As Tommy White earned a longer look into the final days of Spring Training with the Athletics, manager Mark Kotsay was continually impressed with what he saw.
“I think if you asked Tommy about camp,” Kotsay said. “He’d tell you he’s learned more about baseball in his limited time with us [in spring] than he has throughout his whole career.”
We did ask White, and he backed up Kotsay’s statement.
“Oh yeah,” White told MLB.com. “Just being around all the guys that are veterans now but still young, learning from those guys like [Lawrence Butler], [Brent Rooker], Jacob Wilson, they’re still young, so it’s easy to pick their brains. They’re also not far in front of me. So, being able to see how their process went and what they do, picking their brain 24/7 is really what I was doing.
“I learned as much as possible about how to go about being that same guy every single day. That’s the next step, and they definitely showed me how to do that.”
There was certainly plenty to like about White, the A’s No. 9 prospect. Going through his first big league camp, the 23-year-old took advantage of extra playing time in the Cactus League due to several A’s players being away for the World Baseball Classic by hitting .421 with a 1.266 OPS and living up to his “Tommy Tanks” nickname with four home runs and 15 RBIs in 19 games.
COMPLETE ATHLETICS PROSPECT COVERAGE
“I was just trying to find the good pitches,” White said. “I think it was more of me just slowing down the game to get ready, which put myself in a better place for success. I learned that this spring and just want to carry that same mentality and approach into the season.”
Defensively, where scouts have harshly assessed him as a subpar fielding third baseman dating back to his college days at LSU, White displayed improvements with the glove as both a third baseman and even in some reps as a first baseman in camp with the A’s.
“Tommy left a good impression on our Major League staff,” Kotsay said. “He did a lot of things to make himself a better player throughout the offseason, and he showed that while he was in camp for us.”
That offseason preparation is what Kotsay was most pleased with. Working out with a group of players in Baton Rouge, including former LSU teammate Dylan Crews, White worked hard on all aspects of his game. That was evident this spring, as he looked stronger yet leaner and looked much more athletic both in his movements on defense and on the basepaths.
“I knew from being with [Crews] at LSU how we worked and how much I got better being around him,” White said. “I just used that opportunity to carry on and just keep getting better. I know exactly the work that he puts in and I know how I’ll react to that. I don’t want to be a weak link, so I put in the same amount of work as those guys, if not more.”
Beginning this season at Double-A Midland -- where he played 27 games last year and hit .311 with a .741 OPS -- alongside star prospects such as shortstop Leo De Vries (ATH No. 1/MLB No. 4) and left-hander Jamie Arnold (ATH No. 2/MLB No. 38), White left his mark this spring as another young prospect who could be on the cusp of helping the A’s at the Major League level, perhaps as early as this season.
His bat-to-ball skills are elite, his raw power was on display this spring and his defense is no longer the big question mark it once was at the time he joined the organization as a second-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft.
“He’s an interesting guy,” A’s director of player development Ed Sprague said of White. “He’s kind of a free swinger and swings at a lot of different pitches, but he has great hand-eye coordination and can get to a lot of balls. He’s got kind of a right-center approach.
“The power is there, but he’s got to be a little bit more disciplined in what pitches he swings at. I thought he would struggle a little bit at Double-A when we sent him there, and that just wasn’t the case. That’s a good sign. He performed in the [Arizona] Fall League as well. … Defensively, he played better at third than maybe some of us thought he would. Not a lot of range, but the glove worked and the arm was fine. He actually played very well at first base, so we’ll see where that fits.”