Forced to gamble on high-upside potential, the A's protection of Junior Perez during the offseason has already cost them
This past offseason the A's had a decision to make. With the Rule 5 Draft looming, where certain players could be selected by the other 29 MLB teams and a 40-man roster that was nearly full, they had to choose between outfielder Junior Perez and catcher Daniel Susac for that final roster spot. Players are eligible for the Rule 5 Draft if they aren't on their organization's 40-man roster after accruing four or five seasons in pro ball.
They went with Perez, and Susac ended up being selected by the Minnesota Twins — then traded to the San Francisco Giants — where he has found a home behind the plate.
Perez began this season by hitting .210 with a .273 OBP and five home runs. While those numbers aren't egregious, his strikeout rate is sitting at 33.1%, about six percent higher than it was in his Triple-A stint last season, showing that he hasn't fully taken the step forward that the A's had hoped.
With the A's adding José Suarez in a trade with the Seattle Mariners on Thursday, it was Perez that ended up getting designated for assignment, potentially leaving the A's without both him and Susac just months after that offseason decision.
A's decision was unavoidable
The A's selected Susac in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft — one round before Henry Bolte — and he was posting good numbers throughout his time in the minors, but nothing that clearly projected to the big league level.
Last season he hit .275 with a .349 OBP and 18 home runs, but this was in the Pacific Coast League, which actually had him below league average in terms of wRC+ at a 94. The surface stats were there, but in a hitter-friendly league, the analytics were less convinced.
Perez struggled in Double-A Midland to begin the 2025 season, batting .201 with a .318 OBP, 14 home runs and 16 stolen bases in 95 games. He was promoted to Triple-A Las Vegas, and in just 42 games, Perez hit .298 with a .412 OBP, 12 home runs and 11 stolen bases. He was also striking out slightly less, at 26.9%.
This run even caused A's manager Mark Kotsay to mention that his toolset was very similar to Seattle's Julio Rodríguez, which is a huge comp to put on a player. If that's how the A's were seeing Perez's potential, then they had to keep him over Susac in the hopes that he panned out.
When a player finishes a season looking like a potential star, you keep him. The A's decision here is defensible, and it still ended with them losing both players.