and 60-grade power, and both have been performing at or above expectation. The swing rate over his last 30 days dropped to 36.7 percent, the most selective stretch of his season, and the walk rate climbed accordingly. The contact rate sitting at 66.2 percent over that stretch is the part of the profile that still carries some noise: against upper-level breaking balls, the swing-and-miss can creep in. His projection as an everyday left fielder carries a real question about whether the hit tool settles in enough to carry the profile when pitchers attack his weaknesses consistently. Still, 22 home runs and 104 RBI combined across three levels at age 22 gives him a floor that most corner outfield prospects in this system do not have. The Triple-A debut numbers are a tiny sample, but nothing about this player's full-season arc suggests he will need long to get comfortable.
Kenya Huggins Puts Together His Best Outing of the Year
Kenya Huggins (AA, RHP, Rank: 27) turned in the most eye-catching pitching performance in the system this week: 5 innings, 1 hit, no runs, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts, generating 13 whiffs out of 77 pitches. The mid-90s four-seamer with cut-ride characteristics has always been the carrying tool, and it was operating at its best here, giving Double-A hitters very little to work with when elevated. The 37-of-77 strike rate is not exceptional in isolation, but against a backdrop of a season-long 45.6 percent strike rate, getting to 48 percent while allowing one hit over five innings represents a meaningful gear-up in execution.
The context around this start matters. Huggins carries a 6.14 ERA across 85 innings at Double-A this season, with a walk rate of 11.8 percent that has consistently undercut what the raw stuff can do. Over his last 30 days, though, the profile looks different: a 3.12 ERA across 17.1 innings with a 28.4 percent strikeout rate and a whiff rate of 33.8 percent. The stuff was always going to show up in flashes; the question has always been whether the command could catch up. He is a 40-grade command arm whose fastball can play up when he stays in the zone, and his most realistic projection is a multi-inning relief role where shorter outings let him work at peak effort without the command fraying over six innings. This week demonstrated what that profile looks like when everything syncs. Whether he can string those performances together at Double-A will determine if he earns a look at Triple-A before the season ends.
Quick Hits
- Jamie Arnold (AAA, LHP, Rank: 4) · made his Triple-A debut on August 31, allowing no runs over 4.1 innings on 4 hits, 2 walks, and 5 strikeouts. The promotion came off a stretch at Double-A that has been outstanding: a 1.37 ERA across 26.1 innings over his last five starts, with 34 strikeouts and a 32.1 percent strikeout rate. Arnold owns a 60-grade fastball and a 65-grade slider that tunnels well from a repeatable left-handed release point, and those two pitches have been a genuine problem for Double-A hitters all summer. His season-long Double-A ERA sat at 3.57 across 113.1 innings before the move, with 125 strikeouts against 49 walks. The walk total is the remaining gap between his present profile and a reliable mid-rotation ceiling, but the first Triple-A outing gave no reason for alarm. I'd take the over on his odds of sticking in the Las Vegas rotation through the end of the year.
- Drew Burress (A, OF, Rank: 2) · went 8-for-31 with a double, a triple, a home run, 3 RBI, and 4 walks while also taking a hit by pitch across his week at Stockton. The 11 strikeouts in 31 plate appearances are the noisiest part of the line, but his season contact rate of 67.3 percent on a 36.2 percent swing rate tells the fuller story: he ranks among the most selective hitters in the system, and the strikeouts this week ran a bit above his norm. The home run was his 7th of the year across just 118 plate appearances, and his season OBP stands at .449. A 55 hit tool and 60-grade power with elite plate discipline from the number-two prospect in the system at age 21 is the profile the Athletics were buying with the seventh pick. The breaking ball vulnerability is real and will be tested harder as he moves up, but nothing in a month-plus at Single-A has given cause for concern.
- Gavin Turley (A, OF, Rank: 21) · drove in 3 runs on 6 hits in 15 plate appearances, adding a double and drawing 2 walks. That extends what has been a genuine hot stretch: over his last 30 days at Stockton, he is slashing .318/.377/.636 with 5 home runs and 25 RBI across 77 plate appearances. The 60-grade raw power is showing up in games, which is crucial for the profile. Turley's swing rate has climbed to 56.1 percent over that stretch, the most aggressive mark in the system, and his contact rate sits at 68.8 percent, so the strikeouts have stayed elevated at 31.2 percent. His 40-grade hit tool makes it hard to project him beyond an up-down role, and a brief High-A stint earlier this season produced a .111 average in 30 plate appearances. But a month of .636 slugging at Single-A with a 40-grade hit tool prompts another look at that next level.
- Roman Martin (A, SS, Rank: 8) · had a week defined more by patience than hits, going 3-for-30 with 3 doubles, 7 walks, and 4 hit-by-pitches against 9 strikeouts. The 14 times reaching base in 30 plate appearances is a real number even with the light average, and it fits his season-long pattern: a .431 on-base percentage across 109 plate appearances at Stockton, built on a 37.1 percent swing rate and 74.1 percent contact rate. Martin is a 55-field, 60-arm shortstop with a contact-oriented swing and fringe-average power, and the hit tool is doing its job keeping the strikeout rate at 19.3 percent for the season. The power is presently below average and the lack of home runs in any game this year is the clearest gap in his profile, but the approach and glove combination give him a real floor as a second-division shortstop.
- Steven Echavarria (AA, RHP, Rank: 14) · struck out 7 over 4 innings of scoreless work, allowing 4 hits and 1 walk while generating 12 whiffs on 74 pitches. The 96-to-98 mph fastball paired with a 55-grade slider has been his best combination at Double-A, and this outing was a cleaner version of what the profile looks like when the command holds. Over his last 30 days at Midland, his strikeout rate has climbed to 32.9 percent, but a 5.89 ERA across 18.1 innings in that same stretch reflects the home run vulnerability that has followed him up from High-A. His season ERA across both levels sits at 5.57, driven by 17 home runs allowed in 106.2 innings. The stuff gives him a path to a back-end rotation role if the delivery cleans up; right now the contact management is too erratic for that projection to feel secure.
- Nate Nankil (AA, OF, Rank: 24) · went 9-for-29 across the week with 2 doubles and 2 RBI while drawing 2 walks. His last 30 days at Double-A show a .290 average with a 15.7 percent strikeout rate and 2 home runs across 108 plate appearances. Nankil has a 76.8 percent contact rate for the season, one of the better marks in the system, and the strikeout suppression is legitimate. The ceiling is constrained by below-average power and fringy speed, and the Quad-A projection reflects those limitations honestly. His combined season line of .240/.336/.338 across three levels keeps him closer to depth piece than prospect of note, but the contact skills have played at Double-A in a way they did not during a brief look there in 2025, when he slashed .243/.307/.303 in 166 plate appearances.
- Shotaro Morii (A, 2B, Rank: 18) · went 4-for-11 with a triple and a walk before landing on the 7-day injured list on August 31; an injury diagnosis has not been confirmed. The 19-year-old switch-hitting infielder has had a complicated season at Stockton, hitting .227/.325/.369 across 207 plate appearances with a contact rate of 65.8 percent that has undercut his 50-grade hit tool projection. He also logged starts on the mound this year with rough results. The two-way development path creates real organizational complexity, and a stint on the IL is a further disruption to what was already a year where neither side of the profile produced comfortably against full-season competition.
- Zane Taylor (AA, RHP, Rank: 28) · returned from the 7-day injured list on August 30 and threw 2 innings of scoreless ball with 1 strikeout and no walks in his first appearance back. The injury diagnosis was not disclosed. His Double-A numbers before the IL stint had been rough: a 5.66 ERA across 20.2 innings with a 9-to-20 walk-to-strikeout ratio at Midland. The clean return outing is at minimum a positive health sign; what his role looks like down the stretch with a thin Double-A ERA will be worth watching.