Pitching prospect Huggins growing his game with the help of this A's Hall of Famer

MESA, Ariz. -- Getting traded in the early stages of a career can throw off even the strongest of prospects. Their lives are upended, there's a whole new organization to learn, from players to coaches to front office staff.

Athletics righty pitching prospect Kenya Huggins experienced it first-hand when he was sent from the Reds to the A's at the 2025 Trade Deadline. Luckily for the young hurler, a legend from his new organization reached out to forge a relationship, a member of the A's Hall of Fame.

The only problem? Huggins was not familiar with the name Dave Stewart.

"I better tell the real truth about this one," Huggins laughed during a conversation with his now-familiar mentor in the Mesa Solar Sox dugout ahead of an Arizona Fall League game. 

"Hell yeah, the real truth," Stewart agreed.

Someone gave Huggins a card, and it's of Dave Stewart.

"When you meet this guy, get him to sign it," is what Huggins said he was told. "I'm like, 'OK, great.' They fly me out to Arizona … I see Mr. Dave Stewart. Didn't know who he was. No clue. I had no idea."

Their first interaction came when Stewart watched a bullpen session in Arizona and commented on how big Huggins' shoes are -- size 15, according to Stewart. The relationship has grown from there, with the 23-year-old calling the three-time World Series champion "Uncle Stew" and Stewart referring to Huggins as a member of the family.

"That's how I met him," Huggins said. "Then we just started talking every day. When I did my research on him and talked to him on and at the field, I wanted to take it deeper than that and talk to him outside the field. And ever since then it's just been an everyday story, one day at a time, and it's just been awesome."

It's a perfect connection between an eager student and a very willing teacher. Stewart feels an obligation to shepherd the game and serve as a guide to the next generation because that's exactly what his pitching elders did for him when he got his start. So even though he didn't know Huggins much beyond seeing him throw a time or two, he knew what he wanted to do.

"I just kind of did what everybody has done for me when I was a young pitcher coming up, a young Black pitcher coming up for sure, and I did what they did for me," Stewart said. "Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax, Don Newcombe. I did for him what they did for me.

"When I walked into Dodgertown in 1976, Don Newcombe was the first person I met, and he told me his responsibility and why it was his responsibility. So everybody ... it's not just Kenya. It was Dontrelle Willis. It was CC Sabathia. It was … Hunter Greene. I've kind of been able to touch a lot of the guys just to be a source of information to be able to help to make the path a little bit smoother."

Huggins does not take it for granted, this heirloom of responsibility that Stewart is paying forward. The A's No. 23 prospect is keenly aware of how much he has to learn about life as a professional, both on and off the field. Sure, he could have used this kind of guidance coming out of his New Orleans high school or at Chipola Junior College, when he became a fourth-round pick of the Reds in 2022, but he clearly believes Stewart came into his life when he was meant to arrive.

"It's more than any gift anyone can give me," Huggins said. "It's more than the amount of money that someone can receive. The knowledge of just strictly talking to someone who's done it, who looks like me, and who strictly pushes me to be better than who he is, and we all know how his career went. 

"To push me to be better than his career, there's nothing else anyone can ask for, like at all. It all happens for a reason. I can always say I wish it came earlier, but everything happens for a reason, right when it's supposed to."

Huggins certainly appreciated having Stewart in his corner during a trying first full season in the A's organization. The fairly aggressive push to Double-A did not go well as Huggins finished with a 6.63 ERA. He missed bats (10.2 K/9) but struggled with his command both in and out of the zone, spending time both starting and relieving with Midland. He's pitching out of the bullpen with Mesa in the AFL, and much like during the ups-and-downs of the regular season, Stewart rides the emotional rollercoaster of every outing with his protege.

"I look at him so much as one of my children now," Stewart said. "I get frustrated and I know he gets frustrated, and so it's learning when to temper whatever it is I have to say, and you know, remembering the frustrations that I went through in the Minor Leagues.

"He's got way more talent than I had coming up, and he knows more than I did. His ability at this point is much better than mine, so my expectations of him are really, really high. His successes, I feel absolutely jubilant, and his failures are really, really hard for me as well, and so it's just, you know, separating family because he's family now."

Huggins wants straight talk from Uncle Stew. If anything, and this might surprise those who remember Stewart's intensity on the mound, Huggins thinks he pulls his punches too much when they talk.

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"Honestly, I tell him to be harder on me," Huggins said. "Don't ever take it easy on me. Not him. Not this guy. Anybody else? I could probably take the softness, but not this guy because that's just how I respond.

"I grew up in a situation that hardships were the way that you learned. I had a lot of things against me. Now I'm in this real world where some people, not that they don't want me to succeed, but you know, they kind of need me to fail, so therefore they get in there faster. 

"And I have a Hall of Famer, a great mentor who's supporting me in my long childhood dreams to continue to push me forward. He could do anything, he could not help me at all if he didn't want to. But the fact that he has been open to helping me every day, it's just been something I can't pass up on. We only live this life one time. I can't pass up on it."