{"id":512577,"date":"2026-03-03T23:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/512577\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:32:10","slug":"mlb-analyst-puts-pressure-on-these-two-as-pitchers-to-take-the-next-step-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/512577\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB analyst puts pressure on these two A’s pitchers to take the next step in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

MLB analyst puts pressure on these two A’s pitchers to take the next step in 2026<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Athletics<\/a> come into the 2026 season with some newfound hope. Fans were treated to a great offensive product in 2025, but the pitching staff is what held the team back.<\/p>\n

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After being a top-ten team in terms of home runs, they were at the bottom of the list when it came to team ERA. Starters had a problem staying consistent, like Luis Severino.<\/p>\n

He was two completely different pitchers when playing at home and somewhere else. But it wasn’t just the starters. The bullpen fell apart after the Mason Miller trade as well.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Why A’s superstar Nick Kurtz has the nickname ‘Big Amish’<\/a><\/p>\n

MLB analyst puts pressure on these two A’s pitchers to take the next step in 2026<\/p>\n

This season, offense should not be hard to come by yet again. The young studs combined with a few veterans should have no trouble pushing runs across the board.<\/p>\n

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Where this team can fail is with the pitching staff. It was something they did not really address over the offseason, and Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter<\/a> puts a ton of pressure on Jacob Lopez and Luis Morales to step up this season.<\/p>\n

“With no needle-moving addition to the starting rotation this offseason, it will fall on Luis Morales and Jacob Lopez to take a step forward if the Athletics are going to field a serviceable rotation. Veteran Aaron Civale should soak up some innings at a league-average rate after signing a one-year, $6 million deal, but he’s more floor than ceiling.”<\/p>\n

While the club did sign Aaron Civale, he will only work as a middle-of-the-road starter. So, it comes down to Lopez and Morales to pack a punch toward the end of the rotation that could look like this:<\/p>\n

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1. Luis Severino
2. Jeffrey Springs
3. Aaron Civale
4. Jacob Lopez
5. Luis Morales<\/p>\n

This may not be a jaw-dropping rotation, but if the two can step up, and Severino can get a bit more consistent at home, this group of arms could surprise plenty.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLB analyst puts pressure on these two A’s pitchers to take the next step in 2026 originally appeared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[132380,39955,49,48,41781,12320,78927,12321,10726,462,4012,82,56273],"class_list":{"0":"post-512577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-2026-season","9":"tag-aaron-civale","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-jacob-lopez","13":"tag-jeffrey-springs","14":"tag-luis-morales","15":"tag-luis-severino","16":"tag-mason-miller","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-nick-kurtz","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-the-athletics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}