The A's Next Star Pitcher Might Already be on Their Roster
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As the A's prepare for their move to Las Vegas in 2028, the club has been making moves to lock up its young stars to put themselves in a good spot to become contenders in Vegas.
The front office has already locked up Jacob Wilson, Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom, and Lawrence Butler to long-term deals over the past two offseasons, and have reportedly made an offer to Nick Kurtz to add him to that list. Along with the extensions, they have made several trades to land potential future stars that will be ready once the team settles in Sin City.
One of the bigger deals the club made happened last summer when the A's dealt All-Star closer Mason Miller to the San Diego Padres for a haul that included a top-five prospect in all of baseball, Leo De Vries. In the deal, the A's would also receive a few nice pitching prospects.
Since the A's have one of the better offenses in the league, improving their pitching staff seems like something that should be a focal point in order to help them win more ballgames.
After the Mason Miller trade, it seemed like the team had a huge hole in their bullpen, and a loss of star power on their pitching staff. However, a waiver claim from January of last year could very well replace Mason Miller's stardom.
A's next star of the pitching staff
The 6-foot, 4-inch flamethrower, Elvis Alvarado, joined the A's bullpen in 2025 and showed flashes of being an elite late-inning reliever. Alvarado's fastball sat around 99 miles per hour, but he often throws triple digits. His 33.7% whiff rate was quite impressive through his limited innings. If he's able to stay healthy for the entirety of 2026, he could pitch his way into being the team's closer.
The story of Elvis Alvarado is also pretty cool. Back in 2015, Alvarado signed with the Washington Nationals organization as an outfielder at just sixteen years old. In 2017, he played in the Dominican Summer League with the Nationals, where he batted .139 with a brutal .427 OPS and 2 home runs in 173 plate appearances.
The rough year prompted the Nats to make Alvarado a full-time pitcher for the 2018 season. That summer, he'd be dealt to the Mariners in the trade that sent right-hander Hunter Strickland to the Nationals.
Alvarado would bounce around to a few different organizations, not reaching Triple-A ball until his age-25 season. After pitching well in Triple-A and then pitching in the Dominican Winter League and posting a 0.93 ERA, the A's would claim him off waivers. He started his A's tenure in Triple-A, but he'd make his MLB Debut with the team that summer.
In Elvis Alvarado's first season in the big leagues, he finished with a 3.19 ERA and a 1.32 WHIP in 42 1/3 innings pitched. His real success came from his electric fastball, paired with his nasty wipe-out slider. Before Alvarado can become the All-Star closer that Mason Miller was with the A's, there are a few improvements he can make.
Getting Alvarado to the next level
The right-hander leaned on primarily on his fastball and slider last season, throwing his fastball in 48.2% of his pitches, and his slider 32% of the time. He would also throw a sinker (15.7%) and a changeup (4.1%). Because he relied heavily on the fastball and slider, hitters would know there was an 80% chance one of those two pitches coming.
In Alvarado's defense, Mason Miller was known for being a two-pitch pitcher as well. In 2025, Miller threw his fastball 52.2% of the time, and his slider 45.6%. He also has a changeup, in which he threw just 22 times all season, which was 2.3% of the time. That was more to show that he had one and to plant the seed that he could throw it more than a true third pitch.
Although the two-pitch mix works well for Mason Miller, it generally doesn't work well for pitchers in MLB. Since Alvarado isn't consistently throwing 104-105 miles per hour like Miller, being able to throw his changeup more often would be one way to help him find even more success.
In his most recent spring appearance on February 27, he was mixing his fastball, slider and sinker together at near-identical rates. The heater was used 39% of the time (9/23), while the sinker and slider were each used 30% (7/23). He had a similar strategy in his first outing of camp as well.
Only one right-hander saw Alvarado's changeup all last season, as 30 of the 31 he threw last season all came to left-handers. He allowed two hits with the changeup, meaning the batting average against his changeup was a rough .400.
With time left to work on his pitch mix this spring, the club will have plenty of time to decide how they utilize Alvarado's arsenal for the 2026 season. Because his stuff is so good, and he has a similar mix to Mason Miller, there's certainly a chance we see Elvis Alvarado become the next star pitcher for the Athletics as early as this season.
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I grew up playing baseball, and also enjoyed watching and writing about my favorite team, the A’s. Being a diehard A’s fan from New Jersey is certainly not common, but I love the team and all of the current and former players so much. I currently attend school at Penn State Scranton where I get the opportunity to play college baseball.
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