From unknown to big-leaguer, Giants' Jonah Cox took an improbable path to The Show

CHICAGO - When Jonah Cox jumped straight from Double-A to the big leagues last week for the San Francisco Giants, heads were scratched.

Cox, 24, hadn't been in big-league camp in Arizona. He wasn't a prominent prospect, not ranked among the team's top 20. He hit .257 last year at High-A Eugene. How on earth was he hitting .400 nearly two months into Richmond's season?

Most of the credit goes to Cox, of course, who figured out a lot of things with his swing, but Tommy Everidge, the former A's player and coach from Sonoma, comes in for a share of that, too. Everidge, Richmond's hitting coach, worked extensively with Cox and got him to refine his approach - if you can even call what Cox had been doing before an approach.

"I was just kind of swinging and hoping versus trying to hunt pitches and locations," Cox said, adding while mimicking a wild swing, "I hit everything all the time, everywhere."

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This didn't faze Everidge.

"During spring, I was like, ‘Let's just do these things and let's not talk about what you used to do,'" Everidge said. "‘Let's just move forward.'"

Everidge said the biggest issue was that Cox tended to jump at pitches, so quieting him down was a key, "settling and being behind the ball," Everidge said. "Letting the ball come to him and driving it to the big part of the field."

The two clicked and spent a lot of time talking about pitchers, and Everidge encouraged Cox to think of them in various different buckets - different types of pitchers might try one thing against him, others another.

"It would be more like, ‘This would be that right-center approach, get something out over the plate,' or ‘With this guy's angle, we may have to beat it to the spot,'" Everidge said. "Just a simple thought, not overthinking it."

Cox tore up the Eastern League, becoming the first player in the league to bat .400 through the first two months of the season since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with New Hampshire in 2018. Last Sunday, Cox became the first player the Giants had called up straight from Double-A since infielder Miguel Gómez in 2018.

Everidge, in passing, had mentioned the possibility at one point, but knew it was wildly unlikely. Moving up to Sacramento, sure. Going straight to Colorado to join the big-league team, even as a reserve? Tough to imagine, even for a young man hitting .400/.453/.644 (with 27 steals, to boot).

"That was crazy," Everidge said. "We'd had that talk. I was like, ‘Hey, man, the way you run the bases, the way you play the outfield, the way you're hitting, you could be one of those guys who makes the jump straight there, you never know.' Then when it happened, I was like, ‘Oh, my God.' I was stunned for about 10 minutes, like, ‘Holy crap! ' Then I was hugging him. I'm so happy for him."

Thrilled beyond belief was a young area scout (Oklahoma, Texas) with the A's. Fletcher Byrd, 28, saw Cox, then something of an unknown, playing at Oral Roberts one October day in 2022.

"I was in Tulsa, Oral Roberts was having a scrimmage and I just wanted to go in and see what they had," Byrd said. "They had a pitcher who wound up going to the Rockies, so I wanted to see him, and I was talking to Nolan Fanning, an assistant coach, and said, ‘OK, what do you have? ' He said, ‘We've got this kid from Eastern Oklahoma State, he's athletic, his dad (Darron) played in the big leagues, he might be interesting.'

"Now 99% of the time, you're like, ‘Eh, I don't know,' it doesn't really pan out. That's until Jonah walked out. He's 6-3, he's got the Hunter Pence look over his knees, so he's got the physicality check. He's dapping up all his teammates, looks like a lovely person to be around, so the makeup looks good. Then, all of a sudden, he goes to the outfield and starts running down balls. I said, ‘OK, wow. Check: defense.' He takes BP, he's just boom, pounding balls over the left-field wall, easy, power's there. And he gets into the game, hits a little dribbler to short, beats it out, I look down at my stopwatch and it's a seven run time."

That's a 70 on the scouting scale, meaning elite speed. Byrd got on the phone and sent word up the A's chain that Oral Roberts just might have a good draft target. Then Byrd went to a scrimmage at Oklahoma, but his first start had him running late - so he had to fudge where he was to the other scouts, wanting to keep his find to himself.

"They're all like, ‘What are you late for?' and I had to say, ‘Just running late! Bad scout!'" Byrd said.

The 2023 draft, then, was a biggie for Byrd, who had talked Cox up nonstop and had to cross his fingers that Eric Kubota and the A's front office would listen to him, and that Cox was still available where the team was willing to take him. Clubs were on to Cox; he had put together a 47-game hitting streak, third longest in NCAA history. Oral Roberts also went to the College World Series.

"The chances were slim," Byrd said. "I was hoping, praying, begging. But I knew I'd done the work. I'd gotten in there early, and I give the A's scouting department so much credit, they trusted me. They went in there and were like, ‘Fletcher's right. This kid can play a little.'

"I was just staring a hole in the draft board that day. ‘His name's still up there! I haven't heard his name! Can we make this happen?'"

The A's took Cox in the sixth round, "the best day of my life," Byrd said. Then the team turned around and traded him to the Giants for Ross Stripling.

"I was shocked," Byrd said, "but Stripling is a big-leaguer with a track record, and part of this job is to create value with the guys we sign, that's the main thing. And I knew he was going to a great organization."

Last Sunday might have supplanted draft day as the best day of Byrd's life. Cox is the first player Byrd has signed to make the big leagues, a huge deal for an amateur scout. To have a guy go up straight from Double-A? That's massive.

Byrd was in Milwaukee to see Cox on Monday and Tuesday. They'd never met in person; Oral Roberts limited scouts' contact to video calls. They finally met before Tuesday's game, big hugs, photos, grins.

"Incredible, just incredible," Byrd said. "It's a little bittersweet it's with the Giants, not the A's, but I'm so happy for Jonah and his family.

The chances now are that Cox, not getting a lot of playing time as the right-handed half of a platoon with lefty-hitting Drew Gilbert, will get sent to Triple-A Sacramento at some point to get more at-bats. Given his speed, his defensive ability and that newfound approach, though, he's definitely on the Giants' radar for a regular spot when needed.

"We'd talk day in and day out about what it means to be a professional," Everidge said. "And Jonah is the embodiment of that. He's dynamic. He's tremendous."

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