Did the A's Make a Mistake Not Bringing Back This Boston Red Sox Starter?
When a team is looking to make a leap forward from year-to-year like the Athletics, it can be difficult to choose which veteran pieces to keep on the roster. While they can help achieve the goal of more wins, the team on the rise also has to balance developing the young players in their system, and the long-term growth of the club.
Back in August of 2023, Sean Newcomb was involved in a little bit of history, as the A's and Giants completed their first player-for-player swap since December of 1990. Newcomb was also a key piece in the Andrelton Simmons deal between the Los Angeles Angels and Atlanta Braves in 2015.
In his time with the A's, Newcomb initially impressed in '23, tossing 15 innings, beginning in the bullpen, before working his way into two starts with the club. During his second start, he ended up spraining his knee, ending his season with a 3.00 ERA.
That offseason, he ended up having surgery on both of his knees, and made his season debut in June. He spent one month with the club, tossing ten innings in relief and holding a 6.30 ERA. The A's would designate Newcomb for assignment in early July, and then release him a couple of days later.
In January, he ended up signing a minor-league deal with the Boston Red Sox. Now he's in their rotation behind Walker Buehler and right in front of Richard Fitts in a fairly stacked group.
He's made two starts, holding a 5.19 ERA across 8.2 innings of work, complete with a 2.19 WHIP. The stats aren't exactly overwhelming, but the scenario is interesting. The Red Sox, like the A's, are attempting to return to postseason contention in 2025, and both teams spent some capital this winter to help achieve that goal. Granted, the Red Sox were starting from a higher floor.
Both teams have some young talent they're hoping to bring along, too. So why is Newcomb suited to pitch in Boston, a much tougher market, but not in Sacramento?
Part of the reasoning could be that the A's were just unsure of what they'd get out of Newcomb, and they were looking for more of a sure thing, given the roster space they had available.
It's important to remember that Newcomb was out of options, so he couldn't just be sent to the minor leagues. The Red Sox were able to grab him on a minor-league deal, which kept him off their 40-man roster until he was needed. That's pretty big in terms of roster construction.
There's also the fact that he hasn't pitched more than 32.1 innings since 2020, and the last time that he reached 100+ innings was all the way back in 2018. So what is any team going to get out of Newcomb? That's another big question.
The intriguing part of Newcomb's performance thus far is that he has been using his cutter quite a bit in the early going. It was his second-most used pitch on Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals at 30% usage. It only got one swing and miss on 13 hacks, but it was also called a strike nine times in 28 tries. How effective a pitch this becomes could be something to keep an eye on.
Last year with the A's, he didn't even use the cutter in limited innings, and most years it has been a throwaway pitch, getting only a couple of tosses per season.
So did the A's make a mistake in not trying to bring back Newcomb? Not necessarily. It's always important to have reliable depth pieces to help get through a season, but given the early returns, it's hard to say that he'd be a huge upgrade over someone on the 40-man as it currently stands. Given his injury history, that's a tough risk to take for a team like the Athletics.
Still, it will be interesting to see what Boston has him work on throughout the season in order to get the most out of him.
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.