A's Rising Star Begins Rehab Assignment

A's rookie Denzel Clarke has certainly made a name for himself in a short amount of time. Playing in just 47 games this season with the green and gold, he made numerous highlight reel catches, including the Catch of the Year after getting called up on May 23.

While he's certainly put himself on the map with his glove, he's been missing in action since July 22 when he landed on the IL with a right adductor strain. Three weeks later he began a rehab assignment, but was pulled from it immediately after re-aggravating the injury.

After two months, Clarke is set to begin his rehab assignment again on Tuesday night in Las Vegas. He was added to the Aviators' roster for tonight's game, and will be playing six innings in center field. While the Triple-A regular season is over, Las Vegas is taking on the Tacoma Rainiers for the Pacific Coast League title.

The series is a three-gamer from Tuesday through Thursday, and all games will take place in Las Vegas. The winner will take on the winner of the International League for a single game to determine the Triple-A champion. That game will also take place in Las Vegas, regardless of whether or not the Aviators advance.

While most of the focus in his young MLB career has been on his glove, Clarke was really beginning to hit the ball well in July, going 14-for-47 (.298), adding a home run, six doubles and two triples in that span. If this ends up being a sign of things to come for Clarke, he could become one of the best players in baseball.

That's because the defense that has put him on the map is truly special.

He has played in 47 games this season, and despite not being on a big-league field in two months, he still ranks in the 98th percentile in Outs Above Average with a +13. Among all position players, that's tied with Milwaukee's Joey Ortiz for No. 13 overall.

The top player, Bobby Witt Jr., has racked up a +24, or roughly double Clarke's total while playing in 151 games. That's more than triple the number of games that the A's outfielder has appeared. If Clarke is able to stay healthy for an entire season, he'll be far and away the best fielder in the game.

The other piece of Clarke's game that is tantalizing is his bat speed, which is in the upper echelon of the league at 74.3 miles per hour. The top players all sit at 78 mph, but there are only three of those. There's another three in the 77 mph range (including A's rookie first baseman Nick Kurtz), and seven players in the 76 mph range.

Clarke's bat speed is just outside of the top-40 in all of baseball among qualified hitters, tied with Elly De La Cruz and Michael Harris II.

One thing to keep an eye on for this rehab assignment will be Clarke's strikeout rate. In Triple-A earlier this year, it was sitting at 22.2%, and he was walking at a 17% clip across 32 games. When he made it to the Majors, the strikeout rate soared to 38.4%, and the walk rate sank to 3.8%.

This stint is more about proving he's healthy than making strides at the dish, but perhaps he picked something up during his rehab process the past two months.