​The A’s continued their drafting approach by selecting Arkansas right-hander Gabe Gaeckle with their Competitive Balance B pick, marking their second consecutive year to take a pitcher. Gaeckle’s fastball ranked among the best in college baseball last season, but his outing patterns have been clouded by command inconsistencies across his repertoire. His offerings include an above-average slider, along with a curveball and a changeup. Oakland will likely test him as a starter in the lower minors to see if he can refine his command and harness his velocity, but if that path doesn’t gel, a high-end reliever could still be a valuable find within this draft range. It will be interesting to observe how quickly the 21-year-old climbs the ladder.
Here’s MLB Pipeline’s take on the newest Athletics prospect: Scouting grades place his fastball at 60, with a 45 for the curveball, a 60 for the slider, a 50 for the changeup, a 45 for control, and an overall grade of 45. Gaeckle stands 6-foot-tall and underwent Tommy John surgery at 15, yet his live arm was strong enough to be considered in the first five rounds of the 2023 draft. He eventually fell to the Reds in the 20th round due to his commitment to Arkansas, where he emerged as a freshman reliever but posted a 6.69 ERA over nine starts last spring before returning to the bullpen. A potential first-rounder for 2026, he now projects more as a third-round talent after another rotation-facing setback.
As a shorter right-hander with electric stuff, Gaeckle, when at his best, draws comparisons from scouts to former Razorbacks teammate Gage Wood, who went 26th overall to the Phillies last July, and to Spencer Strider. When he’s right, he possesses one of the college ranks’ most deceptive fastballs, sitting in the 94-96 mph range and touching 98, thanks to a low release height and notable carry. He can also overpower hitters with a tight mid-80s slider and occasionally miss bats with both a low-80s curveball and an upper-80s changeup.
A two-summer veteran of the U.S. collegiate national team, Gaeckle maintained velocity as a starter, but issues with command and deception led to higher contact rates. Those issues weren’t as pronounced in the second half of his sophomore season, when he worked longer relief stints and even dominated eventual national champion LSU with 14 strikeouts in nine innings across two College World Series appearances. Yet this spring, he hasn’t performed as well out of the bullpen, struggling to locate his fastball and seeing in-zone whiff rates on all his pitches regress, which complicates projections of him fitting into the front half of a rotation.
What do you make of this pick? How would you grade it? Let’s discuss.