When You Are Talking About the A's Rotation, You Are Talking About a "Lotta Dudes"

A's love the depth provided by Mike Fiers, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, A.J. Puk and Jesus Luzardo heading into 2020

There will be many words spoken about the promise of the A’s 2020 starting rotation, but probably no mass of verbiage will get to the core of it than the four-word summation turned in Monday by Oakland first baseman Matt Olson.

“We’ve gotta lotta dudes,” Olson said before the A’s first workout of the spring.

That they do. Mike Fiers is back, coming off a 15-win season and seeing his name bandied about all winter for having blown the whistle on the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme of 2017.

Frankie Montas was headed to a possible All-Star berth (9-2, 2.63 and a 1.115 WHIP in 16 starts) before a half-season drug suspension sidelined him. He’s back.

As is Sean Manaea, who missed the first five months of the season while recovering from 2018’s shoulder surgery. He made it back in a huge way, going 4-0 in five starts with a 1.21 ERA last September.

And then there are rookies Jesus Luzardo and A.J. Puk, both of whom made bullpen debuts in 2019 but who have all but locked in rotation spots for 2020.

Luzardo and Puk will have innings limits, so Chris Bassitt, who worked mostly in the rotation after a 10-4, 3.95 turn in 2019, will get a bunch of starts, too, when he’s not coming out of the pen. Manager Bob Melvin is likely to, at times, take advantage of Bassitt by going with a six-man rotation.

“Obviously, Luzardo and Puk are getting their first tastes of the rotation,” Olson said. “The other guys have been around and have done good things. So, it’s going to be a really solid starting five and obviously the bullpen is always there for us.

“You get a little juiced up [just thinking about it.].”

So does outfielder Stephen Piscotty.

“These guys are electric,” Piscotty said Monday. “We’re going to depend on them. Which is interesting, because they are so young. But they have the talent. We think they have the makeup for [leadership].”

Manaea has his own view on it. And he loves what he sees.

“[The A’s rotation] is like the best thing that could happen,” Manaea told mlb.com. “[It’s] five friends and competitors. It’s going to be a competition, and that brings out the best in everyone. [The A’s will be] melding into a unit and not just five individual people.

”We’re all nasty in our own ways, and this rotation is going to be disgusting.”