Did J.T. Ginn Just Pitch His Way Into the A's Rotation?
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After Luis Morales struggled to stay in the zone last weekend, the A's decided he needed a reset down in Triple-A Las Vegas. His first start didn't go so well, with the righty giving up five earned across 2 2/3 innings, allowing five hits and walking three in the process.
With that in mind, the A's could be looking at a longer term solution in the big-league rotation while Morales continues to figure things out in the minors. On Friday in Flushing, former New York Mets product J.T. Ginn got the chance to pitch against his former team, and for the second straight year he delivered.
Taking the mound for the A's, he ended up firing four shutout innings, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out four. He also lowered his ERA to a very solid 3.27 on the year, spanning 11 innings total.
In his start against the Mets last season in his first appearance of the year, Ginn fired 5 1/3 innings, giving up five hits and one run on a solo homer to Brandon Nimmo to lead off the sixth. The A's righty also walked two and struck out six in that game. Last season Ginn ended up making 23 appearances (16 starts) and held a 5.08 ERA, though he pitched incredibly well on the road.
When asked pregame whether this spot in the rotation belongs to the right-hander for the time being, or if that situation is still in flux, manager Mark Kotsay said, "I think for the present to you know, future—Ginn is the guy that we'd love to have in that spot. Hopefully he takes ownership of it and doesn't look back."
While he shut the Mets down, there's a small cause for concern
It's hard to argue with four shutout innings with very limited traffic on the basepaths. That said, we do want to point out a couple of things that could give the A's pause before officially inserting Ginn into the rotation for the long haul.
While his overall stat line was terrific, he also wasn't getting ahead of hitters on Friday night. Just 6-of-14 first pitches landed for strikes, good for a 43% clip. He got away with not getting ahead of hitters last night, but he'll have to improve that rate in order to have sustained success.
The other factor here is that as the game went on, he was needing more pitches to get through those frames. After a 14-pitch first inning and a 14-pitch second, he 21 pitches to get through the third, and 19 to finish off his outing in the fourth.
After seeing him for a couple of innings, Mets hitters were then able to make some adjustments and work his pitch count, which could become worrisome either as he faces lineups on a regular basis, or even as more tape is accumulated on him this season.
These are by no means disqualifying factors, but they're little signs that could be the start of something bigger. In other words, it's something to keep an eye on to see if the trend continues when he gets the ball again.
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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.
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