Jack Perkins’ path to the Athletics’ 2027 rotation is not a straight line, but it is there if the right pieces keep moving in the right direction.
The surface numbers from this season are rough. Perkins went 3-13 with a 6.10 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP, and he began the year as a reliever.
That kind of production is exactly why putting him in the rotation next season would be a tough sell. Even with that, there are signs underneath the results that point to a pitcher who could be better than the line suggests.
The biggest obstacle is role, not just performance. Perkins was sent to Triple-A Las Vegas on Sept. 4 after a string of ugly stretches, then brought back up the next day when J.T.
Ginn landed on the IL on Sept. 5.
Without Ginn’s injury, Perkins likely would have stayed in Las Vegas for the rest of the year. The Athletics simply ran out of options, and that context matters when looking at what he should be asked to do next.
That said, his finish to the season was encouraging. Against the Rays, the American League favorite, Perkins threw 6.2 scoreless innings and struck out eight. He followed that with another strong outing against the Guardians, who won the AL Central, allowing one run over 6.0 innings while striking out four.
His final start against the Astros wasn’t nearly as clean, with six runs allowed in 5.0 innings, but even there he flashed something useful. He struck out a season-high nine batters and might have gotten out of the inning with less damage if Jonah Heim had challenged what would have been the third strike against likely AL MVP Yordan Alvarez. Instead, the next pitch turned into a three-run home run.
The stuff gives him a real foundation to work with. Perkins’ slider held batters to a .133 average this season, and his changeup limited them to a .204 average with a .182 expected batting average. Those are the pitches that can carry a pitcher forward if they keep developing.
The fastball and cutter were a different story. Batters hit .291 against his four-seamer and .393 against his cutter, so there is still a lot of work to do there. But the broader shape of his arsenal suggests a pitcher who can make a jump if he sharpens the weaker pieces.
Even so, a rotation spot next year still feels unrealistic unless injury changes the picture. The Athletics’ starting staff remains one of the biggest areas in need of help this offseason, and Perkins is not the easy answer there.
He still has a case to make himself valuable elsewhere. He went from averaging about 1.2 innings per outing early in the season to working into the seventh inning by the end, and that kind of stamina can matter in the bullpen. If the progress holds, Perkins could become a dangerous relief weapon next year, even if the rotation has to wait.
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