Gunnar Hoglund’s Enhanced Pitch Mix Has A’s Righty Primed For 2025 Revival
Image credit: Gunnar Hoglund (Photo by Bill Mitchell)
The life cycle of a pitching prospect is one of fluctuations. One day, they’re trending toward a multi-million dollar bonus and a professional career. The next, they’re recovering from major surgery. These ebbs and flows lead to once highly-acclaimed throwers later tumbling under the radar as they mature.
Blue Jays 2021 first-round pick and current A’s prospect Gunnar Hoglund is one such case.
Hoglund had Tommy John surgery at the end of his junior season at Ole Miss and entered the draft injured. Toronto still selected him 19th overall that year. Hoglund never pitched for the Blue Jays, however, as they traded him to the Athletics for Matt Chapman.
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His recovery from surgery blemished the early part of his professional career. Hoglund pitched just eight innings in his return to the mound in 2022, before struggling in his first full season. He made 16 starts primarily at Low-A in 2023 and labored to a 6.05 ERA, then entered 2024 amid low expectations and an assignment to Double-A Midland. But Hoglund made 18 starts spanning 104.2 innings and pitched to a dazzling 2.84 ERA, navigating the treacherous Texas League with a 16.9% strikeout to walk ratio.
Hoglund received a late-season promotion to Triple-A and made five starts, completing 130.2 innings by the end of 2024. The Athletics named him their minor league pitcher of the year and added him to their 40-man roster in the offseason.
It took some time for Hoglund’s velocity to return to pre-injury form. A healthy offseason in 2024 allowed Hoglund to take inventory of his arsenal and implement some changes to his pitch mix. He added a two-seam fastball, changed his slider to add more sweep and dabbled with a cutter.
Now, Hoglund has kicked his arsenal up another notch entering 2025.
So far this spring, Hoglund is sitting 93-96 mph on his four-seam fastball with plenty of ride, mixing in a two-seam variant at 93-94 mph. His secondaries have taken another step forward as his mid-to-high-80s changeup with nearly negative vertical break is his bread and butter. Hoglund is throwing a harder mid-80s sweeper and a slider with cutter like shape. This is the best version of Hoglund that we’ve seen as his arsenal continues to evolve and improve.
The A’s optioned Hoglund to Triple-A Las Vegas to begin the season. But with a spot on the 40-man roster, upper-minors experience and big league level stuff, Hoglund is poised to contribute meaningful innings for the Athletics in 2025. It’s been a long and winding road for the former Ole Miss star.
