Athletics Give Glimpse of Projected Rotation

The Sacramento Athletics season doesn't start for a month, and in that time there will be some shakeups to the roster as whole. At the same time, the A's appear to be disclosing which five players they plan to have in their rotation when the season kicks off in Seattle on March 27.

Today's starting pitcher for the A's will be Luis Severino, who will be making his A's debut in Mesa, Arizona against the San Diego Padres. In that game, the A's will also be getting their second look of the spring at knuckleballer Matt Waldron.

On Friday, the A's will begin the game with another new addition, this time Jeffrey Springs. Springs was acquired by the A's in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays this offseason that saw Joe Boyle head to Tampa.

Severino was announced as the A's Opening Day starter at his welcome press conference, and Springs has been seen as the number two of the staff all offseason, so having them on consecutive days would lead one to believe that the rest of the rotation would also follow suit.

Springs last pitched on Sunday, and was followed by Osvaldo Bido on Monday. A's on SI has written about Bido being a potential breakout pick in 2025 after he posted a 3.41 ERA (3.36 FIP) across 63.1 innings last season, which included an absolutely dominant month of August. He made five starts that month, spanning 29 innings, and a .143 batting average against.

That stretch included four straight starts where he allowed three or fewer hits in each outing, while going six innings three times and five innings once. If he can continue to provide quality innings this spring, he's certainly going to make the rotation, and the way things are shaking out, he'd be the third starter in that mix.

The fourth starter shouldn't be any surprise. In fact, the only surprise may be that he's not third in the rotation. Of course, we're talking about JP Sears. The left-hander has been a solid league average arm for the A's the past two seasons, and has made each of his scheduled starts in both of those years. He's a solid guy to have in the number four slot.

The reasoning for him there, instead of higher, is likely to break up the left-handers in the rotation with Springs being slotted second.

Now the fifth spot in the rotation is a bit up for grabs, but we know which two right-handers are battling for it since they're paired together. Mitch Spence, the Rule 5 pick last season is one, and Joey Estes, who came over in the Matt Olson trade with the Atlanta Braves is the other.

Both Spence and Estes pitched on Wednesday against the Seattle Mariners, with Estes getting the start. He went two innings and gave up one hit--a solo home run to Rowdy Tellez. Estes also struck out a batter.

Spence came on in relief in the third inning, pitching two innings of his own, and while he too allowed a hit, he worked a scoreless two frames while also striking out one. The A's ended up winning this one 8-5.

As we wrote yesterday, the two factors going against Estes are that he's a fly ball pitcher and that his ERA was significantly lower at the Oakland Coliseum in 2024. With the A's moving to Sacramento, those could be tough obstacles to overcome.

A's GM David Forst has said that they don't know how Sutter Health Park will play with big-league players in a minor-league park, but they're expecting it to be roughly league average. The Coliseum was always more pitcher friendly, so by just changing ballparks, Estes may not be able to find the same level of success.

The same goes for the 24.6% ground ball rate, which was one of the lowest in baseball. There is some concern that a ball that's not hit particularly well can still find its way over the fence, so limiting the number of chances (or fly balls) could be a strategy that the team decides to go with. By comparison, Spence had a 48.4% ground ball rate last year.

Obviously nothing is settled just yet, and likely won't be until the regular season is a bit closer. Yet, it would appear as though the final spot in the A's rotation will go to one of these two righties, and they'll be slotted in the fifth spot in the rotation. That pitcher will also just so happen to be in line to pitch the home opener and the first game in Sacramento against the Chicago Cubs.