The Athletics may have to wait until next year to see Leo De Vries back in game action.
De Vries, the club’s No. 1 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 2 overall prospect for 2026, landed on the Double-A injured list last week and is now dealing with a sore right shoulder. According to MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos, he has been sidelined from throwing for four weeks. With the Midland RockHounds’ regular season ending on Sept. 13, that likely closes the book on his 2026 minor league season.
There is still a small chance De Vries could return in the Arizona Fall League if he is healthy enough by then, Gallegos reported.
The 19-year-old switch-hitter came into the A’s system as one of the headliners in the blockbuster trade that sent All-Star closer Mason Miller to San Diego at last year’s deadline. The Padres originally signed De Vries out of the Dominican Republic in January 2024.
Even with the injury cutting things short, De Vries put together a strong year at the plate in his first full season in the organization. In 93 Double-A games for Midland, he hit .290 with a .378 on-base percentage and an .836 OPS, while adding 13 home runs, 55 RBIs and 34 stolen bases. Those numbers gave him new career highs in steals, batting average, on-base percentage and OPS.
His 2025 season was also productive: he batted .255 with 15 homers and 74 RBIs in 118 games across two minor league levels and two organizations.
Defensively, De Vries has spent most of his minor league time at shortstop, but he also logged 15 games at third base this season. That added experience at the hot corner could give the A’s another path to getting his bat into the lineup sooner, especially after the club signed shortstop Jacob Wilson to a seven-year extension earlier this year.
For now, though, the focus is on getting De Vries healthy. If his regular season is indeed over, the wait to see him again will stretch into 2027.
In Other News...
Denzel Clarke Is Giving The A's A Tougher Call To Make
The As system had a busy night across the minors, but the most intriguing development for Oakland was in Las Vegas, where Denzel Clarke kept nudging his name into the conversation with another impactful showing at the plate. In a 10-8 Aviators win over Albuquerque, the outfielder helped supply some offense and continued to build the kind of case that makes roster decisions harder as the season moves along.
Clarke is already known for the tools that make him stand out, and nights like this only sharpen the question of how soon Oakland wants to test that upside at the next level. With the organization juggling performances from across the farm, his recent run is starting to look less like a brief surge and more like a player forcing the issue. [Read more 🡒]
A's Patched-Together Outfield Is Giving This Lineup New Life
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Henry Bolte has helped steady that shuffle, giving the As a different look at the top of the lineup, while Carlos Cortes and Lawrence Butler have both started to turn in better at-bats at the right time. For a team that has been scrambling for stability, the encouraging part is not just that bodies are filling spots, but that several of those replacements are beginning to swing the bat well enough to matter. [Read more 🡒]
A's Twins Series Could Test Whether Oakland's Pitching Surge Is Real
A series against Minnesota arrives at a useful moment for the Athletics, who have spent enough of this season trying to sort out their rotation that any glimpse of stability feels significant. The matchup cards point to a collection of arms on both sides who have had their share of uneven results, with Jeffrey Springs and Gage Jump trying to build on recent work while Zebby Matthews, Taj Bradley and Connor Prielipp add their own layers of uncertainty to a weekend that could swing on who throws first-pitch strikes and who can keep the damage contained.
JT Ginn gives Oakland the cleanest path to feeling better about where its pitching stands, and that alone makes this set worth watching beyond the box score. If the A's can navigate the rest of the rotation innings without getting exposed, it would lend some credibility to the idea that their recent pitching uptick is more than a short-lived bounce, but Minnesota's starters are good enough to make that claim hard to prove in just one series. [Read more 🡒]