The Athletics may still need plenty of help before they can think about climbing out of the AL cellar, but their bullpen has given them something real to build on.
That matters for a club that dealt Mason Miller to San Diego last summer and has had to piece together relief innings ever since. Even with that kind of hit, the A’s have found a few arms who are not just surviving late in games, but giving them legitimate production.
Elvis Alvarado has become the clearest example. His overall 4.14 ERA does not jump off the page, but the story changes when you look at the second half of the season.
He went into the All-Star break with a 4.94 ERA, then settled in and has been much sharper since. Over the stretch since the break, he owns a 3.18 ERA, and over his last 30 games that number sits at 2.60.
The swing-and-miss stuff is doing a lot of the work there. Alvarado is in the 87th percentile in whiff percentage and the 85th percentile in strikeout percentage, which is why there has been talk that he could handle the back end for this team.
He’s not alone, either. Hogan Harris and Brady Basso have both given the A’s useful left-handed relief work. Basso has posted a 3.38 ERA over his last 15 games and a 3.86 ERA on the season, while Harris has put up a 2.45 ERA in his last 15 appearances and a 3.38 ERA overall.
Scott Blewett has also carved out a role after arriving for cash considerations. He’s been trusted in high-leverage spots and has turned in a 2.89 ERA across 28 innings with the club.
With the A’s expected to hire a new GM before the season ends, pitching will be a major priority, and the roster still includes expendable position players that could help address it. But for now, the bullpen gives them something they can point to: a few relievers who have shown they can carry real weight, and one possible closer in Alvarado who looks built for the job.
In Other News...
A's Offseason Plan Hinges On One Problem They Still Haven't Solved
The Athletics are deep into evaluation mode with 11 games left, and even in a loss to the Rays there was at least one encouraging sign in Jack Perkins turning in a quality start. Beyond that, the stretch run is less about the standings than about sorting through what the club actually has, especially in spots like center field and the corners, where Denzel Clarke and Carlos Cortes have been part of the conversation as the front office and Mark Kotsay try to map out a better version of this roster.
What makes the offseason feel especially important is that the A's still need a clearer sense of how their new baseball decision-makers and Kotsay will line up on the kinds of players they want to build around. Small-market clubs like Tampa Bay and Milwaukee have shown how much defense and pitching can matter when payrolls are tight, and Oakland knows it has to get sharper in those areas. The problem is that the club is still sorting out whether the current mix can provide enough offensive support to make those defensive tradeoffs worthwhile. [Read more 🡒]
As Young Core Showed Real Fight In Another Tight Loss
A young A's lineup kept pushing again, even after the Rays jumped out early with a pair of doubles and carried a slim lead into the later innings. Oakland never did fold, and the response came from the middle of the order, where Tommy White and Henry Bolte both went deep to turn a lopsided-looking game into something tense and watchable down the stretch.
The Rays still escaped with a 4-3 win, but the final innings had the kind of edge Oakland has been searching for as its younger pieces keep learning on the job. Tampa Bay's bullpen finished the job, and the A's had one last chance to flip the result before the night ended. [Read more 🡒]
Athletics Face One Early Problem That Could Cost Them This Series
The Athletics head into Game 2 trying to steady a series that already slipped away on a walk-off home run in the opener, and the focus is on giving their offense a cleaner path while keeping the pitching plan from getting exposed early. After a rough start to the set, there is at least some help back in the lineup, and the club will need that extra presence to matter quickly if it wants to avoid chasing the series from behind.
Brady Basso is a central part of that equation, because the A's need him to work deep enough to keep the bullpen from getting stretched too soon. If he can hold the line through the middle innings, Oakland can preserve its relief options and give the offense a better chance to make the opener feel like an outlier instead of the tone-setter for the rest of the series. [Read more 🡒]