A's Pitcher Report: Hits, Misses and Concern Index After Opening Series

The A's pitching staff is going to make or break the team's season in 2026. Last year they finished with a 4.71 team ERA, which ranked 27th in baseball, and with the bats the A's have strewn around their lineup, the A's are seen as a potential sneaky team, if they can get enough pitching.

So every week, we're going to take a look at how the A's pitchers have fared. We'll go over new arrivals, departures, standouts, and who's not cutting it in order to get you ready for the next week's slate of games.

This past weekend the A's faced one of the best offenses in baseball from a year ago in the Toronto Blue Jays, and for the most part the A's pitchers did an admirable job of holding them down. They weren't lights out by any means, but the first two contests were decided in the final at-bat, which means that A's pitchers were keeping them in the game.

Standouts from Opening Weekend

Both Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs pitched well in their first starts of the season, combining for 10 1/3 innings, eight hits, four earned runs, six walks and five strikeouts. That's a 3.48 ERA combined, which is something that the A's would certainly take from their top two starters.

Last season they both started off with six shutouts innings against the Mariners in Seattle, so we'll have to see how they're each faring in a few starts. Still, this is a positive sign from the A's top two starters. Severino in particular wasn't helped by the defense behind him, which may have cut his night short.

The next standout was new addition to the bullpen, Scott Barlow. He pitched both on Friday and Saturday, racking up a total of 2 2/3 innings, giving up two hits, one run (unearned), walking one and striking out one.

He's also boasting a 71.4% chase rate, thanks in part to him going curveball heavy. He used that curve 48.3% of the time, which is much higher than last season, and is certainly something to keep an eye on.

The final standout pitcher was J.T. Ginn, who came on in relief of Luis Morales on Sunday. After the A's used six pitchers on Saturday, the righty was able to go 3 1/3 scoreless frames against Toronto, giving up just one hit and one walk, striking out a pair. He consistently got ahead of hitters, getting 9-of-12 first-pitch strikes. All three of those misses came on his cutter.

One performance that we wanted to note was Luis Medina, who made his return from Tommy John on Saturday, working the 11th inning and recording just one out before the extra innings runner came around to score. He walked one and gave up a hit, but he also made Alejandro Kirk look bad on this swing and miss, which has been burned into my memory.

This pitch was never a strike, and it was nasty enough to get Kirk to swing and miss, resulting in a strikeout. Kirk whiffed just 18.5% of the time last season (83rd percentile) and struck out 11.7% of the time (95th), so making him flail at a pitch is not common. This slider was clocked at an impressive 88.1 mph.

Cause for concern?

Luis Morales is the only A's starter that didn't pitch well against the Blue Jays, and it's not necessarily the results that are worrisome, but the lack of innings. Morales went just 4 1/3 innings, gave up five hits, five earned runs, walked two and struck out five.

It was the long ball that did him in, giving up three total, including one on the first pitch he threw to George Springer leading off the bottom of the first. All three home runs came on four-seam fastballs. Four of the five runs allowed came on those homers, while the final run scored after a pair of walks to begin the fifth saw him replaced by Ginn, who walked home the final run with the bases loaded.

Morales was also working in his sinker and seeing positive results from it. He threw it 18% of the time, and three of the five that were swung on resulted in whiffs.

It's still too early to be overly concerned about Morales, but he did outperform his FIP by a wide margin last year (3.14 ERA, 4.68 FIP), and his results in spring training and this one start haven't necessarily been promising. He's still young and has nasty stuff, so there's reason to be optimistic about him this season.

Down on the farm

Part of assessing the A's pitching staff will also be taking stock of what options they may have available in the minor leagues, and how they're performing. For instance, Jack Perkins is an electric arm that could be seen as a potential bullpen or rotation piece. He also walked five batters and gave up three earned runs in his two innings of work out of the bullpen over the weekend.

Another top prospect, Kade Morris, received the started in Friday's opener, and he went 5 2/3 innings, gave up four hits, one earned run, walked two and struck out five. The lone run allowed came on a solo homer from Donovan Walton.

His sinker was his most-used offering at 40%, and it was sitting at 93.9 miles per hour. It wasn't a huge whiff generator (1-of-14 swings resulted in a whiff), but it did land 11 called strikes. His slider/sweeper combo ended up getting seven whiffs on 13 swings, making them a solid pairing against the Bees on Friday.

Morris is the A's No. 12 prospect, and may not be the guy at the front of the line for a call-up just yet, but he's a solid depth option that could see some time in the big leagues this season when the A's need effective innings.

Coming Up

The A's will be taking on the Atlanta Braves from Monday through Wednesday, and then heading to Sacramento for their home opener on Friday against the Houston Astros. They'll battle their AL West foes all weekend.

Here are the probable pitchers and start times for this week:

Monday, March 30 at 4:15 p.m. (PT): Jacob Lopez vs. Bryce Elder

Tuesday, March 31 at 4:15 p.m. (PT): Aaron Civale vs. TBD

Wednesday, April 1 at 9:15 a.m. (PT): Luis Severino vs. Chris Sale

Lopez is a pitcher that could help make or break the A's season. If he's pitching like the guy he was later in the season, then the A's have a solid No. 3 starter in him. If he takes a step back, they may have to search for another option.

Civale's start on Wednesday will also be his A's debut. He struck out 11 Mariners across six innings in his final spring outing.

If the A's rotation holds for the series later in the week, then we're probably looking at Springs for the home opener, followed by Morales and Lopez on Saturday and Sunday. Houston may be looking at Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai and Lance McCullers Jr. for their three starters.

For more A's news and insights, follow Jason @ByJasonB on X, or the site @InsideTheAs!