Leo De Vries spent his first full season in the A’s system giving plenty of reasons to dream about what comes next, even if the finish came with a setback.
The 19-year-old shortstop, already ranked by MLB Pipeline as the A’s No. 1 and No. 2 overall prospect in baseball, was placed on the seven-day injured list by Double-A Midland on Aug. 18 with a sore right shoulder. The injury is not considered serious, but it will keep him out for the rest of the Minor League season.
De Vries was sent to the A’s Spring Training complex in Arizona to rehab with the club’s medical and training staff. He has been shut down from throwing for four weeks from the date of his IL placement, which means he should begin ramping up in late September. That could set him up for extra work in either the Arizona Fall League or winter ball in the Dominican Republic, although the A’s have not decided yet whether they’ll pursue that route.
The ending was not ideal, but the season still gave the A’s a clear look at why De Vries has generated so much attention.
He arrived at his first big league camp and looked right at home. In Cactus League play, the switch-hitter hit .426 (20-for-47) with three homers, three doubles, 12 RBIs and four stolen bases. One of the loudest moments came against the Dodgers, when he launched a two-homer game that included a grand slam.
That spring performance carried over into a strong year at Midland, where De Vries opened the season after finishing the previous one at the same level. He never went more than three straight games without a hit and finished with a .290/.378/.458 line, along with 13 home runs, 21 doubles and 55 RBIs in 93 games. He also swiped 34 bases, easily the most he has ever stolen in a professional season.
The A’s also used the year to test his versatility. De Vries got 15 games at third base, a spot he had never played at any level before. He logged 129 innings there and made just three errors, showing enough arm strength to handle the position.
Shortstop remains his primary home, but that kind of flexibility matters. If the A’s need help in the infield next season, it only gives De Vries another path to a quicker look in the Majors.
When he was reassigned to Minor League camp this spring, manager Mark Kotsay pointed to the next phase of De Vries’ development: getting stronger.
“The biggest thing for Leo is to get in the weight room and really put the work in to add the muscle,” Kotsay said in Spring Training. “We can all add weight, but it has to be good weight, and it has to be a strength component that he can maintain for 140 games or more.”
That remains part of the plan moving forward, especially after De Vries dealt with a few minor injuries during the year and likely would have been in line for a promotion to Triple-A Las Vegas to close out the season if not for the shoulder issue.
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