The A’s have had no shortage of injury headaches this season, and the pileup has been brutal enough to explain plenty on its own. Zack Gelof, Tyler Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson, Nick Kurtz, Joshua Kuroda-Grauer and Shea Langeliers have all missed time in overlapping stretches, with several out at once.
That came after Brent Rooker was already lost for the season and Denzel Clarke was sidelined for most of his. There’s no question those absences have hurt the lineup and the defense.
But the bigger problem has lived on the mound.
The A’s own the third-worst ERA in baseball at 5.34, ahead of only the Colorado Rockies’ 5.50 and worse than the Washington Nationals, who sit at No. 28.
Some of that is tied to Sutter Health Park, but even away from home the numbers are only middling: 16th in ERA, 18th in home runs allowed and 14th in walks allowed. At home, though, it has been a mess - dead last in ERA at 6.36, dead last in home runs allowed with 108, and dead last in walks allowed with 250.
That’s where the injury explanation starts to fall apart. On the pitching side, the A’s have really only taken one major hit, losing Luis Severino after 12 starts.
He was their top starter in name and, despite his inconsistency, he could work deep into games and posted a 4.16 ERA. Still, the broader point is that losing one starter does not fully account for how far this staff has slid.
Other teams have had to deal with the same kind of blow. The Red Sox have been without Garrett Crochet for much of the season, including July when they went 21-4.
The Astros just moved into first place, a game over .500, while missing Hunter Brown for all but 10 starts. Gerrit Cole has made only 12 starts for the Yankees, and Carlos Rodon just 9.
The A’s issue has been less about who was unavailable and more about who hasn’t taken the next step. Jacob Lopez and Luis Morales were supposed to be important pieces, but both have regressed badly.
Jack Perkins, another arm with plus stuff, has not consistently paired that stuff with the control and command needed to get results. Jeffrey Springs has allowed the most home runs in MLB and is carrying a career-high 47.1% fly ball rate.
There was reason to think this group could hold up better than it has. Even with Severino out, the A’s had enough pitching talent to at least stay afloat in a weak AL West. JT Ginn and Gage Jump have been progressing, and a rotation built around Ginn, Jump, Morales, Perkins and Lopez had the potential to become a strength rather than a weakness.
Instead, Lopez kept missing his target by roughly 2 feet and piling up what were described as “accidental pitchouts” until he was optioned to Triple-A. Morales has flashed “electric stuff,” but he has been all over the place, sometimes missing the zone entirely and other times leaving pitches in the middle of the plate while handing out too many free passes. Perkins, meanwhile, has struggled to repeat his delivery and throw strikes with enough consistency to stick.
He may have made a meaningful step forward in his last start, only to be pulled after 69 pitches and watch the bullpen blow the game and charge him with the loss. That kind of night has summed up the season.
So while the injuries have absolutely mattered, they are not the whole story. The A’s have taken hits on offense and defense, but the real reason 2026 has gone sideways is that too many healthy, talented pitchers have stalled instead of developing. That’s how a team goes 23-32 across May and June, then follows it with a 5-19 July.
Even as the position players return, the A’s are going to stay stuck unless their young arms start moving forward. Perkins and Lopez have shown a few encouraging signs lately, and tonight will give the A’s another look when Perkins takes the mound.
In Other News...
As Face A Tough Call With Kurtz And Wilson
The Athletics have already spent much of the summer navigating one injury after another, with Brent Rooker done for the season after surgery and Shea Langeliers likely to miss the rest of it after choosing a non-surgical route. It has turned into a difficult stretch for a club trying to keep its lineup together, and the latest developments only add to the uncertainty around two of the teams most important young bats.
Nick Kurtz is scheduled to see a hand specialist about his lingering right thumb injury, a sign the issue is still serious enough to warrant another look. Jacob Wilson is also working through patellar tendonitis, and the possibility of shoulder surgery is now part of the conversation, leaving the A's with even more to sort out as they try to piece together what remains of their infield. [Read more 🡒]
A's Just Made A Deadline Move Fans Will Want To Watch
The deadline shuffle brought a familiar kind of intrigue for the Athletics, with Philadelphia and Oakland working out a deal that sends reliever Seth Johnson to the As in exchange for 25-year-old outfielder Colby Thomas. For Oakland, it adds another arm to the mix at a time when every move is being evaluated through both the present and the next wave of roster construction.
Thomas arrives as a right-handed hitter whose major league track record has been limited, but his minor league performance has given him a longer leash in evaluators eyes. He also comes with enough team control to matter beyond the immediate aftermath of the deadline, which makes him the kind of player As fans will want to track closely as the organization keeps turning over pieces and looking for long-term value. [Read more 🡒]
A's Face One Real Deadline Decision As Jonah Heim Draws Attention
The Athletics have already spent the summer making smaller moves, dealing Aaron Civale to the Chicago Cubs and Brett Harris to the Boston Red Sox, and the next decision could carry more weight than the others. With Shea Langeliers out for the season, Oakland has leaned on Jonah Heim behind the plate, giving the veteran catcher an important role on a club that is drifting further from contention.
That setup has naturally pushed Heim into the center of deadline conversation, especially with the catching market looking thin and contenders such as the Yankees still searching for help. For the As, the question is less about whether there is interest and more about how far they want to go in selling off a player who has become part of their short-term patchwork while the rest of the roster keeps changing around him. [Read more 🡒]