The Major League Rule 5 Draft occurred this morning down in Florida and you already knew the A’s would make use of their selection. Picking at #8 overall, the front office elected to take right-handed relief prospect Ryan Watson from the San Francisco Giants organization:
A veteran of five minor league seasons, the 27-year-old Watson joins the Athletics after spending the past
season with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate. After spending the entirety of his pro career in the Orioles’ organization, Watson’s first season with the River Cats was a mixed bag. Pitching in the hitter-friendly PCL, Watson posted a 4.26 ERA in 46 relief appearances for Sacramento, which just happens to be where his new team calls home. He collected nine saves and racked up an impressive 64 strikeouts compared to just 16 free passes over 50 2/3 frames. Overall in his minor league career he’s sporting a 4.14 ERA but has looked better as a reliever after converting just a couple of years ago.
There wasn’t much need to add another position player to the group already in house, thus making a pitching selection not all that surprising. The A’s have made it an organization goal to use their Rule 5 picks and try to keep the players for the entirety of the season in order to gain full control of their rights. Watson is just the latest in a long line of players and like the others his Rule 5 status should give him a boost when it comes time to whittle down the spring roster. The club’s quest to add as much bullpen depth continues with Watson, though we’re all still hoping to add a bigger fish to the unit before the winter is out.
The addition of Watson wasn’t the only news regarding the A’s during the draft though. The team also saw former 1st-round pick Daniel Susac get taken with the #4 overall pick by the Minnesota Twins, who then immediately traded Susac to the Giants. It’s a disappointing outcome for the A’s to see one of their top draft picks get claimed, though it wasn’t a surprising outcome after the team elected to keep him off their 40-man roster when the deadline came last month. Susac, who ranked as the organization’s #11 prospect last season, hit a solid .275/.349/.483 with 18 home runs for the Aviators this past year. The loss of Susac not only removes one of the team’s top catching prospects from the system, but it also thins out the catching depth behind Shea Langeliers. There was some hope/expectation that Susac could lay claim to the backup job behind ‘Bangeliers’ but that’s now out the window. We should be expecting an outside addition to shore that position up soon.
The question now will become will either of these two players be able to stick with the big league team for the entire 2026 season? The Giants already have their starting catcher in Patrick Bailey but are also thin behind the plate after him so it’s entirely possible that Susac can carve out a backup role as a bat-first rookie behind the glove-first Bailey. Though of course, the A’s would likely gladly take him back if the Giants give up on the catcher.
And as for Watson, the A’s will surely give him every opportunity to solidify his own spot in the bullpen. The coaching staff was especially patient with last year’s Rule 5 pick Noah Murdock and it’s a safe assumption that the front office will give Watson a chance to earn his spot on the team as well. There’s a lot of right-handed relief in the bullpen as of this moment but Watson might have just jumped ahead of most of them on the depth chart. Spring Training will sort these arms out. Welcome aboard Ryan!
