The Oakland A’s added pitching prospect Daulton Jefferies to their 40-man roster on Wednesday, the team announced. To make room, fellow pitcher Jharel Cotton was designated for assignment.
Jefferies was added to the roster to protect him from the upcoming Rule 5 draft, which you can read more about here. The draft isn’t until December, but Wednesday was the deadline to add eligible prospects to the roster to protect them from being stolen by other teams. Jefferies was the 37th overall draft pick in 2016, as a post-1st-round supplemental choice.
The 24-year-old California native and UC Berkeley product ranked 17th on our preseason Community Prospect List last winter despite being mired in a long recovery from Tommy John surgery, but then had a breakout season in 2019 upon his return to health.