Gage Jump is one of several intriguing pitching prospects in the A’s system.
Jump, MLB Pipeline’s No. 3 A’s prospect and No. 40 in all of baseball, made his debut on Tuesday against the Mariners. The left-hander allowed four runs in five innings and struck out five Seattle hitters.
Jump is slated to make his second career start on Tuesday at Wrigley Field against the Cubs. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what Jump did well in his debut and some areas he could improve going forward.
The positives
Jump, selected 73rd overall in the 2024 Draft by the A’s, flashed many of the skills that have made him a highly touted prospect for years.
Let’s start with the fastball. Pipeline slapped a 60 grade (on the 20-80 scouting scale) on Jump’s fastball, making it a borderline elite offering. In his debut, Jump averaged 95.9 mph on the heater, but the pitch’s effectiveness goes beyond sheer velocity.
Coming from a lower arm slot, Jump already has a deceptive release point, but the pitch also grades out well in terms of its Induced Vertical Break (IVB) -- essentially how much perceived rise his heater gets. In his first start, the pitch had 17.1 inches of IVB, a strong number paired with the velocity on his fastball.
In terms of both velocity and IVB, Jump’s fastball shares similarities with starting pitchers like Garrett Crochet, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Drew Rasmussen. Those three pitchers have demonstrated track records of success and are different in their own right, but Jump having a similar four-seamer as those three pitchers is certainly a positive.
While the fastball is his headliner, Jump also has three distinct breaking balls with good enough profiles to be real MLB weapons. The lefty throws a slider that averaged 87.0 mph with good movement in his debut -- it was Jump’s second-most-utilized pitch behind the four-seamer.
Jump also has a mid-80s sweeper and a low-80s curveball, giving him three legitimate weapons to pair with his fastball. He also has a changeup (more on that in a bit), giving the lefty a well-rounded arsenal.
In his debut, Jump used this solid package of tools to generate a 40.4 percent chase rate (anything above 35 percent is generally considered elite) and a 28.9 percent whiff rate (30-plus percent is elite). Jump also only allowed a lone walk, continuing a trend of throwing lots of strikes in the Minors.
We’re only dealing with one start, but Jump showed a ton of promise and looks more than ready for the Majors.
Areas for improvement
If there’s one ongoing concern for Jump, it’s how he’ll be able to handle right-handed hitters.
This issue against righties propped up in Jump’s first start -- he allowed seven hits in 14 plate appearances against right-handed hitters, compared to just two hits in 11 plate appearances against lefties.
Jump’s fastball and three strong breaking balls will make him a tough battle for any same-side left-handed hitters. For righties, though, they might have an easier time with Jump with his best pitches being a fastball and breaking balls that are breaking towards opposite-handed hitters.
Breaking balls against opposite-handed batters tend to perform worse, which puts more pressure on Jump’s changeup taking a step forward. While we’re only dealing with one start, Jump’s movement profile is well below average for similar changeups at his velocity (89.3 mph). Questions about the changeup are hardly new, as it’s consistently been the one pitch lagging behind the rest of Jump’s profile.
The lack of a good changeup doesn’t necessarily doom Jump, though. Jump’s elite fastball, sharp slider and big curveball could be enough to mitigate any platoon splits against righties. Sometimes, pitchers simply have good enough stuff to make it work with any perceived problems.
If you’re thinking that this is a well-rounded profile, you’d be correct. There aren’t a ton of obvious red flags in Jump’s profile and he’s still just 23 years old, giving him ample time to continue to develop as a legitimate MLB starter.