Athletics To Select Tommy White

The A’s will call up infielder Tommy White for Friday’s series opener against the Nationals, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. It’ll be the major league debut for the former LSU star.

The team’s transaction log at MLB.com indicates that the A’s are also activating recently claimed utilityman Donovan Walton. First baseman Joey Meneses and catcher Brian Serven are being optioned to Triple-A, which left one active roster spot for a position player. White isn’t on the 40-man roster but can replace Brent Rooker, who is out for the season and can be transferred to the 60-day injured list.

White was one of the best hitters in the country during his college career, hitting .355/.419/.704 over three seasons. He nevertheless fell to the second round of the 2024 draft because of concerns about an aggressive approach and his lackluster third base defense. White has been a good pure hitter throughout his minor league career, but he hasn’t drawn many walks or hit for a ton of power. He owns a .279/.337/.430 slash line across 860 professional plate appearances.

That includes a .303/.345/.489 showing over 55 games for Triple-A Las Vegas this year. White has only fanned in 14% of his plate appearances but has a tiny 4.8% walk rate. He makes a decent amount of hard contact, though his 50% ground-ball rate isn’t ideal for a bat-first player with below-average speed.

White has split his time between the corner infield positions. Scouting reports from Baseball America and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs peg him as a below-average but not unplayable defender at third. Longenhagen wrote in April that White could be a plus defender at first base and loosely compared him to former Phillies corner infielder Maikel Franco as an overall player. White ranks 11th in the A’s farm system at BA and 17th at FanGraphs.

The A’s are getting a look at another rookie, Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, as their primary third baseman. They recently placed Nick Kurtz on the injured list and could give White a look there or at designated hitter. White should at least be in the lineup regularly against left-handed pitching, as he has pummeled southpaws at a .376/.438/.576 clip this year.