Pitching should sit at the top of the Athletics’ offseason to-do list, and the front office doesn’t have a lot of easy answers. The lineup is mostly in place, but the staff was too uneven to carry the team, and that problem gets sharper with another year in West Sacramento on the horizon. Landing a top starter in free agency could be a tough sell, so the A’s may have to work the trade market to get the rotation help they need.
That leaves the bullpen as another area where the club needs veteran arms, especially once the A’s bring in a new GM. There were a few unexpected bright spots in 2025, including Scott Blewett and Luis Medina, but banking on that kind of limited MLB track record to support a playoff-hopeful 2027 team would be a risky bet.
The bullpen did produce one of the season’s biggest positives in Mason Miller before he was dealt to San Diego, and another name worth watching is Sean Newcomb. The Hartford left-hander has already had two separate runs with the A’s.
He was with the club from 2023 to 2024, spent the start of the 2025 season with the Red Sox, then returned later that year and quickly became Mark Kotsay’s most trusted arm out of the bullpen. Newcomb was outstanding in his A’s stint, putting up a 1.75 ERA, and he’s already shown he can thrive in West Sacramento.
Newcomb then spent 2026 with the Chicago White Sox, where he logged 90.1 innings and finished with a 3.09 ERA. He’s now in the middle of a playoff push with Chicago before reaching free agency after the postseason. Given his track record with the A’s and his ability to handle important relief innings, he fits as a natural free-agent target for the club.
Another possible reunion would be AJ Puk, once one of the organization’s prized prospects after being taken sixth overall in 2016. The lefty reached the majors in 2019 and posted a 3.18 ERA over 11.1 innings with the Green and Gold, then ran into injury issues in 2020 and struggled in 13 innings in 2021. He put together a healthier and more convincing season in 2022, when he threw 66.1 innings and recorded a 3.12 ERA before being traded to Miami in the deal that sent JJ Bleday to Oakland.
Puk spent parts of two seasons with the Marlins before a late-2024 move to Arizona, where he was excellent over 27.1 innings and posted a 1.32 ERA. Since then, though, the workload has all but vanished. He threw only eight innings in 2025 and missed the entire 2026 season because of injury.
That kind of recent history makes him a gamble, but it’s the sort of low-cost gamble the A’s could consider. If he can be signed to a minor league deal, the downside is limited, and the upside is obvious. Puk is only 31, so there’s still time for him to find his way back to the kind of high-end relief arm he was expected to become.
In Other News...
A's Las Vegas Push Just Sent Another Strong Message
Interest around the Athletics future Las Vegas ballpark keeps building well before a first pitch is ever thrown there. The Athletic Club, the premium hospitality space designed to give fans an intimate dining-and-baseball experience, has already drawn enough attention to sell out, giving the franchise another sign that its move is resonating in the market. Built with a speakeasy-inspired aesthetic and developed with Will Guidara and Aramark Sports + Entertainment, the club was supposed to help define the feel of the new park.
The early response also offers a useful snapshot of where that enthusiasm is coming from. A large share of the buyers are from Southern Nevada, which suggests the club is not just appealing as a novelty tied to the relocation story but as a local offering with real pull. For a ballpark that is still years from opening, the demand says plenty about the As efforts to establish a foothold in Las Vegas, even as plenty of the bigger questions around the project remain ahead. [Read more 🡒]
A's Prospect Davis Diaz Is Forcing A Bigger Catcher Conversation
Davis Diaz was never supposed to arrive in the catcher conversation this quickly. Drafted by the Athletics in the eighth round in 2024 as an infielder out of Vanderbilt, he was converted behind the plate despite limited experience there, and the early returns have given Oakland something to think about. Diaz kept moving through the system, spent time in the Arizona Fall League, and kept sharpening both the defensive and offensive sides of his game as the organization worked to see how far the experiment could go.
By 2026, he had pushed all the way to Triple-A, a sign that the As believed the transition was still on track even after the usual bumps that come with learning one of the games hardest positions. Diaz has dealt with setbacks along the way, including a concussion and a rough Triple-A stretch, but he has framed those moments as part of the process rather than detours. For Oakland, the bigger question now is how much more runway he needs before his upside at catcher starts turning into a real roster discussion. [Read more 🡒]
As Offseason Still Feels Stuck As One Bigger Question Looms
The Arizona Fall League is underway, and it has given the Athletics at least a few encouraging notes to monitor while the rest of the offseason stays in a holding pattern. Catcher Davis Diaz, pitcher Grant Richardson, outfielder Breyson Guedez and pitcher Tucker Novotny are among the systems young names getting early attention, and their performances matter less for what they mean right now than for what they might signal down the line. None of them is expected to be part of the major league picture next season, but the organization has been in need of future options, and this is the sort of stage where those players can start making a case.
Even with that action in the desert, the bigger question hanging over the winter remains unresolved closer to home. The Athletics still have no public update on their general manager search, leaving the front office picture murky at a time when the club could use some clarity on who will help shape the next phase of the roster. There is belief the process is moving through interviews, but from the outside it has felt quiet, and until that job is settled, the rest of the offseason will continue to feel like it is waiting on a decision that has not yet arrived. [Read more 🡒]