Kenya Huggins credits A’s Hall of Famer Dave Stewart for helping him settle into pro life

Oakland’s right-handed pitching prospect Kenya Huggins is still working through a familiar pro challenge: the on-field adjustments are only half the job when a career is altered by a trade. In Mesa, Ariz., Huggins has been focused on growing as a pitcher, but he has also had to absorb a new organizational culture, new voices, and a new pace for feedback after the move.

According to an MLB feature on Huggins, the uncertainty that can follow an early-career trade extends beyond where you throw. A prospect has to learn who is coaching what, how decisions are communicated, and how expectations are set from the front office down through the development system. Huggins described those changes as disruptive at first, the kind of life shift that can complicate any young player’s routine.

The article adds that Huggins has leaned on a connection to one of the A’s most respected baseball minds. Dave Stewart, an Athletics Hall of Famer, has been a mentor figure for Huggins, offering guidance that goes beyond mechanics. For a pitcher, Stewart’s experience as a creator of innings and a long-term thinker about pitching development provides something that tools alone do not replace: context.

The Stewart-Huggins relationship matters because it frames development as a process rather than a short-term fix. For prospects, trades often come with a sense of having to prove you belong in a hurry, but mentorship can help slow the tempo and make adjustment plans more deliberate. The MLB report positions Stewart’s role as part of how Huggins is settling in, allowing him to keep his focus on improvement while reducing the noise that comes with changing systems.

Huggins’ growth in Mesa also reflects how the Athletics approach player development in the minor-league environment, where repetition and refinement are constant. Even when a pitcher’s delivery and pitch mix are relatively stable, development continues through learning how to read hitters, manage counts, and execute under different game scripts. The feature highlights that Huggins has used Stewart’s counsel to better understand what matters during that learning cycle.

For fans, the key takeaway is that Huggins’ story is not only about potential. It is about how an organization turns a prospect’s transition period into usable momentum, pairing young talent with experienced leadership to help stabilize performance habits. As Huggins continues his progression, the next question is how quickly he converts this mentorship into consistent execution against higher-level competition, and how his decision-making evolves as the professional ladder rises.

In the background is the bigger pro reality that every trade reshapes timelines. Huggins now has an extra layer of support as he tries to align his work ethic and mental approach with the Athletics’ development framework. If he keeps building that alignment, Stewart’s influence could become more than a feel-good chapter, becoming a tangible edge as Huggins pursues the opportunity to translate his work in Arizona into major-league readiness.