Since it was announced that A's DH Brent Rooker would miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery on his injured left knee, fans have been clamoring for Tommy White to get the call and fill in at DH for the remainder of the season. 

White, teammates with Gage Jump at LSU and selected by the A's in the same draft in 2024, is currently the team's No. 8-ranked prospect. He was also taken 33 spots before Jump with the 40th overall pick. 

Many saw him as a bat-first prospect out of college, where he earned the nickname "Tommy Tanks," but the A's said on draft day that they felt he'd been making strides defensively. 

"He was one of the best college hitters in the draft coming in, in January," A's Scouting Director Eric Kubota said back in 2024. "We think he made a lot of strides at third base [in 2024]. I think he heard people were questioning his defense and he really applied himself to it, and we felt it showed. We think there's a good chance he can stay at third base." 

Two years later, White is in Triple-A and 84% of his playing time has come at the hot corner since draft day. 

This season, he began in Double-A Midland, getting 21 games there after another 27 to finish out 2025, and he hit .301 with a .372 OBP, .770 OPS and one home run.

Promoted to Triple-A Las Vegas at the end of April, White has hit eight home runs while batting an identical .301 with a .335 OBP and an .823 OPS. 

While he's been able to hit for average this year after looking to become a more complete hitter entering the season, he is still putting the ball on the ground more often than not, which makes it more difficult to get into his power stroke consistently.

We heard A's manager Mark Kotsay say they're looking for more power from Leo De Vries in Double-A before he gets promoted. The same could go for White, whose eight homers with Vegas have come across 49 games. 

The average is nice, and he holds a solid 14.3% strikeout rate in Vegas, but he's also walking at just a 3.6% clip. His .320 BABIP is helping his numbers stand out a little bit, but compared to the rest of the Pacific Coast League, he is still performing below league average, holding a 91 wRC+ (100 is league average). 

He's still just 23, but among PCL players with at least 200 plate appearances, his wRC+ ranks 53rd. The top player in the league, Christian Moore of the Angels, holds a 156 wRC+, and when he was called up he went 4-for-20 with 11 strikeouts. Against A's pitching in Sacramento, he went 2-for-12 with eight strikeouts. 

The risk the A's would run by calling him up to replace a two-time All-Star at DH would be setting him behind if he's not ready just yet. If the season is lost, which some believe it is, then there should be no rush to bring White up just yet. Not until they're sure he's ready.

While this could be a move the A's consider if they fall further out of the postseason chase, calling up White just to have him DH doesn't seem like a path the A's would want to travel down, given recent history. 

Back in 2022, a 21-year-old Jordan Díaz ran through Double-A, batting .319 with a .361 OBP, a 15% strikeout rate, a 5.4% walk rate, 15 home runs and an .868 OPS. That all came out to a 118 wRC+. He put up similar numbers in Triple-A in 26 games, ended up making it to Oakland in the middle of September, and was a little below league average in 15 games. 

While the similarity in performance is striking, the real lesson from this tale is that he'd been spending quite a bit of time at DH leading up to that promotion, while also spending time at second base as well as both corner infield spots. 

When he got to Oakland, the A's suddenly didn't want him playing any DH, though they hadn't given him the time to fully learn his position. He struggled both in the field and at the plate in 2023, batting just .221 with a .273 OBP and putting up -9 outs above average combined across first, second and third base. 

White seems more comfortable at third base, but the A's also don't need another third baseman on the roster. They also may feel better cycling through that position, keeping guys like All-Star catcher Shea Langeliers in the lineup but off his feet. 

White's path to the big leagues may be via trade. Either the A's use him as a key piece in a deal to land some pitching, or they move someone that is currently blocking him, opening up the opportunity for White with the green and gold. 

Díaz is a different kind of hitter than White, but that difference hasn't been made clear in the minor leagues just yet. White needs to find his consistent power stroke, especially in Las Vegas where the ball flies, before he'll be fully ready for The Show. 

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