Underrated A's Prospect Receiving Praise in Arizona Fall League

While he's not listed as one of the A's top prospects, right-hander Corey Avant is turning heads in the Arizona Fall League. With play beginning last week, there has been an opportunity for everyone to get in on some of the action, and with that being the case, Baseball America released their "10 Hottest Arizona Fall League Prospects" list.

Third on that list was Avant, whom the A's selected in the ninth round of the 2023 MLB Draft. Now 23, he spent his season primarily in Hi-A Lansing with a brief appearance in Double-A Midland, holding a cumulative 4.23 ERA across 110 2/3 innings of work. 106 of those innings were with Lansing, where he held a 3.65 ERA.

They said of Avant's AFL debut that it served as a bit of a breakout for the right-hander after he punched out seven batters across just three innings of work.

"He ran his fastball into the upper 90s and got eight whiffs over the course of his outing. Avant’s breaking pitches were especially effective, drawing four misses on 11 swings."

That's impressive work, considering that there is a huge mixture of talent in the AFL, from top prospects to guys that missed time during the regular season. Last year, Nick Kurtz was a member of the Solar Sox that represented the A's. This year, Max Muncy is there getting a few more swings in after missing most of the second half of the season as a big-leaguer.

For Avant to take the mound and utterly dominate is certainly eye-opening. It also doesn't hurt that he was touching 97 with the heater. Sometimes with these prospects, they'll land in the AFL because they're about to be Rule 5 eligible that winter, and teams are putting on a bit of a showcase in order to try and make them trade bait.

That's not the case for Avant, who still has a couple of years until he's Rule 5 eligible. His inclusion seems to be more of a "show us what you can do" situation.

One trait the A's would likely hope to see some improvement on heading into 2026 would be his K-BB rate, which sat at 11.8% in Hi-A. Keeping that closer to 14% or so is typically a good sign once a player reaches MLB, so he'll either have to work on collecting more strikeouts or limiting the walks (preferably both) next season. His strikeout rate sat at 22.4%, while his walk rate was 10.7%.

The Athletics have a number of top prospects that are looking like they could be contributors to the pitching staff in 2026, including Gage Jump and Braden Nett, who are the team's third and fourth ranked prospects. That could mean that the team tries to move Avant if his Fall League continues like this, or it could mean that their pipeline has some hidden gems come 2027.