Like most teams, the A\u2019s had a winter shopping list. It included improving themselves at 2B, adding to their bullpen, and working out extensions for their young core players.<\/p>\n
The good news is the A\u2019s have addressed all 3 areas with the additions of Jeff McNeil, Mark Leiter Jr., and the recent 7 year extension for Tyler Soderstrom.<\/p>\n
Thing is, those were items 2, 3, and 4 on the list. #1 was to bolster the starting rotation, a glaring weakness in 2025 and one of the clearest needs for the A\u2019s to compete in 2026.<\/p>\n
So while there have been SP trades and free agent signings around MLB, the A\u2019s have been on the sidelines when deals were inked. The landscape for top or mid-rotation talent is now narrower \u2014 but not barren.<\/p>\n
Free Agent Targets Still On The Board<\/p>\n
Two top free agent SPs are still unsigned, but personally I don\u2019t see the A\u2019s as being even potentially in on either. They would be Framber Valdez and Ranger Suarez. Sometimes there\u2019s a perception that if a player doesn\u2019t sign for a long time, his market must be falling, but in fact plenty of lucrative contracts are signed after the first of the year. Valdez and Suarez will have plenty of suitors willing to pay more than the A\u2019s can and they play in ballparks far more appealing to a pitcher.<\/p>\n
But the next tier is possible, even if not likely, for the A\u2019s to make a winning pitch, and it\u2019s anybody\u2019s guess how their market is evolving. More pitchers are off the board but also so are more teams, and these pitchers do come with warts that make them more risky and thus more potentially accessible to a team like the A\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the highest upside \u201cTier II\u201d SP still on the market is Zac Gallen, coming off a down season but with a strong career track record and a much better 2nd half in 2025. Also intriguing is Chris Bassitt, 37 when the season begins but very consistent year to year (between 2.3 and 2.8 fWAR each of the last 4 seasons).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s harder to say if Lucas Giolito is Tier II or Tier III: he\u2019s coming off a nice 2.0 WAR season, and his velocity was there in 2025, but his peripherals portend significant regression: He had an impressive 3.41 ERA in 2025 yet projection models predict more like a 4.69 ERA in 2026.<\/p>\n
This is a hard one because teams don\u2019t tend to say they want to trade someone until they have dealt them. \u201cYeah, we\u2019re really hoping to cash in on him\u201d is not a common GM refrain. Further complicating matters this off-season is how many teams are looking to add, not subtract, starting pitching.<\/p>\n
One obvious target, because he has only one year left on his contract, is Kris Bubic. The Royals are openly looking for outfield help, some of which they have procured but it\u2019s still looking like a weakness. Perhaps a deal centered around Colby Thomas could gain traction.<\/p>\n
Another possibility is the talented and effective, but also injury prone, Pablo Lopez. Lopez has 2 years left on his contract, has clear #2 SP ability, and pitches for a Twins team that spent the trade deadline selling off like crazy. Might a swap of young controllable talent such as Braden Nett or Mason Barnett and Tommy White be a mutually worthwhile swap? (BTV suggests Barnett\/White for Lopez is an even swap and that Nett\/White is a slight overpay.) Lopez does make $21.5M\/year in 2026 and 2027 so a deal might need to add talent on the A\u2019s side and some cash going the A\u2019s way.<\/p>\n
Are any of these 5 appealing and\/or realistic targets and if so what offers make sense? Or who else might be on the A\u2019s radar as they mull over what options still exist? The only thing we know for sure is that the A\u2019s are probably still going to add someone as bolstering the rotation was a top priority that remains unaddressed.<\/p>\n
6 weeks until spring training\u2026something has to give, but what?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like most teams, the A\u2019s had a winter shopping list. It included improving themselves at 2B, adding to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[209543,209544,64,63,1325,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-391446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-as-commentary-and-analysis","9":"tag-as-hot-stove-2025-26","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-general","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}