A's get 'a dog' of a competitor with 11th overall Draft pick Arnold

WEST SACRAMENTO – The Athletics entered the 2025 MLB Draft excited about what type of talent could potentially fall to them in the first round from a class that appeared to be less clear-cut at the top than years past, and they may have come away with a steal in Jamie Arnold.

Rated as MLB Pipeline’s No. 4 overall Draft prospect, Arnold was still available for the A’s, who selected the left-handed pitcher with the No. 11 pick. The 21-year-old Florida State product was considered the second-best left-handed pitcher in this year’s class behind LSU’s Kade Anderson and may have the highest floor of any of the top prospects based on his track record, control and stuff.

“We feel pretty fortunate that he got down to us,” A’s scouting director Eric Kubota said. “He’s a guy we’ve had evaluated up at the top of the Draft for a couple of years now. He’s performed at a very high level. His analytics really intrigue us. Coming into it, if you had told us that he was going to get to No. 11, I think we would’ve been pretty surprised, so we were very happy.”

The 6-foot-1, 192-pound Arnold posted a 2.98 ERA for the second consecutive season this spring and struck out 119 batters over 84 2/3 innings. He recorded a 1.06 WHIP this year and posted a strikeout-to-walk ratio of better than 5-to-1 over the past two seasons. That two-year run made Arnold a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist in 2024 and '25.

With a fastball that runs up to 97 mph paired with a sweeping mid-80s slider that induced a 41% whiff rate last year, and his rangy, unorthodox delivery with a whippy low-three-quarters arm slot that attacks hitters from a near-sidearm angle, Arnold has drawn comparisons to 2024 National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale.

“We throw sort of similar,” Arnold said of Sale. “When I get to watch him pitch, it’s kind of neat because I get to learn things from him. I’ve been watching a lot of Bryan Woo recently, just because of the way he uses his heater. It’s pretty similar in the release, even though he’s a righty. But getting to watch Bryan Woo has been pretty beneficial to me.”

Beyond the stuff, the A’s were impressed by the mental makeup of Arnold, who certainly doesn’t lack confidence on the mound.

“I’m a competitor,” Arnold said. “If I don’t have my best stuff that day, I still do my best with that, and it turns out to be good. In the end, [the A’s] are getting a dog. I’ll bring my best every day.”

Given how polished Arnold is as a pitcher, Kubota said the profile is there for a quick rise through the system if he can perform well.

We know the A’s do not shy away from putting their top prospects on the fast track. Jacob Wilson, their 2023 first-round pick, reached the big leagues just 376 days after being drafted, only to be topped by 2024 first-rounder Nick Kurtz, who debuted this season just 283 days from the date he was drafted with only 32 Minor League games under his belt.

For an A’s organization that could use a boost in pitching depth, Arnold could quickly find himself alongside young arms like Luis Morales and Gage Jump as A’s pitching prospects knocking on the door of the Majors.

“It’s not in my hands, but I feel confident enough that I can pitch in the bigs next week,” Arnold said. “We’ll see how that goes. If it were up to me, I’d like to pitch up there as soon as I can.”

Here is a look at the other pick the A’s made on Day 1 of the Draft:

Devin Taylor, OF, second round (Pick No. 48 overall)

• Bats/throws: L/R
• School: Indiana University
• Calling Card: Considered to have great bat-to-ball skills with good power to all fields. He earned All-Big Ten Conference first-team honors in each of his three seasons at Indiana and set the school career home run record with 54. Profiles as a corner outfielder, likely left field, with speed, arm strength and defensive instincts that grade out as fringy.
• Quote: “For us, one of the best college hitters in the Draft. He performed at a very high level at Indiana. Power, average, low strikeouts. For the kind of hitter he is, there was just not a lot to not like about him. He slid a little bit because his defense may lag a little bit behind his offense right now, but we think there’s an athlete there that, with a little attention to the defense, we feel that will be very adequate as well.” – Kubota