Former New York Mets Prospect Rockets Up A's System Rankings

Monday was a big day for looking back at the trade the New York Mets and the Athletics made a year ago at the 2024 trade deadline. After missing the first two months of the season, Paul Blackburn made his 2025 debut against the Los Angeles Dodgers, while the player he was traded for, Kade Morris, rocketed into the A's top-10 prospect list over at ESPN.

Morris, a 22-year-old right-hander that was selected out of Nevada in the third round of the 2023 MLB Draft, and was promoted from Double-A Midland to Triple-A Las Vegas on May 31. In the recently released re-rankings over at ESPN, Morris ended up as the A's No. 8 prospect, after previously being unranked in their system.

It would appear as though being "unranked" means that he wasn't in the top ten, since he is currently ranked as the club's No. 15 prospect on MLB Pipeline, before any in-season re-rankings by the outlet. This is to say that he didn't jump from complete obscurity into the top-10; he made a modest jump from somewhere in the teens to eighth overall.

This season with Midland, Morris made nine starts, holding a 2.79 ERA with a 1.03 WHIP across 51.2 innings of work. Since going pro, his command has largely been sterling, but it's taken a step forward this season, with the young righty holding a 5.2% walk rate overall, while still striking out 22.5% of the batters he sees.

Morris made his Triple-A debut on Sunday, going 5.1 innings and giving up seven hits and one walk which led to three earned runs. He also struck out four. Morris also gave up a leadoff home run to James Outman, who placed third in the National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2023.

Considering that the Dodgers affiliate ended up scoring 12 runs in this one, Morris did a pretty good job holding them off while he was in there. With the A's in desperate need of pitching at the big-league level, Morris joins a group of promising young arms in Vegas, along with Luis Morales and Gage Jump, who could be making their MLB debuts later this season.

As for Blackburn, he was solid in his season debut, going five shutout innings against the Dodgers, giving up just three hits and one walk while striking out three. The Mets had a slim 2-0 lead when he exited the game, but LA scratched one across in the bottom of the seventh off Max Kranick, and another in the bottom of the ninth against Edwin Díaz to force extras.

The Mets would end up winning the game in the tenth inning, but Blackburn did not factor into the decision.

Speaking of A's players that were recently traded to New York baseball teams, Lou Trivino--sent to the Yankees as part of the Frankie Montas deal--also tossed a scoreless inning for the Dodgers in this one. He started off the year with the San Francisco Giants and his old manager with the A's, Bob Melvin, but was DFA'd at the beginning of May and ended up signing with the Dodgers.

Now wearing blue, he holds a 1.08 ERA across 8.1 innings of work, walking a pair and striking out ten.