Athletics bet big on USC lefty's curveball

The Athletics have officially inked second-round pick Mason Edwards, and they didn't lowball him. Oakland's front office handed the USC left-hander a $2.4 million bonus, well above the $2,131,300 slot value attached to pick No. 47 overall, according to Jim Callis.

Jim Callis

@jimcallisMLB

2nd-rder Mason Edwards signs w/@Athletics for $2.4 million (pick 47 value = $2,131,300). @USC_Baseball LHP, best curveball in @MLBDraft, topped NCAA D-I with 167 strikeouts & 43% K rate, deceptive low-90s fastball. @MLBDraft

The over-slot money tells you Oakland wasn't messing around. Edwards led all of Division I in strikeouts this spring, and while the exact figure varies slightly depending on the source, the profile is the same everywhere: a lefty who racks up whiffs at a wild rate, sitting deep into the 90s with a fastball that plays up because hitters can't pick it up out of his hand. Callis pegged his K rate at 43%, which is the kind of number that gets a college arm drafted 47th overall despite a fairly modest slot.

The real carrot, though, is the curveball. Callis called it the best in the entire draft class, and that's not a throwaway line from a scouting report — it's the pitch that separates Edwards from the pack of college lefties who show up every June with a fastball and not much else. Pair a bat-missing breaking ball with a deceptive low-90s heater and you've got the blueprint for a fast-moving farm-system strikeout arm, which is exactly what Oakland's system has been thin on.

There's an obvious comp sitting right there in USC's own history: Barry Zito, another Trojans lefty the A's drafted who turned into a Cy Young winner in Oakland's uniform. Nobody's promising Edwards follows that same arc, but the pairing of USC pedigree, a plus curveball and an Athletics uniform is the kind of story that writes itself, and it's why this signing is getting more attention than a typical second-rounder usually does.

For a rebuilding-but-restocking Oakland org that's leaned on player development to fill out a thin farm system, adding a college arm who's ready-made to move fast through the minors is a real get. Edwards won't sniff the big leagues this year, but expect him to start climbing the system quickly if that curveball plays the way scouts think it will.