Top prospect Puason added to A's player pool

The A’s now have the list of players they will have at their disposal for the upcoming regular season.

Robert Puason, the A’s No. 4 prospect per MLB Pipeline, headlines the six players who filled the final slots of the club’s 60-man player pool on Wednesday. Infielder Eric Campbell, right-handed pitchers Wandisson Charles and Miguel Romero and outfielders Luis Barrera and Brayan Buelvas were also added to the pool.

Of the six players, Campbell is the only one who will report for Summer Camp at the Oakland Coliseum. He essentially fills the spot that opened up Tuesday after the A’s sent infielder Jorge Mateo to the Padres in exchange for a player to be named later. Puason, Charles, Romero, Barrera and Buelvas will report to the A’s alternate training site. That location is unknown at this point as recent COVID-19 restrictions have complicated the team’s desire to house those players in Stockton, Calif. at the facility of the Stockton Ports, Oakland’s Class A Advanced affiliate.

Rated No. 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Internationals Prospects list for 2019, the 6-foot-3 Puason signed with the A’s last year for a hefty $5.1 million bonus with high expectations as the club’s shortstop of the future, even drawing comparisons to former All-Star shortstop Tony Fernandez. Yet to play an official Minor League game in his career, the 17-year-old shortstop joins another teenager also on the pool training at the alternate site in Tyler Soderstrom, the 18-year-old Turlock High School catcher drafted 26th overall by the A’s in last month’s MLB Draft.

Barrera and Buelvas are rated the Nos. 11 and 15 A’s prospects, while Romero ranks at No. 27.