The Athletics are building a pitching staff for their Las Vegas Strip ballpark that should generate plenty of excitement — and strikeouts.
The Las Vegas Aviators, on a seven-game win streak after a road sweep of the Tacoma Rainiers, lead the Pacific Coast League in punchouts with 522.
Hard-throwing lefty Gage Jump (the No. 40 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline) racked up a team-best 56 strikeouts prior to getting called up by the A’s last week. Kade Morris is fifth in the PCL with 49 strikeouts — and will soon join Jump in the big leagues. The A’s are calling up the 23-year-old right-hander Morris, the organization’s No. 12 prospect, according to multiple reports.
The high strikeout totals led to some friendly gamesmanship among the Aviators (32-23) pitching staff.“There’s definitely a competition within the competition,” said Morris, a UNR product who the Athletics acquired in a 2024 trade with the New York Mets.
“Seeing somebody go out there and do a good job, you want to be like, ‘OK, my turn’s next,’ and pass the baton to the next guy. It’s just using that as fuel, like, they’re not gonna get me on my day.”
In the hitter-friendly ballparks of the PCL, having pitchers who can get outs without letting the ball go into play is a luxury. The Aviators boast a few of them.
“It speaks to the quality of stuff they have, whether it’s big velocity or it’s movement or the ability to spin the baseball,” Las Vegas manager Fran Riordan said. “The way these guys have been executing once they get to two strikes, throwing their put-away pitches… they’ve just done a really good job of that.”
Grizzled righty Mason Barnett, the Athletics’ No. 17 prospect who has bounced between Triple-A and the big leagues since late last season, is 10th in the league, with 41.
Riordan has also relied upon Yunior Tur, ranked as the No. 30 prospect in the Athletics’ system, out of the bullpen and in some spot starts this season. The Cuban right-hander’s fastball averages 95.9 mph, but it’s been his splitter that gives hitters fits. He’s earned 20 of his 36 strikeouts this year on the splitter. Entering Sunday’s start in Tacoma, Tur had a 33 percent whiff rate with that pitch and limited batters to a .188 average against it.
Elvis Alvarado, who has a 2.25 ERA and four saves, has executed well out of the Las Vegas bullpen after struggling with the A’s to start the year, fanning 16 in 12 relief innings. Alvarado has a fastball that reaches triple digits, and a deceptive sinker he throws in the high 90s.
“Any time you can strike out a bunch of guys … it does wonders for the defense,” catcher Brian Serven said. “It eliminates the luck of a chopper that might hit a rock and bounce over somebody’s head, or a fly ball in the PCL that carries a little further than you want for a homer.”
Nett makes first start
Braden Nett, the A’s sixth-ranked prospect with an electric fastball, is primed to start adding to Las Vegas’ high strikeout totals. Nett has battled injuries this season, but recently joined the Aviators’ starting rotation.
He performed well in a three-inning start Saturday (a 6-3 Las Vegas win over Tacoma), striking out two and walking two, and allowing one hit and no runs. Riordan said that three innings was the goal for Nett, who started the season on the injured list while recovering from a rotator cuff injury. The Aviators are now building his workload back up.
“He’s a really exciting young pitcher, and we’re happy to have him back here and healthy,” Riordan said.
Nett made his Triple-A debut on April 25, earning the win in relief after fanning five Salt Lake Bees in 3⅔ innings. Shortly after that, he dealt with a ligament injury on a finger, spending the past month rehabbing at the A’s training facility in Arizona.
Nett came to the Athletics organization as part of last year’s Mason Miller-for-Leo De Vries trade with San Diego.
Meneses keeps mashing
Veteran first baseman Joey Meneses has been a consistent middle-of-the-lineup bat this season as he tries to work his way back onto a big league roster. The Mexican slugger is hitting .330 with eight homers — tops among active Aviators.
Meneses is riding an eight-game hitting streak, and is currently tied with the Oklahoma City Comets’ James Tibbs for most RBIs in the PCL (51). In May, he hit .355 with four home runs and 27 RBIs, getting on base at a .417 clip.
“You couldn’t ask for anything more than what Joey’s done,” Riordan said.
