Oakland A's Bullpen the Team's Biggest Strength

Jason Burke | Apr 30, 2024

Apr 26, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Oakland Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers (23) celebrates / Reggie Hildred-USA TODAY Sports

Oakland A's relievers haven't allowed a run to cross home plate since Wednesday's game in New York. During the five games since, the team is 4-1 with two late-inning come-from-behind wins.

The unit has combined for 18 1/3 scoreless innings in that span, giving up seven hits, walking four, and striking out 21. That's a WHIP of 0.60, which is incredible for one player, let alone a group of eight guys combined, even in a small sample size.

Mason Miller has been the talk of the bullpen of late, and when the A's returned home to the Coliseum on Monday, there was a line of reporters there to get their quotes. While Miller has certainly been the standout arm in the bullpen due to being the closer and throwing 103 mile per hour heaters, the rest of the group has been superb all season, too.

Setup man Lucas Erceg also throws gas, averaging 99 mph, and holds a 1.54 ERA. Versatile right-hander Austin Adams goes up, throws sliders, and holds a 1.93 ERA on the year.

I jokingly sent this tweet out during Monday's game, but it's true.

Miller overshadows Erceg, who overshadows Adams, who overshadows Jiménez, who overshadows Muller, who overshadows Spence.

— Jason Burke (@ByJasonB) April 30, 2024

Even in this tweet I left off Michael Kelly, who worked two quick scoreless innings against Pittsburgh on Monday, and T.J. McFarland, who has the highest ERA (3.97) among the arms in the bullpen, but also has the second-most fWAR of the bunch behind Miller with 0.3.

While the last five games have made this unit stand out, and doing so against the Yankees and Orioles plays a bit of a role too, the A's bullpen has been among the league's best all season long. Heading into Tuesday's game they rank fourth in ERA (2.63) behind Seattle, Cleveland, and Minnesota, second in walk rate (2.87 per nine) behind Atlanta, and third in fWAR (1.5) behind Cleveland and the Mets.

There have been lots of comparisons made between this year's team and the 2023 version over the past few weeks. One notable comparison is that the A's already have 13 wins this season at 13-17, while they didn't record their 13th win last season until their 63rd game.

Last year, the bullpen held a 6.83 ERA as a unit at the end of April, and the walk rate stood at 6.14 per nine. Manager Mark Kotsay talked about limiting walks quite a bit last season, and when the team sought out pitching over the winter, one trait that many of their additions held was the ability to command the baseball.

As we head into May, this year's version of the team is light years ahead of where last year's squad was at this point. It's still too early to know if the team will reach their goals of being a .500 team in 2024, or playing meaningful games in September, but the early returns are looking good.