Nevin was a shiny new toy for the A’s early in the 2024 season but he now founds himself a free agent months later
In the beginning of Tyler Nevins tenure with the A’s it looked like the front office and coaching staff might’ve found and unlocked potential a few other teams couldn’t. Instead, it was all a honeymoon phase.
Nevin struggled at the dish for a large majority of the season and couldn’t replicate his value defensively. Just weeks ago, he became a free-agent as part of an A’s haul in their 40-man roster after just one season with the team. Let’s dive deeper into his 2024 campaign!
How was he acquired?
Nevin was claimed off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles on March 31 — three days after being designated for assignment.
What were the expectations?
Signed just four days into the 2024 season, the hope was for Nevin — a former first-round pick — to finally piece things together with a chance in Oakland. Nevin garnered a .203/.310/.301 line across 313 plate appearances and two seasons in Baltimore and Detroit before landing with the A’s but his ability to play both the corner infield and outfield positions certainly helped his value.
Nevin also was another righty bat amongst a crowd of lefties like Ryan Noda, Lawrence Butler and Seth Brown on the corners and his presence allowed for younger infielders like Darell Hernaiz to spend more time in the minors. Nevin was acquired with no options remaining so it was do-or-die time for the 27-year-old, and he had a few moments but it was ultimately not enough.
2024 Results
In by far the biggest sample size of his career, Nevin stayed about on par with his career line at .204/.299/.315 adding seven home runs, ten doubles and 25 RBIs. Nevin’s versatility on defense certainly was more invaluable to the team shifting all around the diamond but in the end, his offense could never follow.
Nevin had just two big flies and five RBIs over his last two months and 73 at-bats with the team after bursting onto the scene red-hot in April. Nevin hit .316 for the month over 76 at-bats as he looked to potentially be a diamond in the rough finding for the A’s. Nevin would be figured out soon after hitting just .064 in May and on May 28, the A’s were forced to designate him for assignment to send him outright to Triple-A Las Vegas. They tried to send him outright to Vegas again on November 1st but Nevin elected for free agency the next day instead.
2025 Results
Nevin is your typical Quad-A player; he tears apart Triple-A pitching but has never been able to figure it out at the big-league level. There likely wasn’t going to be much playing time opportunity for him in 2025 as an Athletic anyway besides being an organizational depth piece, but the problem is that that may just be his ceiling.
Nevin will go test the free agency waters and likely land a minor league deal as another depth piece especially with his defensive versatility but can he do anything more is the real question. He’s approaching ten years removed from his 2015 first-round selection so at this point, Nevin just might be one that can never reach his full potential.