Comps for New A's Prospect Leo De Vries

Comps for Leo De Vries

When the trade went down, we reached out to a prospect hound we know, Taylor Blake Ward, and he said that De Vries is legit. "The best prospect I've seen in quite awhile [in the Cal League]. Switch-hitting shortstop who has the kind of power he does at this age, it's about as close to Frankie Lindor as you could get."

He also made sure to say that he's not likely to be as good as Lindor, but that the tool comparisons are certainly there for De Vries. As an 18 year old, Lindor was also a member of the Midwest League, though in 2012 is a just A Ball, and not High-A. He batted .257 with a .352 OBP and six home runs in 122 games.

De Vries, through 83 games, is batting .245 with a .358 on-base and eight home runs. He's also walking 14.1% of the time, while striking out at an impressive 19.6%. Lindor walked 10.7% of the time and struck out at a 13.7% clip.

One former A's prospect that was brought up repeatedly on Thursday was Franklin Barreto, whom they acquired as the centerpiece of the Josh Donaldson deal back in 2014 when he too was a teenager.

We asked how he compared to Barreto, and he compared the two. "[De Vries is] way better than Barreto. [Barreto] was overly aggressive and wasn't much of a shortstop. He had some pop and put up a good batting average, but it wasn't similar at all for me."

There have been plenty of questions about what the addition of an 18-year-old shortstop prospect means for the future of Jacob Wilson, and Forst confirmed that De Vries would be playing shortstop in the minors for now. The debate over the big-league shortstop role is for another time, since there is plenty of development left for De Vries to do before he reaches the Majors.

Taylor Blake Ward gave one more comp, just for good measure. "If you're squinting here, you're looking at Ketel Marte."

The A's current core infield group of Nick Kurtz, Jacob WIlson and Max Muncy is already pretty impressive, along with Lawrence Butler, Brent Rooker, and Tyler Soderstrom in the outfield and at DH. You can even add Shea Langeliers to that mix, though catchers can be a little tricky as they age.

Either way, that's a lot of terrific offensive talent already in the big leagues, with arguably the best among them just joining the organization.