A's Add Relief Depth with Former Washington Nationals Righty
The Athletics bullpen is starting to come together quite nicely. They already have one of the best closers in the game in Mason Miller, but then they added José Leclerc to the mix as the eighth inning arm to go along with solid rookies from 2024 in Michel Otañez and Tyler Ferguson.
On Thursday, the A's also brought in veteran reliever Dylan Floro, who spent time last season with the Washington Nationals, posting a 2.06 ERA across 52.1 innings. Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reported that Floro has a locker inside the A's clubhouse in Mesa, Arizona.
Floro was traded by Washington at the deadline, heading to the Arizona Diamondbacks, where his season took a sharp turn. In 16.1 innings, the 34-year-old held a 9.37 ERA. He finished the year with a 3.80 ERA in 68.2 innings pitched.
With the Nationals, Floro was striking out 19.6% of hitters and held a 47.6% ground ball rate, giving up just one home run with the Nationals. In Arizona, his strikeout plummeted to 10.7%, his ground ball rate fell to 40.3%, and he gave up four homers in roughly a third of the innings he'd pitched with Washington. The D-Backs ended up designating Floro for assignment in September.
The righty also had to make some changes in 2024, with the velocity on his four-seamer dropping from 92.3 miles per hour in 2023, to just 89.8 mph last season. His four-seamer had been his main pitch the previous season, but with the velo dip he had to mix things up.
The biggest change was flipping his two fastballs, using his sinker 47.7% of the time, up from 32% the previous season, and dropping his four-seam usage to 15.8% from 34.1%. With his sinker eating up most of his usage, it became a little more predictable for hitters to know what was coming. In 2023, his four-seam (34%), sinker (32%), and slider (22%) accounted for his main three offerings.
As you can tell by the nearly 48% usage rate on his sinker last season, those pitches weren't mixed quite as much this past season.
The A's officially announced the move this afternoon, and have deemed it a minor-league deal. Still, Floro has a decent chance to break camp with the team.
24-year-old Grant Holman made his big-league debut in 2024 and finished the year with a 4.02 ERA (3.87 FIP) in 15.2 innings, but he wasn't being used in the leverage same roles as Otañez and Ferguson, and is likely seen as a middle relief arm with three options remaining, which means he could start the year in the minors now that Floro is on board.
The other pitcher in the A's bullpen that could be on the chopping block is Rule 5 draftee Noah Murdock, 26, who has exciting stuff, but lacks command. If he does enough this spring, then it's likely he'll make the club over Holman, given his Rule 5 status.
If the A's were to not include Murdock on their 26-man roster at any point during the 2025 campaign (barring injury), then he would have to pass through waivers before being offered back to his original team, the Kansas City Royals. In other words, the A's would lose Murdock.
Over the past four years, Floro has averaged 61 innings per season with a 3.59 ERA. Granted, three of those seasons were when he was still throwing a touch harder, but adding a veteran, and innings, is a solid addition at this point in camp.
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.