A's Listed as Potential Landing Spot for Surging Miami Marlins Pitcher
It's no surprise that the Athletics need some pitching, but hearing them as a potential landing spot for a pretty solid arm at the trade deadline may surprise some people. In a recent article over at MLB.com, Mark Feinsand provided 14 prime trade candidates, and where he felt they may best fit.
One of the pitchers he listed, Zack Littell of the Tampa Bay Rays, was mentioned as a fit for the A's, but that's a tough one to make sense of, given that the only team behind the A's (32-46) in the American League standings is the Chicago White Sox at 24-52. That's a lot of teams they would have to climb over to reach postseason contention, and Littell is only under contract through the end of this season.
There's also no guarantee that the Rays will be sellers at the deadline, given that they hold a 61.4% chance of making the postseason. The A's are at 0.6%.
But the A's were also listed as a potential suitor for another starter, this time from the Miami Marlins, and he makes a bit more sense.
The starter in question is Edward Cabrera, who will be arbitration eligible through the 2028 campaign. Typically the A's are trading players away at this point of their team control, but with the A's spending a little bit of money these days, all bets are off. Cabrera is making $1.95 million in 2025.
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So he works out well with the team control, making him a good fit for the team as they continue to try and build out the roster. While he still has plenty of team control left, he's also appeared in the big leagues every year since 2021, totaling 353 innings of work with a 4.23 ERA. In 12 starts this year he holds a 3.81 ERA (3.89 FIP) across 59 innings. So far, so good.
He also has a strikeout rate of 24.8% and a walk rate of 10.2%, which is certainly manageable. The only starters on the A's roster with a higher strikeout rate are Jacob Lopez (29.7%), who has made six starts, and J.T. Ginn (27.8%), who has racked up 22 1/3 innings in his big-league career. Adding another strikeout pitcher to the mix wouldn't be a bad idea with the club struggling defensively.
Since May 25, Cabrera has made a total of five starts (@LAA, SF, @TB, @WSH, PHI), and in those outings he is 2-1 with a 1.46 ERA (2.74 FIP). That ERA ranks right between Washington's MacKenzie Gore (1.44) and Houston's Hunter Brown (1.48) during that period, so he's in some pretty good company with how he's throwing the ball.
One concern would be that he has only completed six innings once this season, in his most recent outing against the Phillies. At the same time, he's usually pulled well before he reaches 100 pitches (82 against Philadelphia), so there may be some room to push him a little deeper into games.
The reason for that is likely because he holds a 2.73 ERA the first time through the order, a 2.81 ERA the second time, and it balloons up to an 11.57 ERA the third time through. It's less about how effective he is with his pitch count, and more about how many batters he's seen. Every year of his career his third time through the order ERA has skyrocketed.
In both 2023 and 2024, part of the problem there was that when he'd get pulled with runners on, they came around to score 54.3% of the time, which is extremely high. This year it's at a more typical rate of 18.2%.
The 27-year-old is a hard thrower, ranking in the 85th percentile for fastball velocity with a heater that sits 96.6 miles per hour. He's also well above league average in chase rate (70th percentile), whiff rate (61st), and strikeout rate (67th). His ground ball rate, which could be helpful at Sutter Health Park, is roughly league average, but when combined with his strikeout rate, could be a plus for him with the A's.
Cabrera's three main pitches, at least in terms of usage, are his changeup (24.5%), sinker (23.2%), and curveball (22.7%), with the breaker being the one that's most devastating of the three. Opposing hitters are batting just .163 against the curve this season with a .134 expected batting average (xBA) and he has a 41.1% whiff rate on the offering.
His 88 mile per hour slider is his other big offering, which he throws 15% of the time. Batters are hitting .205 against it with a .214 xBA, and have whiffed on it 44% of the time on the bender.
Cabrera would be a great fit in the A's rotation, given that he has years of control left, is starting to figure things out but isn't quite all the way there just yet, and he'd offer the team a different look in the rotation.
He's had some injury issues with both his right shoulder and elbow in the past, and has missed a little time due to blisters as well, but he'd be an upgrade for the A's for sure. He's also not likely to cost a huge prospect package, given his injury history, but the amount of control he has left would bring back some meaningful pieces for Miami if a deal were to be made.
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Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.