A's Acquire Left-Hander From SF Giants

Sam Long is a lefty with big-league experience and a decent walk rate

The Oakland A's announced on Sunday night that they had acquired left-handed pitcher Sam Long from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for cash considerations. Long had been DFA'd by the Giants after they traded for Cal Stevenson, sending the A's cash considerations.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

This move could have simply been Stevenson for Long, but instead the A's and Giants kept their streak of "no trades allowed" going. Technically the clubs have made these types of trades in the recent past, swapping a player for cash, but the last trade between Oakland and San Francisco came back in 1990 when Oakland received Ernie Riles in exchange for Darren Lewis and Pedro Peña. 

Long, 27, has racked up a cumulative 4.55 ERA. across 83 big-league innings. Those innings came in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Last season in 42.1 IP, Long held a 3.61 ERA (5.07 FIP), but only walked three per nine innings while striking out seven per nine. 

That walk rate has to be appealing to an Oakland staff that leads the Majors in free passes with 116 in 22 games. He also gave up eight homers in those 42.1 innings, which has been another problem area for the A's this season. 

Long was optioned to the minors before the start of the 2023 season, and in four games with the Sacramento River Cats spanning 10 innings, he has a 9.90 ERA, allowing 14 hits, 10 ER, 5 walks and striking out 7. Three of those walks came in one outing against El Paso. 

His four-seamer has been averaging nearly 94 this season according to Brooks Baseball, and he has also been working with a sinker, slider, changeup and a curve. According to Baseball Savant, he didn't throw the slider last year with San Francisco, but it was in his pitch mix in 2021. He's also throwing it 17% of the time, which is a huge jump in usage from 2.2% in that '21 campaign.

This move is another depth acquisition, and another left-hander added to the mix in the A's bullpen. With the addition, the A's 40-man roster stands at 41 players, so a roster move will have to be made before Long is assigned to either Oakland or Triple-A Las Vegas. 

Everyone on the A's big-league pitching staff has options remaining outside of Jeurys Familia, but the A's will also need to move a player off of their 40-man if Long is to join the A's in Anaheim on Monday.