Why The Denzel Clarke Era Needs To Start Now

Having started his baseball playing career relatively late, Denzel Clarke was always going to be a late bloomer and someone you just couldn’t rush to the big leagues. And so it has been with reluctant patience that I have supported Clarke’s continued grooming at AAA, especially given that an injury interrupted his season in April.

There are still skeptics as to whether Clarke would improve the big league club right now or is ready for a call up without harm to his overall development. The former is known as “He’ll struggle just like Max Muncy did...” and the latter overlooks that at 25 Clarke is hardly a pup.

I believe the time is now and I am going to outline several reasons for arguing that the A’s need to call him up for the last 2/3 of a season that is currently slipping away but is still full of potential in a weak division.

Clarke’s hitting

The “He’ll struggle at the plate just like Muncy did and just like Kurtz is doing” is a lazy argument. Here are some reasons not to let that prevent you from calling him up:

1. Initial struggles are not permanent and if it takes Clarke a month to get his feet wet and figure things out then you might still have a productive hitter for the season’s second half.

2. There is no automatic guarantee Clarke will struggle, as some rookies flail early, others thrive and then get figured out, while some plod along a bit making incremental improvements along the way.

There are actually signs that Clarke might be able to hold his own from the outset: he is showing elite plate discipline (a 21% BB rate at AAA) and if he can avoid chasing bad sliders and changeups/splitters out of the zone, if he can lay off the high fastball that so many rookies chase, that will go a long way to leveling out the playing field for him at the plate.

3. The bar set for CF so far this season is low. Worried that Clarke might come up only to hit .200/.280/.350? JJ Bleday is batting .206 and his OBP is .295. He is slugging .381.

In fact you could make a case that Clarke, batting .200/.280/.350 would be more useful offensively than Bleday with his current line, because when Clarke does get on he becomes the A’s biggest base stealing threat by a lot and he flies around the bases. And his projections are actually more favorable than that, e.g., .222/.296/.352.

Clarke’s Fielding

It needs to be emphasized that the gap between Bleday’s CF defense and Clarke’s CF defense is absolutely cavernous. Bleday is one of the absolute worst defensive CFers in MLB, currently sitting at -7 DRS in 2025 following his -19 DRS season in 2024. Last night Jung Hoo Lee made a fine running catch at the CF wall that Bleday would not have gotten within 10 feet of.

Meanwhile, Clarke is a human highlight reel who is widely regarded as a future gold glove candidate in CF. The move from “one of the very worst to one of the very best” at a premium defensive position is a huge deal and more than mitigates for any slight downgrade you might see at the plate — and that’s assuming Clarke can’t replicate Bleday’s pedestrian numbers so far in 2025.

Is Clarke Ready?

Helping the big league team is important, but so is each prospect’s individual development. So one has to take a look at whether it would be in Clarke’s best interest to throw him into big league games at this point.

You might be surprised when I cite Clarke’s stats since he returned from the IL on April 23rd. They are nothing short of sensational in 20 games (87 plate appearances):

.303/.471/.470, 6 SB in 7 attempts, a 20.7% BB rate and a 20.7% K rate.

I think he’s ready.

The 2025 A’s

The A’s are on a 4-game losing streak and have dropped 2 games under .500, and weaknesses are readily apparent with the current roster. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t potentially contend for a post-season berth in 2025, it just means they have dug themselves about a 4-game hole and that also they need to make changes in order to succeed.

One reason contention is still possible is simply that the AL West is weak. Last year the Houston Astros won the division with just 86 wins and it’s not hard to see a similar scenario playing out amongst several flawed teams.

With the bar potentially low and a .500 team in August still within striking distance, the question becomes: can the A’s improve this team enough to hang in there now and to make a move in the second half?

I think it’s important to recognize that along with notable weaknesses, the A’s have a ton of raw talent on the roster as a starting point. To wit:

Jacob Wilson appears to be legitimately a .300 hitter, which is a rarity in today’s game. His defense, touted in the minors, has started to show up at SS as well.

Tyler Soderstom has always been regarded, by scouts and coaches, as a guy who will hit in the big leagues and he showed it in April. He has cooled off in May but is still hitting a lot of balls hard, and he has been more than adequate in LF despite his inexperience.

Lawrence Butler, struggles and all, remains a very talented high-upside player as seen in 2024. If he gets back on track (and he looked great last night) suddenly the A’s become a lot more potent.

Brent Rooker has been merely “fine” so far this season, but for the past 2 seasons he was one of the very best DHs in the game and there is no reason to think he has begun any sort of permanent decline.

Shea Langeliers has emerged as one of the game’s best catchers, improving in every key area from blocking balls in the dirt to framing to an impressive 15.1% K rate.

Nick Kurtz has struggled in his maiden voyage around the league but is one of the game’s very best hitting prospects and a strong candidate to break out in the second half.

Gunnar Hoglund and JT Ginn offer hope of stabilizing the rotation, while Luis Severino’s start, coupled with Jeffrey Springs’ recent success show glimmers of the presence the A’s were hoping for at the front.

This is not to say the A’s can compete as is, but there is significant upside to tap into if they can plug the holes that turn their young vessel into the Titanic.

Athleticism

That starts with getting more athletic. The A’s rank at the bottom of the league in stolen bases and defensive efficiency because they lack athleticism and nowhere is that more pronounced than Bleday. (It’s unusual to have below average speed up the middle and yet Bleday, Urias, and Wilson are all exceptionally slow for their positions.)

Adding Clarke immediately boosts the flat out athleticism of the lineup greatly and that alone is a good start. You hope that by mid-season you might get a boost in the rotation (paging Jack Perkins?) and that your infield defense, as well as speed, might get a boost from the return of Zack Gelof — which could also push Urias over to 3B and help the defense.

Conclusion

The overarching point is, it’s too early to give up on the 2025 season. What it’s not too early to do is to start plugging the glaring leaks and addressing the obvious weaknesses. They start with athleticism and defense, and no one can help either more than Denzel Clarke, who is killing it at AAA in every way other than power — and power is not what the A’s need right now, nor is it something they’re even getting from their incumbent CFer.

In order to get back into contention with a club worth taking seriously, more changes are needed than just in CF. But it’s a key start for a team desperately in need of more speed, more athleticism, and better defense. And while the A’s are a bit down right now they are not buried, yet.

The time to start the Denzel Clarke era is now.