Minor Seeing a Bright Future, both for Athletics and for Himself
It wasn’t much of an introduction to Oakland for Mike Minor Friday night, giving up homers to the first two San Diego Padres he faced in a seventh-inning relief appearance in the Coliseum.
A starting pitcher by trade, the former Texas Ranger will get back to what he knows best Tuesday, starting one game of a doubleheader against the Houston Astros, a team against whom he has had so-so-results, a 3-4 record and a 4.54 ERA.
More significantly, perhaps, he’ll be pitching in a pennant race. The Rangers came into Saturday with a 13-24 record that has them in fourth place, 10 games behind the 22-13 A’s, who remain the American League West leaders. Minor was part of the trouble in Texas, owning an 0-5 record, but he pitched shutout ball in two of his last four starts, including six innings in which the Dodgers, the team with the best record in baseball, couldn’t solve him.
He remembers what the postseason is like. In 2013, just as he was coming up with the Braves, he started and won a game in the National League Division Series against the Dodgers. He gave up one run in 6.1 innings in what would be the only game of the series Atlanta would win.
“I haven’t been there in a while,” Minor said in a video call Saturday morning. “I’ve been on some good teams (since), but never made it to the playoffs. I was in Kansas City in 2016 and 17 when they had essentially the game team as the World Series-winning team of 2015 but never made the playoffs. We kind of underperformed.
“(In Texas) we were never that close. Then to come over here and know this team’s a winning team, a playoff team. It’s exciting. I feel this team could potentially go to the World Series. It’s going to take hard work and luck on our side. The guys are ready.”
In the last week, Minor has talked to pals like Jesse Chavez, Ryan Buchter and Eric O’Flaherty to get a scouting report on the organization he’d been traded to. What they said was reassuring to a pitcher who had never been traded before.
“They loved the organization when they were here and then the current guys here love it here,” Minor said. “When I did get traded over — the façade’s not great but like inside the clubhouse and the team and everything is all positive.”
Reports out of Texas were that his record this season had something to do with his inability to properly execute his changeup. When the A’s scouted him, they noticed that, although general manager David Forst said what the club mostly saw was the same pitcher as he’d been in 2019, when he was an American League All-Star.
The first test of his changeup in Oakland was hit out by the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. Minor wasn’t crazy about that, but neither did he make himself crazy.
“The movement, I feel like is coming back,” Minor said. “For a while I was kind of cutting it trying to get some spin on it and the ball was cutting rather than fading away. So, I think it’s more about finishing the pitch and hand placement and kind of coming off the fingers the correct way. The last week or so it’s been a little bit better.”
With the A’s facing four doubleheaders this month, including three in seven days starting Tuesday, Oakland is going to need a sixth starter, and Minor’s their guy. But there will also be times in the last couple of weeks when they’re going to need him to work out of the bullpen.
For Minor, who has pitched with Oakland relievers Jake Diekman and Joakim Soria during his baseball sojourns, he’s OK with that.
“It’s been a crazy year and a crazy season,” Minor said. “I just told them to try to give me a heads-up what I’ll be doing, so I don’t over-lift or over-throw. But I really don’t care. I want to pitch well and help the team.”
The A’s could live with that.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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