A's No. 9 prospect Perkins feels 'at home' in impressive MLB debut

WEST SACRAMENTO -- Jack Perkins was a bit confused when he walked into Triple-A Las Vegas manager Fran Riordan’s office following Saturday night’s game at Sugar Land and saw Mark McGwire -- an occasional guest instructor for the club’s Minor League affiliates -- sitting in the room.

A few moments later, he found out why the legendary Athletics slugger’s presence was necessary.

“Fran called me in,” Perkins said. “He was like, ‘It’s going to be pretty cool that you and Mark McGwire have something in common.’ I’m like, ‘What do I have in common with Mark McGwire?’ They were like, ‘Well, you both can say you played for the Athletics.’ It was a surreal moment. Something I’ll always remember, for sure.”

Perkins, ranked as the A’s No. 9 prospect by MLB Pipeline, was called up ahead of Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Guardians. The 25-year-old right-hander impressed out of the bullpen for his Major League debut, taking over for reliever Tyler Ferguson in the seventh and firing three scoreless innings of relief with two strikeouts.

“He looked really under control for a debut,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said of Perkins. “It was a good landing spot for him. … Those are the type of outings that we need from the bullpen to give us a chance to [win]. Impressive debut. He pounded the zone.”

Perkins settled in quickly, recording an out on his first Major League pitch when Austin Hedges hit a 62.4 mph comebacker that he picked up and tossed to first baseman Nick Kurtz.

From there, Perkins went on to handle Cleveland’s lineup with relative ease. He retired nine of his 10 batters faced on 30 pitches (21 strikes) and showed a good feel for three different fastballs: cutter, sinker and four-seamer. The four-seamer maxed out at 98 mph, while his sinker averaged 97.3 mph. Perkins combined to throw the three different fastball types 21 times and generated eight total whiffs.

“A first-pitch out definitely calms the nerves a little bit,” Perkins said. “It’s like, ‘All right, here we go.’ I didn’t really feel too sped up. I felt at peace out there. I felt at home.”

The call to the big leagues for Perkins comes after a recent run of dominance at Triple-A, as he earned back-to-back Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week honors for the weeks of June 2-8 and June 9-15. Across three starts in June for the Aviators, Perkins posted a 0.55 ERA and held opposing hitters to a .094 batting average and a .377 OPS. For the season, Perkins was 3-2 with a 2.86 ERA with 68 strikeouts and 20 walks across 44 innings in nine starts for Triple-A Las Vegas.

“This kid has thrown the ball really well,” Kotsay said. “He’s earned this opportunity. For us, it’s very similar to [J.T.] Ginn. He can go an inning if need be, but if we need more length, we have it from him.”

Multiple people within the A’s player development staff have described Perkins as having “electric stuff.” It’s a five-pitch mix anchored by a hard-riding fastball that runs into the upper-90s and a slider that has morphed into more of a sweeper that sits in the mid-80s and generates plenty of swing-and-miss. Perkins is the first of a promising crop of young A’s pitching prospects developing in the Minors to reach the Majors, with No. 1 prospect Gage Jump, No. 3 prospect Mason Barnett and No. 4 prospect Luis Morales also on the cusp.

Beyond the stuff, though, Perkins can attribute a large part of his rise through the system to just getting healthy again. Since being selected by the A’s in the fifth round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Indiana, Perkins has battled multiple injuries, including a lat injury in 2024 Spring Training that delayed his season debut until May.

There were, however, some positives in dealing with those injuries, on both the mental and physical sides of things.

“I wouldn’t trade the journey that I’ve been on for anything,” Perkins said. “Whether it’s on the field with physical attributes that have helped me or off the field mentally and finding the routine to help keep me healthy, it’s just been a learning process.

“You can get super down that you aren’t on the field and just be mad at the world, or you can learn from it and become the player that you’re supposed to be. That’s my mindset. I’m super grateful to be healthy and ready to help this team any way I can.”