A's Opening Day Roster: Eight Players to Make First Opening Day Roster
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With Opening Day for the A's just days away, we wanted to give the team's roster one more crack now that spring games are behind us. A number of positions are all but announced at this point, so this will also serve as more or less the A's Opening Day roster heading into Toronto. The official announcement should come on Thursday, with the A's playing on Friday.
The biggest battle this spring was at third base, where we gave Max Muncy and Darell Hernaiz roughly equal odds of claiming the hot corner in camp. Turns out, both players completely showed out this spring, with Muncy having a great time in Arizona, while Hernaiz made a name for himself in the WBC while playing in Puerto Rico.
Muncy ended up going 19-for-50 (.380) with a .466 OBP this spring, belting an impressive five home runs and six doubles. His strikeout rate was also just 22.4%, which is something we said would help him stand out in camp after striking out at a 30.9% clip during his debut season in 2025.
Hernaiz only made it into 10 games with the A's while spending a chunk of time playing in the World Baseball Classic, and he went 9-for-22 (.409) with a .458 OBP in that time. With Puerto Rico he hit arguably the biggest home run of the tournament, a walk-off winner in front of his home fans.
He also took a step forward at the plate, and was driving the ball more in camp, slugging four doubles in ten games. If he's able to drive the ball more, and Muncy can limit the strikeouts, it's going to be tricky figuring out which one to give playing time to, since they both made the A's Opening Day roster.
A's position players
There shouldn't be many surprises here, since the position player group is what this team is currently being built upon. Four of the starting nine players have already signed extensions with the club, and the A's are aiming to get two more done (Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz) if they can manage.
Catchers — Shea Langeliers (1), Austin Wynns (2)
First base — Nick Kurtz (3) *First Opening Day roster
Second Base — Jeff McNeil (4)
Shortstop — Jacob Wilson (5)
Third Base — Max Muncy (6)
Designated Hitter — Brent Rooker (7)
Left Field — Tyler Soderstrom (8)
Center Field — Denzel Clarke (9) *First Opening Day roster
Right Field — Lawrence Butler (10)
Bench — INF Darell Hernaiz (11), INF Andy Ibáñez (12), OF Carlos Cortes (13) *First OD roster
A's starting rotation
We've already been over the pitching matchups for the first series of the season, with Luis Severino starting things off for the second straight season, and then being followed by Jeffrey Springs and Luis Morales. How this group does against an offense like Toronto's could be a telling sign for how the season will go.
SP 1 — Luis Severino (14)
SP 2 — Jeffrey Springs (15)
SP 3 — Luis Morales (16) *First Opening Day roster
SP 4 — Aaron Civale (17)
SP 5 — Jacob Lopez (18) *First Opening Day roster
The last two spots could be flipped if that's the direction the A's choose to go heading into Atlanta, but we laid out that separating the two less experienced pitchers (Lopez and Morales) would be beneficial to the club, while leaning on the veterans surrounding them to be consistent every fifth day.
This adds some built-in insurance just in case the young duo struggles, and keeps the bullpen from getting burnt out too quickly.
A's bullpen
The A's will be going with a close by committee approach this season, much like how they ended last year to great success. The biggest difference between this group and last year's is that the green and gold will only be rolling with one left-hander, which seemed to be a key for them last year.
New addition Mark Leiter Jr. could end up being the team's other go-to option to face lefties outside of LHP Hogan Harris, due to Leiter's reverse splits. If this doesn't end up working out, look for the A's to add a lefty at some point in 2026.
Long Relief — J.T. Ginn (19) *First Opening Day roster
Middle Relief — Justin Sterner (20)
Middle Relief — Luis Medina (21) *First Opening Day roster
Middle Relief — Michael Kelly (22)
Leverage RP — Scott Barlow (23)
Leverage RP — Mark Leiter Jr. (24)
Leverage RP — Elvis Alvarado (25) *First Opening Day roster
Leverage RP — Hogan Harris (26)
This mix certainly has some upside, but there also isn't one guy that you know for certain is going to excel and shut the door when the team needs some big outs. The A's are playing with fire with this group, but they certainly have the potential to be a solid group of arms to get through the season as well.
For more A's news and insights, follow Jason @ByJasonB on X, or the site @InsideTheAs!
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.
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