The A's Bullpen Blueprint, and the Trade-off That Comes With It
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The A's bullpen has mostly come together at the start of camp, and barring any injuries, we can roughly pencil in who the eight players that will be that will be suiting up for the A's on Opening Day in Toronto.
In that group will be lefty Hogan Harris, newcomers Mark Leiter Jr. and Scott Barlow, and then returning righties Elvis Alvarado, Justin Sterner, Michael Kelly, Tyler Ferguson and then a wild-card for the eighth spot and final. Given that he's out of options, we've placed Luis Medina in the bullpen for now, as he continues to recover from Tommy John.
It also doesn't hurt that manager Mark Kotsay believes that Medina could be sitting at 98 out of the bullpen.
The other players in the mix for that spot could be Jack Perkins, if he ends up in the bullpen, or left-hander Brady Basso, who could give the A's a second left-hander out of the bullpen to pair with Harris. Given the A's success with two lefties (Harris and Sean Newcomb) in relief in the final two months of the season a year ago, having that second southpaw could be a big priority for Kotsay and co.
Given that we know generally who will be in the bullpen, we have also picked up on some traits that a number of the A's relievers hold as well. It would certainly seem as though this has been part of the master plan of the front office in assembling the bullpen for 2026.
The trait that each member of the bullpen has
The A's have largely assembled their bullpen on a budget, with Barlow and Leiter earning a combined $4.85 million, while the other six arms in the mix will be making the big-league minimum. Given that fact, the club has also assembled their group in a specific way, focusing on limiting hard contact. Below is how they each performed, as well as their percentile ranking in parentheses.
Avg. Exit Velo | Barrel% | Hard-Hit | |
|---|---|---|---|
Hogan Harris | 88 mph (80th) | 5.6% (88th) | 32.6% (96th) |
Scott Barlow | 86.2 mph (96th) | 7.3% (66th) | 30.5% (99th) |
Mark Leiter Jr. | 87.2 mph (92nd) | 5.6 (88th) | 33.3% (94th) |
Justin Sterner | 89.8 mph (36th) | 9.6% (26th) | 38.9% (64th) |
Elvis Alvarado | 89.9 mph | 8.3% | 46.8% |
Tyler Ferguson | 87.5 mph (89th) | 6.5% (79th) | 31.8% (97th) |
Michael Kelly | 87.3 mph | 10.3% | 35.9% |
Neither Alvarado (late call-up) or Michael Kelly racked up enough innings to get an official percentile ranking, but you can kind of see where they would have been ranked with enough work last season based upon where the other members of the A's bullpen slotted.
The numbers above also give you a sense of not only which bullpen arms could be the leverage guys (Harris, Barlow and Leiter) based upon their high rankings across the board, but also Alvarado may have overperformed his numbers here, and Justin Sterner could be another interesting one to keep an eye on.
With Alvarado, he was much better at getting whiffs (33.7%) and strikeouts (27.3%) than limiting hard contact, which is a different look from much of this bullpen. Sterner is also in that camp, ranking in the 86th percentile in chase%, 87th in whiff% and 77th in K%.
The blueprint for building out the A's bullpen in 2026 has been to bring in two veteran relief pitchers, that, like much of the other relief options on-hand, limited hard contact consistently in 2025. While the A's are playing at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, minimizing hard contact is going to be key to the success of the team.
The other piece of that equation will be having the best gloves available defensively, to give this club its best shot to win day after day. A full season with Denzel Clarke roaming center field should do wonders for the club on the defensive side of things.
The one flaw that runs through the bullpen
While the A's have been able to assemble a pretty decent-looking group of relief pitchers ahead of the season, there is one factor in most of their profiles that could also have an impact night to night. That would simply be how often a number of these arms issue free passes.
BB% | |
|---|---|
Hogan Harris | 11.9% (7th) |
Scott Barlow | 14.9% (1st) |
Mark Leiter Jr. | 7.8% (53rd) |
Justin Sterner | 7.9% (51st) |
Elvis Alvarado | 12% |
Tyler Ferguson | 13.8% (1st) |
Michael Kelly | 11.4% |
That 12% mark from Alvarado would have ranked in the 6th percentile with enough innings—funnily enough, tied with Mason Miller—while Kelly's 11.4% would have ranked him in the 8th percentile.
In other words, five of the seven members of the A's projected bullpen held walk rates that ranked in the single digits across the league. That could end up being a little worrisome heading into 2026, as more walks means more baserunners, and more baserunners tend to lead to more runs for the opposition.
The A's don't have a lot of wiggle room for error with their pitching staff, so without a decent-sized changed in this department, the club could find themselves in a bit of a bind, searching for someone that can throw strikes consistently as the season continues.
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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