A's Pitching Impressive Through First Turn in Rotation

The A's starters have pitched so well that nobody has set themselves apart

Much to the delight of team president Dave Kaval, the Oakland A's beat up on the San Francisco Giants in spring action on Wednesday, bringing home a 7-4 win in Mesa. After Paul Blackburn started off the game with a three up, three down top of the first, Ryan Noda and Zack Gelof led off the bottom half by going back-to-back, with Noda driving his ball to center, and Gelof going opposite field to right. Manager Mark Kotsay told reporters before the game that going the other way has been a focus in camp. 

Giants third baseman J.D. Davis homered to right off Blackburn to lead off the second, which was the only blemish on the right-hander's day. He went two innings, gave up one hit, one run, and struck out three. 

The player that stuck out the most had to be righty Luis Medina. This is an outing that has been greatly anticipated as the games have progressed, with the other starters in the mix for the fifth spot in the rotation all pitching well. Medina, who is out of options, needs to make the club or be placed on waivers (or traded). 

Medina came on in the third, threw ten pitches, and didn't allow a hit. In the fourth, he struck out the first two batters he faced, walked Mike Yastrzemski, then struck out the next batter to retire the side. Two of the three punch-outs were swinging. 

Medina was also routinely hitting 100 miles per hour on the radar gun after averaging 96.1 over the course of the season last year. This was a quick stint in his first spring action, but those results and the velocity are tantalizing. 

Another standout was Royber Salinas, acquired as part of the Sean Murphy trade, who got his first spring action ever. He came on in relief and tossed two scoreless innings, didn't allow a hit, and struck out two. Three outs were on the ground, and just one was in the air. Not a bad debut from the 22-year-old who ranks No. 24 among A's prospects on MLB Pipeline. 

Salinas is now part of the A's 40-man roster, and will either be a part of the rotation in Triple-A, or start off in Double-A waiting for a spot to clear up on the Las Vegas roster. He held a 5.48 ERA last season in Midland and gave up nine homers in just 67 1/3 innings, so there is some refining that could be done, too. 

On the offensive side, JJ Bleday added a 2-for-3 afternoon with a home run and a triple as part of a three rbi day. Those were the outfielder's first two hits in the early going of spring training, yet he has also not struck out in ten trips to the plate. Last spring he K'd in 12 of the 36 plate appearances he got in camp. The key for him this year will be hitting the ball a bit harder after being right about league average in exit velocity last season. 

Spring training wins are nice, and the A's have three of them, making this the first time the team is above .500 since they began the 2023 season 1-0. The key for 2024 will be the rotation, so let's take a minute to look at the arms in the mix after one turn. 

Paul Blackburn: 2 IP, hit, ER, 0 BB, 3 K vs. Giants

Luis Medina: 2 IP, 0 hits, 0 ER, BB, 3 K vs. Giants

Joe Boyle: 2 IP, hit, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K vs. Rockies

Joey Estes: 2 IP, 0 hits, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K vs. Rockies

Kyle Muller: 2 IP, 2 hits, ER, BB, 3 K vs. Dodgers

Mitch Spence: 2 IP, 3 hits, ER, 0 BB, 3 K vs. Diamondbacks

JP Sears: 2 IP, 0 hits, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K vs. Guardians

Osvaldo Bido: 2 IP, hit, ER, BB, 3 K vs. Rockies/Guardians

Ross Stripling and Alex Wood have yet to debut with the club, and they're locked into two of the spots in the rotation along with Sears and Blackburn, but let's take a look at how many walks these pitchers have issued. You can get excited about the end results (four earned runs in 16 innings, 2.25 ERA), but it's the three walks allowed thus far that are important. 

The A's walked 10.9% of the batters they faced last season, which was the most in baseball. That led to Oakland having the second-worst ERA in MLB at 5.48, ahead of just the Colorado Rockies. 

Last year during camp the A's had a 6.35 ERA, worst in baseball, and they walked 171 batters in 272 innings, or 5.66 walks per nine. During the season it was 4.40 per nine. The A's are still allowing walks at a 4.09 per nine clip, but the point here is that the key guys aren't the ones allowing the free passes. A decent amount have been from the minor-league arms pitching late in games. 

The A's currently rank 12th in ERA (4.30) and tenth in walks allowed with 20 this spring. It's still very early, and pitchers tend to be a little ahead of hitters in the first few games, but this is something to keep an eye on as camp progresses. 

As for who has the upper hand on that fifth spot in the rotation, it's impossible to tell. There are a number of guys that have allowed zero runs and struck out three batters which isn't setting anyone apart. During the next start or two we should see a little separation among this group as they're asked to go a little deeper into games.