SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Friday’s Cactus League matchup against the Royals carried a bit more weight than the average Spring Training game for the Athletics.
Making the road trip to Surprise Stadium was Jamie Arnold, the A’s top pitching prospect and MLB’s No. 41 overall prospect per MLB Pipeline, who was scheduled to pitch in relief for the first time this spring after making a strong first impression against A’s hitters early in camp.
Drafted 11th overall by the A’s last July, Arnold has yet to pitch at any level of the Minors. In fact, before Friday’s 7-6 loss to the Royals, Arnold had not pitched in an actual game since last June while in college at Florida State. So, while Friday’s appearance does not officially count as his first appearance as a professional, it was his first time taking the mound in an A’s uniform for a game setting.
“We’re all excited to see Jamie get out there and compete against another team,” A’s pitching coach Scott Emerson said Friday morning. “He’s thrown two batting practices and he’s looked really good. He moves the fastball around. It’s a really good fastball.”
Summoned from the bullpen to begin the bottom of the fourth, Arnold toed the rubber and was about to throw his first warmup pitch when he looked out of the corner of his eye to his right and saw Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. taking practice swings in front of Kansas City’s dugout.
“I was warming up and I saw him on deck,” Arnold said. “That was pretty cool. … Definitely was excited to face him.”
It wasn’t pretty, but Arnold got through his spring debut unscathed. After allowing a leadoff infield single to Drew Waters and walking Witt on four pitches, Arnold struck out two of his next three batters to notch a scoreless inning on 18 pitches (eight strikes), with an assist from catcher Austin Wynns, who caught Waters attempting to steal third for the first out.
“Not great command today,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “I’m sure he had some nerves. But he managed to get through the inning without giving up a run. That says something about the young man.”
Arnold showed off a fastball that averaged 94.8 mph and topped out at 95.7. Both of his strikeouts came on his slider, a pitch that helped him rack up plenty of strikeouts in college and led to him being ranked as one of the best pitchers in last year’s Draft class.
The fastball and slider are two of Arnold’s standout pitches, but there’s more to his arsenal that he’s added in preparation for his first year as a pro. Working out at Driveline Baseball in Florida this offseason, the 21-year-old left-hander reintroduced a cutter into his repertoire. He has also been experimenting with a new kick-change, which he threw a couple of times on Friday.
“It was kind of staying flat today,” Arnold said of his kick-change. “Last week, I threw it and it was diving. The ball felt sticky today, so I think it was just kind of staying flat and not getting that much depth. I threw one good one. The other two were kind of up and away. But I was happy with it for its purpose.”
Admittedly battling the expected nerves in his debut, Arnold will look to get his feet more on the ground in games over the next few weeks before officially getting his professional career underway.
“I was getting behind [in the count] today,” Arnold said. “Overall, I was happy with the day. First one is always the hardest, so I’m glad to get it out of the way.”
If Arnold begins his Minor League career like the A’s expect him to, speculation as to whether he might join the big league rotation with the A’s at some point this season will surely grow, especially after the incredibly quick rise through the system for Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson, the club’s previous two first-round picks before Arnold, over the past two years.
“I was talking to Jacob and he said, ‘It’s your freshman year all over again,’” Arnold said. “I told him, ‘Luckily, I had a pretty bad freshman year, so I got to learn from it.’ I’ll just try to keep that mindset in my head. Learn from everything I go through, take the good and the bad, and just try to stay level through it all.”