A’s roster moves: Wilson returns, Toro DFA’d

Hernaiz also optioned out, Alvarez coming back up

The A’s announced a few roster moves before starting off the road trip, activating top prospect Jacob Wilson off the IL:

Finally. We’ve been waiting all year to see Wilson in the Green & Gold and finally got a taste back on July 19th when he made his major league debut. He started his major league career with a base hit in his very first at-bat against Angels starting pitcher Griffin Canning but pulled up lame rounding third trying to score his first career run. That strained hammy will ultimately cost Wilson just over a month of baseball but he’s back now. In fact, he’s in tonight’s starting lineup for the start of the Reds series:

He’ll start off at the bottom of the lineup but it shouldn’t be long before he starts rising up the order. Wilson looked like he didn’t miss a beat during his down time, rejoining the Aviators just ten days ago and going 9-for-23 with two walks compared to two strikeouts. Looks like he dodged a more serious hamstring injury and now we should finally get a real, extended look at the 6th overall pick in last year’s draft.

To make room on the roster for Wilson the club made the move to designate fellow infielder Abraham Toro for assignment. It’s a disappointing end for Toro’s time with the Athletics after having a promising start to the season. Originally acquired in a minor offseason trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, Toro was one of the A’s better hitters during the first half of the season. The 27-year old former top prospect took over as the primary third baseman and was slashing .288/.332/.429 at the end of May. A strained hamstring cost Toro a month of game action but his bat was beginning to cool down even before the injury. Even after being reinstated Toro was losing playing time to younger options like Darell Hernaiz. Today’s move opens up more consistent playing time for other options the club wants to see over the final month of the season. Toro is still young enough and was a highly-regarded prospect not too long ago that another team may be interested in his services the rest of this season. We’ll be keeping an eye out for a move with him over the next few days.

Those weren’t the only two moves the club made today. The team also optioned that younger option Hernaiz back to Triple-A where he’ll presumably take over as the Aviators’ primary shortstop. Hopes were high entering the year for the young shortstop but an injury really threw a wrench in his rookie campaign. While the Athletics will be rocking with Jacob Wilson at shortstop for the rest of the season Hernaiz can get some more consistent at-bats in Triple-A and maybe force his way back into the team’s long-term infield plans, whether that’s at shortstop or another position on the dirt.

Taking over Hernaiz’s roster spot will be fellow rookie Armando Alvarez. The righty corner infield prospect has gotten a couple cracks at the big leagues so far here in 2024 and has held his own, going 8-for-29 over his small taste of the majors. He’ll presumably serve as a right-handed bench option for the time he’s up and could spell either Seth Brown at first or maybe take some at-bats at third base over the likes of Max Shuemann.

And finally, the Toro DFA opened up a spot on the 40-man roster and the club didn’t wait long to fill that spot. The team announced that they’ve claimed infielder Tristan Gray off of waivers from the Miami Marlins:

Like Alvarez Gray is a corner infield prospect who’s gotten his first taste of big league action over the past couple years, first a 2-game stint with the Rays last year before playing in seven contests for the Marlins here in ‘24. Gray has a lot of power in his bat as evidenced by back-to-back 30-homer seasons in Triple-A but also strikes out a ton. He’ll report to the Aviators and should be in the lineup everyday the rest of the season. And who knows, maybe he’ll join the big league roster at some point come September. Welcome aboard Gray!