Al West Preview – Athletics Pitchers, Too Much Heat In The Kitchen

A day ago, there was cause for concern and/or curiosity depending on your perspective of the Sacramento Athletics. Today, the same is true, but inverted in its perspective as we shift from the fearsome and frightening young position player core of the new A’s onto their highly suspect pitching staff.

In their first season in Sacramento, the pitcher-friendly-for-AAA confines proved hitter friendly for the grown-ups. Favorable-enough dimensions, along with a scorching, dry climate, made Sutter Health Park a nightmare for pitchers. Home runs flew freely, hits landed and skimmed swiftly, and while reliable dimensions kept triples in check and we’ll want a multi-year sample for precision, the stage was largely a launching pad.

That made sledding difficult for RHP Luis Severino and an A’s pitching staff built on the cheap that performed accordingly. A 4.71/4.66/4.58 ERA/FIP/xFIP led Sacramento to just 8.6 fWAR in 2026 as a pitching staff and 8.2 bWAR, good for 27th and 25th in MLB respectively. No club induced fewer groundballs than the Athletics, a move that eventually had some clarity thanks to Denzel Clarke’s amazing range, but largely seemed to serve them ill in a small, hitting-happy home. 

Few of these numbers moved in the ideal direction when bullpen ace RHP Mason Miller was traded at the deadline, and while the bullpen remains a relative strength, this club is still surprisingly upside-allergic in the rotation.

Notable Transactions

Out: LHP Sean Newcomb, RHP José Leclerc, LHP T.J. McFarland, RHP, Scott McGough
In: RHP Aaron Civale, RHP Mark Leiter Jr., RHP Scott Barlow, RHP Nick Anderson, RHP Brooks Kriske, RHP Wander Suero
Italics = Minor League Deals with Spring Training Invite

The Rotation

If those moves don’t rattle your bones, do not adjust your dial. Sacramento added just one starter to a rotation that was worst in the American League by fWAR at 5.9, ahead of only the near-historic Rockies. Their rotation was neither good nor diligent, mustering just 808.1 innings (25th in MLB) against the Mariners 882.1 IP (4th), more than eight entire games-worth shunted onto their bullpen. That was satisfactory in Sac-Town, as the club shipped off LHP JP Sears at the deadline along with Miller, working in a motley conveyer belt of ill-fated arms.

To his credit, RHP Luis Severino signed to be the ace of this collective and delivered a second-straight decent campaign. For the park he pitched in, an ERA and FIP beginning with 4 is only so damning. Behind him, however, Jeffrey Springs pitched like an hourly employee whose boss is conspiring to avoid having to give them health insurance, mustering just 158.1 innings in 30 starts and failing to reach the awards-qualifying threshold. Only 28 year old LHP Jacob Lopez, whose potential back half breakout was curtailed by a left elbow strain that’s still slowing his ramp up this spring, showed a serious stride in the right direction.

While adding Civale is a variation of stability, it’s surprising for an A’s club that would be well-served to figure out what they’ve got in reserve. Both Luis M’s have upper-90s heaters and at best a general sense of what direction it’s headed, making them uncomfortable at-bats but also uneven starters. Walk-heavy appearances seem on the docket for this group once again, which is incentivized to identify which of their younger hurlers can coalesce into a rotation mainstay. This is hardly an impossibility, but Sacramento has a decided lack of upside at the top of their rotation and very little floor on the back end, particularly in 2026.

The Bullpen

No major additions shouldn’t shock anyone with familiarity to the A’s organization, although bringing in Leiter and Barlow at least indicated an understanding that a path to contention runs through a standout pen for these A’s. Without Miller and Newcomb, however, an A’s bullpen that was dynamite down the stretch in 2026 will need to pull fresh rabbits from their Kelly green caps.

While much of the historical ‘pen is optionable, it’s likely the Athletics mix in some long relief work in earnest given what they’re working with in the rotation. Their 40-man roster contains a medley of early and mid-20s swingmen like Gunnar Hoglund, J.T. Ginn, Joey Estes, and Jack Perkins. Featured on the Chinese Taipei roster in the WBC this week, Sacramento may also see work from 25 year old righty Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang, a durable righty who matches much of this cohort in their peculiar fit as a contact-focused, fly ball pitcher. They’ll need to see a repeat of the brilliant stretches Justin Sterner put together in 2025 for their pluckiness to push into playoff performance, but it’s less fantasy and merely an off-balance coin flip.

These Athletics aren’t too far off their spot a season ago on the hill, and it’s likely to be their Achilles heel. Still, the early half of the season is liable to feature plenty of fervent efforts to identify 1-2 rotation locks and another couple bullpen breakouts, in the way a franchise like the A’s is choosing to gamble on with a still-longshot playoff pathway. Plucky can mean you’ve got unexpected feistiness. It can also mean you’re just plucked.