{"id":474651,"date":"2026-02-12T08:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/474651\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T08:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T08:03:07","slug":"as-have-two-rotation-spots-up-for-grabs-in-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/474651\/","title":{"rendered":"A’s Have Two Rotation Spots Up For Grabs In Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The A\u2019s added back-end starter\u00a0Aaron Civale<\/a> on a $6MM free agent contract<\/a> this week. He slots behind\u00a0Luis Severino<\/a> and\u00a0Jeffrey Springs<\/a> as experienced arms in an otherwise young rotation. Manager Mark Kotsay suggested on Wednesday that while the three veterans were locked into starting spots, camp battles could decide the final two roles. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely an open competition,\u201d the fourth-year skipper told Mart\u00edn Gallegos of MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cI think we do have some depth this year that we haven\u2019t had in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the A\u2019s returning starters, only Springs and Severino got to 100 MLB innings last season.\u00a0Jacob Lopez<\/a> led the way with 92 2\/3 frames across 21 appearances (17 starts). He was followed in MLB workload by\u00a0J.T. Ginn<\/a>,\u00a0Luis Morales<\/a>,\u00a0Gunnar Hoglund<\/a>,\u00a0Mason Barnett<\/a> and\u00a0Jack Perkins<\/a>. Morales and Lopez had the most success and enter camp as the presumptive favorites.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Morales turned in a 3.14 earned run average over his first 48 2\/3 MLB frames. His 21.6% strikeout percentage and 9% walk rate weren\u2019t as impressive, and his fly-ball profile led to some home run trouble. The underlying numbers would suggest he\u2019s a regression candidate, but he could certainly offset that by missing more bats in his first full season. Morales has a 97 mph average fastball and a potential plus breaking ball.<\/p>\n

Lopez is a soft-tossing lefty who turns 28 during Spring Training. That points to a lower ceiling than Morales possesses, but he arguably showed more in his rookie season. Lopez punched out 28.3% of opponents behind an above-average 11.8% swinging strike rate. He finished the year with a 4.08 ERA that is skewed by a nine-run drubbing that he took in Seattle just before he went on the injured list with a season-ending flexor strain. He carried a 3.28 earned run average into that appearance.<\/p>\n

It was a relatively small sample and it\u2019s easy to see potential downside. Lopez is an extreme fly-ball pitcher who\u2019ll spend the next two seasons in the most hitter-friendly home park outside Colorado. A 90-91 mph average fastball doesn\u2019t give him much margin for error. Home runs are likely to be an issue, but Lopez has always missed more bats than his velocity might suggest thanks to a quality slider and plus command. Gallegos writes that Lopez is slightly behind schedule because of the late-season forearm issue but should have time to log a full Spring Training workload.<\/p>\n

Ginn probably has the best chance to push one of Morales or Lopez for a season-opening rotation spot. He fanned a quarter of opponents against an 8% walk rate while getting ground-balls more than half the time. A lot of the fly balls that he did give up cleared the fences. Sutter Health Park did Ginn no favors, as 12 of his 17 home runs allowed came at home. He had a near-7.00 ERA in Sacramento compared to a 3.14 ERA on the road. The cumulative result was a 5.08 mark across 90 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

Barnett was called up late in the season. He was hit hard over five starts, posting a near-7.00 ERA through 22 1\/3 innings. He has shown intriguing stuff, headlined by a mid-90s fastball and quality slider, but the command has been inconsistent throughout his minor league career. Hoglund is a former first-round pick whose prospect stock had tumbled after Tommy John surgery. He seemed to put himself back on the map with a strong six-start run in Triple-A, but major league opponents teed off over his first six career outings. He underwent season-ending hip surgery in June.<\/p>\n

Perkins started four of 12 appearances after being called up in June. He suffered a season-ending shoulder strain in August. He sat around 96 mph on the fastball and got excellent results on a mid-80s breaking ball. Perkins\u2019 minor league numbers suggest he might be better suited in the bullpen, however. He walked 11.3% of Triple-A opponents and has posted double digit walk rates in three straight seasons.<\/p>\n

Luis Medina<\/a> and\u00a0Joey Estes<\/a> have some MLB experience and hold 40-man roster spots. Medina is out of options and missed all of last season rehabbing Tommy John surgery. He\u2019s probably ticketed for long relief to open the season, while Estes could be on the fringe of the 40-man roster. Medina is the only member of this group aside from the three veterans who cannot be optioned.<\/p>\n

The highest-upside arms in the organization are still in the minor leagues.\u00a0Gage Jump<\/a> and\u00a0Jamie Arnold<\/a> are two of the top pitching prospects in the sport. Jump has an outside chance to break camp after posting a 3.64 ERA while striking out a quarter of opponents over 20 Double-A appearances. He\u2019s not on the 40-man roster, but each of Braden Nett<\/a>,\u00a0Henry Baez<\/a> and\u00a0Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang<\/a> are. They\u2019re solid prospects (Nett and Baez, in particular) who have Double-A experience and could get some consideration to break camp if they really impress during Spring Training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The A\u2019s added back-end starter\u00a0Aaron Civale on a $6MM free agent contract this week. He slots behind\u00a0Luis Severino…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,241958,241959,53034,72456,241960,72457,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-474651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-gunnar-hoglund","11":"tag-j-t-ginn","12":"tag-jack-perkins","13":"tag-jacob-lopez","14":"tag-luis-morales","15":"tag-mason-barnett","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474651","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=474651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}