Shea Langeliers on Why He's Optimistic About A's Pitching Staff
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The biggest question mark entering the 2026 season for the A's is all about the team's pitching staff. They've added a couple of veteran relief pitchers in Scott Barlow and Mark Leiter Jr., and brought in veteran Aaron Civale for the rotation, but how well these two units perform will end up deciding the A's season.
They have the bats to contend with some of the best clubs out there. It's the pitching staff that is the open question this spring. Starter Jeffrey Springs pointed to his own reason for why the team will have success in 2026, but he's not the only one that's optmistic about this club.
When MLB Network went to visit A's camp this week for their 30 clubs, 30 camps segment, A's catcher Shea Langeliers was asked the question at hand, asking him to explain why he's optimistic about the A's rotation and bullpen.
Shea Langeliers on why he's optimistic about the A's pitching in 2026
"Just kinda want to touch on last year again. It's never easy losing a guy like Mason Miller, but then every guy on our bullpen stepped up after that happened. It's just like, we're continuing to take steps forward on the pitching side of things. Going out an adding some veteran guys to help with their presence, and obviously they've had success around the league. I think we'll just continue to move forward."
He went on to discuss how he approaches being a "therapist" when the team is pitching in Sacramento and the ball is flying out of the ballpark.
"I mean, it goes both ways, right? The balls gonna fly for the visiting team and for us, so I think mentality-wise we just have to stay aggressive. Attack the strike zone, try to get ahead. When we get ahead in the count, we're in the driver's seat [and] we can kinda dictate what we wanna do after that. Just keep the mentality on the aggressive side of things and then go from there."
Who could take a step forward in 2026?
One pitcher that could take a big step forward this season would be Jacob Lopez, who has yet to appear in a spring game yet in camp, but that is expected to change in the coming days. The left-hander received his first real shot in the big leagues last season and ended up posting a 28.3% strikeout rate, which is where the Cy Young contenders hang out.
He's someone that has the stuff to be effective at the big league level, but in order to take that next step he's going to have to get deeper into games more consistently than he was in 2025. There were stretches where he'd go six or seven frames, which is excellent, but then he'd also go 1 2/3 or 3 1/3 innings as well. Getting to at least five innings consistently is a must.
Part of the way he can do that is to be more efficient with his pitches, not letting his pitch count balloon, and the way to do that is to be aggressive, as Langeliers was talking about.
Another pitcher that could take a step forward is J.T. Ginn, who struggled at home (6.85 ERA) and against left-handed bats. Against lefties he gave up a .340 batting average, a .416 OBP and a .630 SLG. He had a 1.95 WHIP and a 6.50 FIP against left-handed bats, while holding a 0.94 WHIP with a 3.25 FIP against righties.
Comparing his last start of the regular season to his most recent spring outing on March 1, his changeup usage has gone up this spring, going from 10% on the year in 2025, up to 18% in that one game. He also used it as a weapon against left-handers, utilizing it in 5-of-19 (26%) of his offerings to lefties. In that final game last year, he used it once in 22 pitches to left-handers.
How he attacks lefties and what those results end up being will be something to watch in camp this year. Through two starts he has given up all of one hit and two walks across five scoreless innings, striking out five. He has come out on a mission this spring.
These are just two players that we're keeping an eye on right now, but you can make the case for a number of A's pitchers like this heading into 2026. While the group isn't projected to be a dominant force, they could certainly be a roughly league group, which would be plenty with the offense that dons green and gold.
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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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