Athletics designate JJ Bleday for assignment

The Athletics are designating outfielder JJ Bleday for assignment, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. The A’s are adding prospects Braden Nett, Junior Perez and Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang to their 40-man roster to keep them out of the Rule 5 draft.

The A’s are moving on from their Opening Day center fielder of the past two seasons. They acquired Bleday from the Marlins over the 2022-23 offseason in a one-for-one swap sending A.J. Puk to Miami. It was a change-of-scenery deal of former top 10 picks. Both players had brief amounts of success in their new home, but neither quite clicked in the way their acquiring club had hoped. Puk was beset by injuries, while Bleday struggled defensively and was up-and-down at the plate.

Bleday struggled in 2023, batting .195 with 10 home runs over 82 games. He followed up with the best season of his career, popping 20 longballs with a .243/.324/.437 slash while appearing in 159 games. It raised some hope of a late-career breakout, but Bleday’s bat regressed despite the move from Oakland to the much more hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park.

The Vanderbilt product batted .212/.294/.404 in 344 trips to the plate this year. He connected on 14 homers and still walked at a strong 10.5% clip, but his strikeout rate jumped by seven percentage points relative to the prior season. The A’s optioned him twice, but he spent the final two months of the season on the big league roster. He popped six homers and slugged .495 in that stretch, yet he also struck out in more than 30% of his trips to the dish.

Bleday’s overall production has been right around replacement level in two of the past three seasons. The A’s haven’t done him any favors in that regard by pressing him into center field — for which he’s clearly not equipped. He’s a fringe runner who has rated as arguably the game’s worst defensive center fielder over the past couple seasons. Bleday is serviceable but still subpar in the corners despite possessing above-average arm strength.

The 28-year-old surpassed three years of service this season. He’s eligible for arbitration for the first time and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $2.2M salary. The A’s decided they’d rather move on, potentially turning center field to defensive stalwart Denzel Clarke. They have three days to see if they can drum up any trade interest to flip Bleday for a lottery ticket prospect. He’ll otherwise be non-tendered on Friday and become a free agent.

Nett is the highest profile of the three prospects. The 23-year-old righty came over from the Padres as part of the Mason Miller return. He spent the entire season at Double-A between the two affiliates. Nett started 24 games and combined for 105 2/3 innings of 3.75 ERA ball while striking out nearly a quarter of opponents. He walked 10.3% of batters faced and has struggled to throw strikes consistently throughout his career. Nett has a four-pitch mix that gives him a chance to start, though the command development will determine whether he sticks in the rotation or moves to relief down the line.

Perez, 24, also began his career in the San Diego system. He was traded to the A’s while he was in rookie ball for Jorge Mateo in 2020. A native of the Dominican Republic, he’s a right-handed hitting outfielder who connected on 26 homers between the top two minor league levels. There’s a lot of swing-and-miss to his game, but he has power and takes a lot of walks.

Zhuang is a 25-year-old righty from Taiwan. He signed with the A’s in 2021 and has worked as a minor league starter. He tossed 145 2/3 innings at Double-A Midland, pitching to a 4.08 ERA with solid underlying numbers. Zhuang fanned 24% of opponents while showing excellent control with a sub-6% walk percentage. Baseball America ranked him 25th in the A’s system coming into the year, crediting him with plus command and an above-average changeup but fringy breaking stuff.