Jump shows flashes of his true potential in Major League debut

WEST SACRAMENTO – Before the Athletics broke camp in Spring Training, manager Mark Kotsay expressed excitement over the younger players left off the Opening Day roster who could make an impact later in the season.

Gage Jump was among that group of youngsters Kotsay was discussing. The A’s saw enough of the left-hander during his stint with the big league club in the spring to know that his time to help the big league club was imminent.

That time finally came on Tuesday night. Jump, rated the A’s No. 3 prospect (No. 41 overall per MLB Pipeline), was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas to start for the A’s in a 4-1 loss to the Mariners at Sutter Health Park in his Major League debut, allowing four runs on nine hits and one walk with five strikeouts.

“The focus for Gage is throwing strikes,” Kotsay said. “He did that tonight. … Overall, first outing, he had some swing-and-miss and five strikeouts. From that standpoint, he did a nice job tonight.”

Jump indeed was in the zone plenty, throwing strikes on 58 of his 88 total pitches. He missed a good amount of barrels, generating 13 whiffs, five on his slider and three on his sweeper, which he utilized as the putaway pitch on three of his strikeouts.

The 23-year-old lefty was as electric as advertised in the first, working a 1-2-3 frame with a pair of swinging strikeouts of J.P. Crawford and Randy Arozarena on the sweeper and slider.

The second inning saw the learning curve most young pitchers must go through at the highest level. The Mariners hung three runs against Jump on three hits and a walk. While Jump constantly got ahead in the count all night, a common theme in that second was the inability to finish hitters with two strikes.

Of Jump’s eight batters faced in the second, five reached a two-strike count. Of those five, only one ended in an out – a sacrifice fly by Cole Young. The other four resulted in two singles, a double and a walk.

“I just have to be better,” Jump said. “Especially when I’m ahead in the count, put them away. I just didn’t execute. I’ll learn from that and keep going.”

Scouts have long raved about Jump’s composure and competitiveness on the mound, and that was on display after the second. He allowed another run in the fourth but executed a sweeper to Josh Naylor to induce an inning-ending double play and escape a bases-loaded jam with limited damage.

“That shows some maturity there, for sure,” Kotsay said. “Grinding through that inning and keeping his composure says a lot about him.”

Jump ended his outing on a high note, retiring all three batters faced in the fifth with two strikeouts, including one a sweeper down in the zone that Young swung through for strike three to finish his first Major League outing.

“I tried to focus on executing and take the results out of it,” Jump said. “Some of the hits they had, they just fell in the right area. Other ones, they put good swings on the ball. Either way, I just focused on executing, because that’s all I can control.”

In all, Jump flashed the stuff that elevated him to his standing amongst the best pitching prospects in all of baseball. His fastball maxed out at 97.9 mph, and his overall arsenal has been trending upward at Triple-A, where he just earned Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week honors coming off a start of seven scoreless innings with no walks and nine strikeouts.

“Just attacking guys,” Jump said of the key to his recent success in the Minors. “Tonight, I made some mistakes when I was ahead in the count, and they hit them. I just have to be better with that. But still, it’s attacking with the fastball and really just not being afraid of anybody.”

Still clinging to their hold on first place in the American League West, the A’s (27-28) could use a boost in the starting pitching department, as starters entered Tuesday 0-6 with a 5.80 ERA over the last 10 games. Jump’s arrival represents the potential for a frontline starter as one of the club’s most exciting pitching prospects in quite some time.

“The guy that came to my mind is Jesús Luzardo,” Kotsay said. “Young, power-throwing left-hander that we had and now is off to great things with Philly, and has pitched really well. I can see a similar path for Gage. Maybe even better.”