Amid the turmoil, anger, angst and alienation of the past couple of seasons, the Major League Baseball franchise now known simply as the Athletics needed something to look forward to. Something in the future that would make the present more tolerable. A beacon of hope, a foundation piece, a player for everyone to agree that they can root for.
In rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson, they have found exactly that.
Wilson is not just good; he is really good. He is also really young still, partway through his rookie season after fast-tracking through the minor leagues. And so at the age of 23, the Athletics have someone on whom they believe they can pin their future.
The Minor Leagues Were Just Too Easy
Wilson is already in the majors because the minors were no obstacle.
He needed only 208 at-bats across three levels in 2024 before earning his first call-up to the majors last July. After all, having hit .433 across that span, thus raising his minor league career batting average to a blistering .401, all the signs already indicated that Wilson could hit major league pitching. There was only one remaining way to find out.
Wilson’s batting average comes from his sheer aversion to striking out. Almost unrivalled as a contact hitter, he struck out a mere 26 times in 307 minor league at bats, with a K-rate as anaemic as 2-4% at the lowest levels. Put simply, because of his ability to cover the strike zone, know where the edges are, foul off everything menacing off the plate and make contact with anything over it, he was an impossible nuisance for opposing pitchers.
A .401 career minor league average is how one gets fast-tracked to the majors, to see if maybe big league pitchers could get him out instead. The answer to that, it appears, is also no.
A Piece For The Athletics’ Future
In terms of “tools”, Wilson does not have the complete package. He runs the bases well, but is not much of a base-stealing threat. He hits line drives, but rarely goes yard. His defense at the shortstop position is very smooth, yet measures out fairly averagely in the modern-day metrics, with a -0.4 Defensive Wins Above Average rating on the season so far. And his career majors walk rate of 5.8% is below the major league average of 8.7%.
One tool, though, is unrivalled. Wilson’s miniscule minor league strikeout rate has sustained; as of the time of writing, in 270 at-bats at the Major League level, Wilson has recorded only 20 strikeouts, including only 10 in 178 at-bats in 2025. Put simply, facing the best stuff the world of pitchers have to throw at him, Wilson is still getting around to it – in a league where the average strikeout percentage is 22.5%, Wilson’s microscopic 5.3% is startlingly efficient, and ranks second in the league behind only the anomaly that is Luis Arraez of the San Diego Padres.
With his prodigious talent, youth and cost control, Wilson represents a foundational piece for a team currently moving its foundations. The Athletics will soon be moving to Las Vegas, and they will be bringing with them a player who looks to be a dead cert for an All-Star future. With Tyler Soderstrom, Lawrence Butler, Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz also in their line-up, the Athletics have several exciting position players for both the now and the future – but Wilson is a cut above the rest.
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