Sears came over to the A’s as part of the 2022 deadline deal that sent Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the Yankees. Since then, Sears has been the most reliable and consistent pitcher on the Oakland staff as other arms have either been hurt or underperformed. He made 32 starts last year and tossed 172 1/3 innings, leading the club in both of those categories by a decent margin. Ken Waldichuk was second in both columns with 22 starts and 141 innings.

Here in 2024, he’s been the rock of the rotation yet again. The A’s currently have Waldichuk, Paul Blackburn, Ross Stripling and Alex Wood all on the injured list. Sears is once again leading the staff with 12 starts and 67 1/3 innings pitched.

While the A’s surely appreciate that quantity of work, the quality has been more decent than it has been outstanding. Sears had a 4.54 earned run average last year along with a 21.9% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate, with all those numbers coming in fairly close to average.

Sears has dropped his ERA to 4.01 here in 2024 but that may be more due to luck than anything else. His 6.9% walk rate is a slight improvement over last year but his 16.3% strikeout rate is a significant drop. His batting average on balls in play is .239, which is well below the .278 mark he had last year and this season’s league-wide average of .286. His 35.6% ground ball rate is below average as well. His average exit velocity, hard hit rate and barrel rate are all in the 32nd percentile or worse among qualified pitchers, according to Statcast.

Even if a bit of regression is coming, he could still serve as a solid innings eater with good control. His 4.32 FIP and 4.75 SIERA on the year aren’t as nice as his ERA but aren’t disastrous either. That can have value to an Oakland club cycling through struggling pitching prospects and injured veterans.

Whether it will be valued enough by another club to get Sears away from the A’s remains to be seen, as they should be in no real rush to move him. He came into this season with one year and 81 days of service time. That means he won’t even qualify for arbitration until after 2025 and isn’t slated for free agency until after 2028. If they don’t find any particularly enticing offers now, they can simply keep him around as part of the rotation core as they gradually try to emerge from this rebuilding process, which seems to be the most likely scenario at this point.

But the case for making him available could be his age. Sears was sort of a late bloomer, not reaching the big leagues until his age-26 season. Though the A’s can theoretically control him for years to come, he’s now 28 years old and will likely be in his early 30s by the time the club is competitive again. Perhaps that will compel them to consider pulling the trigger on a deal while his value is at its highest. With pitchers liable to suffer significant injuries at any time, there’s also a case for the club to proactively strike a deal before that happens to Sears.

Whether anything can come together will likely depend on the offers that are coming towards Oakland. Since Sears is cheap and controllable and fairly reliable, they will likely need a decent return to get a deal done. As mentioned, Sears is more a reliable mid- or back-of-rotation guy than an ace, but that could hold appeal to clubs with so many pitching injuries around the league.

Allen picked up 57 starts at shortstop and 35 games at second base last season. The defensive specialist rated highly with the glove at both positions. Longstanding questions about his offensive impact continued during his rookie season, however. The 24-year-old hit only .207/.256/.291 in his first 326 big league plate appearances. Allen made a decent amount of contact but rarely hit the ball with any kind of authority, at least against right-handed pitching. He mustered only a .179/.232/.226 line with one home run in 232 plate appearances without the platoon advantage. Allen connected on a trio of longballs with a .276/.315/.448 slash in 96 trips to the dish against southpaws.

Despite those glaring small-sample splits, it’s a little surprising a rebuilding Oakland club plans to limit Allen’s exposure against right-handed pitching. He’d need to take a significant step forward against northpaws if he’s to emerge as a potential bottom-of-the-lineup regular down the line. Nevertheless, the A’s are set to give the majority of the playing time to Díaz, who signed a two-year free agent deal over the winter. The seven-year MLB veteran has been a solid hitter against left and right-handed pitching alike in his career, though he’s never played particularly good defense at shortstop.

Díaz has rated as a solid gloveman at second and third base, where he figures to take some reps against left-handed pitching. Tony Kemp and Jace Peterson both hit from the left side and have struggled against southpaws in their careers. That’s also true of first base/corner outfield option Seth Brown.

Rule 5 draftee Ryan Noda also hits from the left side and will factor into the infield at first base. The club recently informed the former 15th-round pick he’s made the Opening Day roster, Kawahara tweets. Noda, who turns 27 on Thursday, will get an MLB crack after six seasons in the minors. He spent the 2022 campaign with the Dodgers’ top affiliate in Oklahoma City, hitting .259/.395/.474 with 25 home runs and a huge 16% walk rate over 574 trips to the plate. The Cincinnati product struck out in 25 of 52 at-bats this spring, but that wasn’t enough for the Oakland front office to look past his strong offensive track record against minor league pitching.

The A’s will have to carry Noda on the MLB roster or injured list for the entire season in order to permanently obtain his contractual rights. If Oakland decided to take him off the roster, they’d have to make him available on waivers and then offer him back to L.A. if he goes unclaimed.

Another question facing the coaching staff and front office this week is how to align the starting rotation. Paul Blackburn was already known to be headed to the injured list and Kotsay indicated over the weekend that Drew Rucinski would join him. The A’s have tabbed left-hander Kyle Muller as the Opening Day starter, with Ken Waldichuk, James Kaprielian and Shintaro Fujinami also in the rotation. The fifth spot is still up for grabs between Adam Oller and JP Sears, though Kotsay said tonight that both pitchers will be on the season-opening active roster (via Kawahara).

One of that duo will move to long relief, with Oller seeming the likelier bet. He’s come out of the bullpen for three of his six outings this spring, while Sears has started four of five appearances. Both pitchers made their big league debuts in 2022, with Sears having a better first crack. Oller surrendered a 6.30 ERA in 74 1/3 innings; Sears pitched to a 3.86 mark over 70 frames, albeit with a modest 17.7% strikeout percentage.

Beyond that, the simple fact is that even prior to signing Fujinami, the A’s had more rotation candidates than rotation spots. That’s not an especially common spot for a rebuilding club to find itself, but Oakland has zeroed in on bulk pitching acquisition over the course of its fire sale/teardown. The front office didn’t target exclusively pitchers, but the A’s nonetheless have as many as seven rotation candidates who’ve been acquired via trade within the past calendar year on the 40-man roster.

No team is going to rely on five starters to get through a season, and even getting through a year with “only” seven or eight starters is a luxury to which most teams cannot lay claim in the modern baseball landscape. That said, the A’s stand out as a team that might lean on 15 or more starting pitchers to get through the season, given the lack of established talent, the glut of nearly MLB-ready arms on the roster and the potential for an in-season trade involving just about any likely member of the rotation.

Let’s take a look at what the starting staff might look like…

The Locks

Cole Irvin, LHP: Not many trades that end up sending cash back to a player’s former team work out better than the acquisition of Irvin has for the A’s. It’s been nearly two years to the day since Oakland picked him up from the Phillies in exchange for cash, and he’s made 62 starts of 4.11 ERA ball with a well below-average 16.8% strikeout rate but a superb 5.2% walk rate.

With four years of club control remaining, it’d be a surprise if Irvin hasn’t at least generated some cursory trade interest this winter, although his glaring home/road splits might not help his cause much. Dating back to Opening Day 2021, the lefty owns a 3.44 ERA at home, where opponents have batted just .243/.288/.355 against him in nearly 800 plate appearances. In that same timeframe, Irvin’s road ERA is a more alarming 4.88, and opponents have pounced on him for a .285/.330/.491 slash.

Splits notwithstanding, Irvin is a perfectly viable fourth/fifth starter, but a team that plays its home games in a more hitter-friendly environment might be understandably dissuaded from giving up too much young talent to acquire him. That’s fine for the A’s for now, given Irvin’s remaining club control and the simple fact that they’ll need some dependability on the staff. If he’s pitching well come July, he’ll be a feasible trade candidate (particularly with an arbitration raise looming next offseason).

Paul Blackburn, RHP: It’s easy to call Blackburn, who made the 2022 All-Star team but finished the year with a 4.28 ERA, a token All-Star who was only chosen because every team needs a representative. Perhaps there’s some truth to that, too, but as I noted last summer, Blackburn was a plenty deserving selection and a fairly intriguing trade chip at one point. Through July 2, he’d pitched 87 innings of 2.90 ERA ball with three times as many strikeouts as walks (18.8% to 6.2%) and a strong 48.7% grounder rate. His .280 BABIP and 80.7% left-on-base rate pointed to some likely regression, but based on results alone, Blackburn was pretty good.

Things went off the rails almost immediately thereafter, however. Blackburn tried for several weeks to pitch through pain that’d arisen in his pitching hand, but he was shelled for 21 runs in a span of 14 1/3 innings. He eventually landed on the injured list due to that pain, and testing revealed that he’d torn the tendon sheath in his right middle finger. He was placed in a splint for up to eight weeks, and his season was over.

Time will tell whether Blackburn can replicate his production from the first three months of the 2022 season, but as long as he’s healthy, he’ll be given every opportunity to prove it was sustainable. Blackburn only has three seasons of club control remaining, so if he’s healthy and pitching well this summer, expect to hear his name pop up in rumors.

Newcomers Who’ll Be Given a Chance

Shintaro Fujinami, RHP: The former high school rival of Shohei Ohtani, Fujinami was once lauded as a prospect nearly as much as the current Angels phenom. Fujinami, 28, stepped right from his high school rotation into the rotation of Japan’s Hanshin Tigers, posting a 2.75 ERA in 137 2/3 innings as a rookie in Nippon Professional Baseball. He was a multi-time All-Star and budding phenom in his first four years in Japan, pitching to a sub-3.00 ERA each season. His career has come off the rails since that time, though, and Fujinami comes to Oakland as a hard-throwing but command-challenged project. At 6’6″, he’s armed with a fastball that can reach triple digits and a splitter and slider that have both, at times, made hitters look silly. He’s also been shuttled between the Tigers’ top team and minor league team in NPB for several seasons while displaying troubling walk rates and looking like a shell of the potential star he was early in his pro career.

Drew Rucinski, RHP: In the past five years, the now-34-year-old Rucinski went from nondescript, replacement-level MLB pitcher to a powerhouse workhorse for the KBO’s NC Dinos. Rucinski started 121 games dating back to 2019 and has posted an ERA between 3.17 and 2.93 each season. Along the way, he’s whiffed 21.5% of opposing batters, walked just 6.3% of them and posted a superhuman 66% ground-ball rate. The A’s signed Rucinski for a year and $3MM, with a 2024 club option valued at $5MM. If he can carry over any of that KBO form to the Coliseum, he’ll be a durable source of innings and a nice summer trade chip.

The Out-of-Options Arm Who’ll Make the Staff in Some Capacity

James Kaprielian, RHP: A former first-round pick of the Yankees who was sent to Oakland as part of the Sonny Gray trade, Kaprielian has been injured more often than he’s been healthy. He looked to be turning a corner over the past two seasons, logging a combined 4.16 ERA in 253 1/3 innings over the life of 50 games (47 of them starts). However, Kaprielian had shoulder surgery this offseason, and it’s not clear whether he’ll be ready to go for Opening Day. Manager Mark Kotsay said at the time of Kaprielian’s surgery that the organization expected him to be ready, but Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News recently suggested that the soon-to-be 29-year-old might miss time early in the year. (If that’s indeed the case, he’ll land on the IL alongside rotation hopeful Daulton Jefferies, who’ll miss all of 2023 after undergoing both thoracic outlet surgery and Tommy John surgery.) Kaprielian is out of minor league options, so whenever he’s healthy, he’ll be on the roster either as a starter or perhaps a multi-inning reliever — it’s a just a matter of when that time will be.

Candidates for the Remaining Rotation Innings

(Note: all players in this section have six-plus seasons of club control remaining)

Adrian Martinez, RHP (two remaining option years): One of two players acquired in the trade that sent Sean Manaea to San Diego, Martinez was roughed up for a 6.24 ERA in 57 2/3 innings in last year’s MLB debut. It’s a rough showing, to be sure, but his 20.5% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate both portend better production. Martinez’s 2.03 HR/9 mark was one of the highest in the game, and only four of the 344 pitchers who threw at least 50 innings in 2022 saw a larger percentage of their fly-balls become home runs than Martinez’s 19.7%. That HR/FB rate, in particular, is ripe for positive regression, even before considering the A’s spacious home park. Metrics like xFIP (4.11) and SIERA (4.16), which normalize HR/FB to league-average levels, feel that Martinez was vastly better than his basic earned run average.

Ken Waldichuk, LHP (three option years): A key piece in the trade sending Frankie Montas to the Bronx, Waldichuk held his own in a seven-start debut (4.93 ERA, 33-to-10 K/BB ratio in 34 2/3 innings). His final outing, featuring seven shutout frames against the Angels, was a particularly high note on which to finish. On top of those 34 2/3 MLB frames, Waldichuk logged 95 innings of 2.84 ERA ball between Double-A and Triple-A. He’s arguably the most highly regarded member of this bunch, and he should have multiple opportunities to win a rotation spot over the next 12 to 18 months in Oakland.

Kyle Muller, LHP (one option year): A 2016 second-round pick by the Braves (who traded him to Oakland in the Sean Murphy deal), Muller has at times been ranked among the sport’s 100 best prospects at various outlets, but his stock has dimmed a bit since that time. He’s managed just a 5.14 ERA in 49 MLB innings, but he spent the bulk of his 2022 season pitching to a 3.41 ERA in 134 1/3 Triple-A innings (23 starts). Muller punched out a hefty 29.3% of his opponents. Muller can reach the upper 90s with his heater, draws plus grades on his slider and now that he’s out of a more crowded rotation mix in Atlanta, should have a clear path to innings with the A’s. He’s out of options after the 2023 season, so it’s in Oakland’s best interest to give him a chance sooner than later.

JP Sears, LHP (two option years): Prior to Oakland’s dice rolls on Rucinski and Fujinami, Sears might’ve been a favorite to break camp in the rotation after pitching to a 3.86 ERA in 70 innings as a rookie last year. Acquired in the Montas trade along with Waldichuk, the 5’11” lefty has dominated Triple-A (2.32 ERA in 101 career innings), but a return to that level might be his most straightforward path to starter’s innings early in the season. Sears, who’ll turn 27 in a few weeks, isn’t the prototypical “prospect,” as he doesn’t throw especially hard and has relied more on plus command than overpowering stuff to find success in the minors. It’s a recipe that’s worked well for Oakland pitchers in the past, thanks to the Coliseum’s cavernous dimensions. Even if he doesn’t break camp on the roster, he’ll probably start a fair number of games for the A’s in 2023.

Freddy Tarnok, RHP (two option years): Another piece of Oakland’s return for Murphy, Tarnok has all of 44 2/3 innings above Double-A under his belt (including a tiny two-thirds of an inning MLB debut in 2022). That lack of upper minors experience, coupled with the breadth of options for the Athletics’ rotation, should probably ticket him for Triple-A work to start the season. Several scouting reports on the 6’3″ Tarnok suggest his ultimate home might be in the bullpen, where a fastball that can already reach 98 mph might play up further. He’s never reached 110 innings in a professional season, so in addition to getting some needed reps against Triple-A lineups, he’ll also be looking to build out his workload.

Luis Medina, RHP (one option year): Yet another piece of the Montas return, Medina pitched to a 3.38 ERA in 17 Double-A starts with the Yankees before being blown up for a calamitous 11.76 ERA in seven starts (20 2/3 innings) with the Athletics’ Double-A club. Command has long been an issue for Medina, but he took that concern to new heights with the A’s, walking 22 of the 114 batters he faced following the trade. FanGraphs lauds Medina’s plus breaking ball and elite arm strength, while Baseball America notes that his heater has reached 103 mph in the past. The huge command concerns could lead to a future in the bullpen. Medina isn’t likely to win a starting job early in the season, but the A’s can continue trying to refine his ability to locate the ball in hopes of hitting the jackpot on a starter with this type of repertoire. If not, a move to the ’pen could put him on a fast track to the Majors.

Adam Oller, RHP (two option years): The A’s picked up Oller as one of two arms in the trade sending Chris Bassitt to the Mets. Nineteen appearances later (14 starts), he has a 6.30 big league ERA under his belt with nearly as many walks (39) as strikeouts (46) in 74 1/3 innings. It wasn’t the start anyone hoped for, but Oller posted a solid 3.69 ERA in seven Triple-A starts. Oller always profiled as a potential back-of-the-rotation starter, and even the A’s massive home park couldn’t curtail the right-hander’s home run issues (2.06 HR/9). A bullpen role where he works multiple innings is feasible, as is a return to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Other Recent Trade Acquisitions

J.T. Ginn, RHP: Ginn missed more than three months of the 2022 season with a forearm injury and was clobbered for a 6.11 ERA in 10 starts of Double-A ball when healthy. He came to the A’s alongside Oller in the Bassitt trade and, as a 2020 second-rounder, was the more highly regarded get for Oakland. He’s not on the 40-man roster yet and is still only 23, so there’s plenty of time for him to right the ship, but he’s not on the immediate rotation radar.

Ryan Cusick, RHP: The Braves’ top pick in 2021, Cusick was traded to Oakland in the Matt Olson swap. Like Ginn, he spent much of the season on the injured list (in his case, due to a rib fracture). Also like Ginn, he was hit hard in Double-A when healthy, yielding a 7.02 ERA in 41 frames. He’s not Rule 5-eligible until after the 2024 season, so there’s no rush.

Joey Estes, RHP: Acquired from the Braves alongside Cusick, Estes handled older competition in High-A reasonably well. His 4.55 ERA wasn’t especially eye-catching, but he whiffed 23.8% of his opponents against a strong 7.8% walk rate in 91 innings. Home runs were an issue, but that’s two straight years of nice K-BB numbers against older competition for Estes.

Gunnar Hoglund, RHP: Hoglund would’ve been a top-10 pick in 2021 had he not required Tommy John surgery during his junior year of college, but the Blue Jays still liked him enough to take him at No. 19 and the A’s still liked him enough to make him the headliner in the Matt Chapman deal. Hoglund only pitched eight innings late in the 2022 season as he worked back from that ligament replacement procedure, so he’s nowhere close to the big leagues. His development will be worth keeping an eye on, though. Lefty Zach Logue, acquired alongside Hoglund, has already been designated for assignment, claimed by the Tigers and then passed through waivers in Detroit. He surrendered a 6.79 ERA through 57 innings as a rookie last year and actually posted an even grislier 8.12 ERA in 78 2/3 Triple-A frames.

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Amazingly, even after all of their recent trades of star-caliber players, the organization’s lone entrant on Baseball America’s Top 100 list is catcher Tyler Soderstrom — who, unlike every single one of the names mentioned prior, was drafted by the A’s. Part of that is borne out of the Athletics’ penchant for prioritizing near-MLB players in trades (as opposed to further off, more highly touted prospects), but it’s still rather surprising to see.

Nevertheless, while the A’s aren’t going to win many games in 2023, they’re brimming with young arms who could eventually hold down spots in the rotation. Attrition rate among young pitchers is enormous, and many of these names will be lost to injury, shift to the bullpen, or pitch themselves off the roster entirely. For now, it’ll be fascinating to see how many of Oakland’s young arms can solidify themselves in the big leagues, because their ability to do so (or lack thereof) will be a driving factor in the latest rebuild phase.

Aug. 10: The Athletics announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game, recalling left-hander JP Sears and selecting the contract of outfielder Cal Stevenson. In corresponding moves, righty Paul Blackburn has been placed on the 15-day injured list and infielder Jed Lowrie has been designated for assignment. Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle relays word from the team that Blackburn’s injury is an inflamed right middle finger.

Lowrie, 38, is a veteran playing in his 14th MLB season, with seven of the last nine being in Oakland. He signed a two-year deal with the Mets prior to the 2019 season, which turned out to be a disaster as mounting injuries limited Lowrie to just nine games over the course of that contract. He returned to Oakland last year and had a nice bounceback, hitting at a league average rate over 139 games.

The A’s brought him back for 2022 on a modest $850K salary, with a $100K bonus for spending 60 days on the active roster and a $150K bonus for being traded. With Oakland undergoing a massive sell-off during the offseason, it seems like the A’s wanted Lowrie aboard as a competent veteran presence amid their roster of youngsters. If he played well enough to be shipped out for prospects at the deadline, that would have been a nice bonus. Unfortunately, Lowrie has a .180/.245/.263 line on the season for a wRC+ of just 49. Now that the deadline has passed, it seems that the A’s will use the season’s final few months to evaluate younger players, with Lowrie getting nudged out of the picture.

One of those younger players getting a shot for Oakland down the stretch is Stevenson. The 25-year-old was a 10th round pick of the Blue Jays in 2018 but has since been a part of numerous trades. He went to the Astros alongside Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini in the 2019 deal for Derek Fisher. Houston then traded him to Tampa in 2020 as part of the Austin Pruitt deal. The Rays sent Stevenson to the A’s last month as part of the return for Christian Bethancourt.

The left-handed hitter has always carried himself well at the plate, posting double-digit walk rates at each of his minor league stops and always getting his wRC+ above 100, indicating above-average production. He first reached Double-A in the Rays’ organization last year, getting into 92 games, walking 15.3% of the time and hitting .254/.368/.403. That amounted to a wRC+ of 118, or 18% above average, with 17 stolen bases thrown in for good measure. This year, he’s been in Triple-A all year, split between the Durham Bulls and the Las Vegas Aviators. In 73 combined games, he’s amazingly walked in 15.3% of his plate appearances again, while hitting .275/.387/.402 for a wRC+ of 113, swiping 15 bags in the process. He’ll get a chance to see how he carries himself against big league pitching over the final few weeks of 2022, before the A’s decide how to proceed with building their roster for next season.

It’s unclear how long Blackburn will be out of action, but it seems like Sears will at least get a couple of turns in the rotation. The 26-year-old Sears was one of the players who came over from the Yankees in the Frankie Montas trade just over a week ago. He pitched in seven games for the Yanks this year but will be making his Oakland by starting today’s game, taking the place of Blackburn, who was the originally scheduled starter.

One of four minor leaguers acquired from the Braves in the Matt Olson blockbuster, Langeliers was arguably the headlining piece of the return. The former No. 9 overall pick is a well-regarded defender, and he brings a fair bit of power potential offensively. The 24-year-old has spent the entire season at Triple-A Las Vegas, hitting .281/.362/.513 with 19 home runs across 381 plate appearances. The Pacific Coast League’s extreme hitter-friendly nature has no doubt aided that production, but Langeliers’ strong defense means he’d be a very valuable performer with even adequate production in the batter’s box. Baseball America recently ranked the Baylor product the No. 2 prospect in the Oakland system and the sport’s No. 84 farmhand overall.

Langerliers’ forthcoming arrival coincides with a down cycle for the A’s, who stripped down the roster and payroll over the offseason. They’ve fallen to the bottom of the American League as a result, and there’s been some speculation they could move primary backstop Sean Murphy as part of the organizational overhaul. Murphy, who is controllable through 2025, drew interest before last week’s trade deadline but ultimately remained in the Bay Area. It stands to reason his name will be floated in rumors again this winter.

Some more out of Oakland:

• Right-hander Brent Honeywell Jr. has yet to throw his first pitch as a member of the A’s. Acquired from the Rays last November, Honeywell suffered an olecranon stress reaction in his elbow during Spring Training. He’s spent the entire season on the injured list, but the club isn’t ruling out the possibility he makes a late-season return. Martín Gallegos of MLB.com tweets that Honeywell is likely to throw a simulated game this week. Skipper Mark Kotsay suggested the club hasn’t yet determined whether there’ll be enough time for the 27-year-old to build back as a starting pitcher this season. A former top prospect, Honeywell has only managed 4 1/3 career big league innings because of a brutal series of elbow injuries. He’s out of minor league option years, so he’ll have to stick on the major league roster once he’s healthy or be exposed to waivers.
• The starting rotation is a broad area of uncertainty for the A’s, as Melissa Lockard of the Athletic explores. The trade that sent Frankie Montas to the Bronx subtracted the club’s highest-octane arm and dropped them to three rotation locks: Cole Irvin, Paul Blackburn and James Kaprielian. Among those competing for the final two spots are Zach Logue, Adam Oller, Adrián Martínez and Jared Koenig. All four hurlers have gotten at least five starts on the year, but they’ve each posted an ERA of 4.98 or higher with a well below-average strikeout rate. Lockard suggests that two of the pitchers acquired in the Montas deal — JP Sears and Ken Waldichuk — could factor into the big league rotation down the stretch. Sears started two of seven MLB appearances with the Yankees this season, his first taste of big league action. Waldichuk has yet to make his big league debut and isn’t yet on the 40-man roster, although he’ll have to be added this offseason. Both Sears and Waldichuk have started their organizational tenures in Las Vegas.

Next to Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle, Montas has been seen as one of the better starting pitchers available at the trade deadline. The Yankees had been connected to Castillo, but he was traded to the Mariners in recent days. The Yanks evidently turned their attentions to Montas in order to satisfy their desire for boosting their rotation.

Montas has been a solid member of Oakland’s rotation for years, first establishing himself in 2018. Despite a down year in 2020, Montas still owns a career 3.73 ERA with a 24.8% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 43.5% ground ball rate. Just looking at what he’s done since the start of the 2021 season, he’s been on an even better level, logging a 3.30 ERA, 26.3% strikeout rate, 7.1% walk rate and 44% grounder rate. He’s been worth 6.1 wins above replacement in that time, according to FanGraphs.

Despite being a solid performer, Montas has seemed like an inevitable trade candidate for quite some time now. As the 2021 season finished and the offseason began, the A’s were widely reported to be planning a massive sell-off of any player making a significant salary and/or approaching free agency. Montas was frequently cited among the trade candidates, next to Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea, Matt Olson and Matt Chapman. Those four latter names were all moved between this winter’s lockout and the beginning of the season, but Montas stayed. He’s making just over $5MM this season, making him the cheapest of that group, but he only has one further season of club control remaining. Given that the A’s aren’t likely to return to competition in that time, it made sense to make him available to other clubs.

The Yankees have been incredibly healthy in terms of their rotation this year, with their front five of Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, Nestor Cortes, Jordan Montgomery and Luis Severino all staying healthy for the first three-plus months of the season. As such, the rotation as a whole has logged 567 innings, the third-most in the majors, while also posting a 3.37 ERA that’s third in the league. However, Severino landed on the IL a couple of weeks ago with shoulder tightness. While he’s been out, Domingo German has made two starts but has an 8.22 ERA in those. When Montas reports to the team, he will likely bump German back to the minors or a long-relief role. If Severino can get back on the mound while everyone else is still healthy, the Yanks might have to make a tough decision about to fit everyone into the mix, but that would be a good problem to have in the future.

The Yankees weren’t content to merely upgrade their rotation, however, also adding Trivino into the bullpen, their second such addition of the day, following their earlier acquisition of Scott Effross. Yankee fans might see Trivino’s 6.47 ERA and scoff, but there’s actually more to like under the hood. Trivino’s been the victim of a .451 batting average on balls in play, despite that number being around .250 in the two previous seasons. His 28.7% strikeout rate and 52.3% ground ball rates on the year are both career highs while his 8.9% walk rate is a career low. As such, all of the advanced metrics feel that batted ball luck is masking his true talents, with Trivino currently sporting a 4.29 xERA, 3.84 FIP, 2.92 xFIP and 2.89 SIERA. He’s making a modest $3MM salary this year and can be retained via arbitration for another two seasons.

The Yankees’ bullpen seemed unstoppable for much of the season but has since hit some snags. Chad Green required Tommy John surgery and won’t be back this year. Michael King is also done for the year after suffering an elbow fracture. The once-untouchable Aroldis Chapman has struggled since coming off the IL. Clay Holmes, who seemed to replace Chapman as the unhittable monster in the bullpen, has also come back down to earth in recent weeks. With the additions of Effross and Trivino, the Yankees have given themselves some extra options for late-game duty.

The A’s have already completely remade their system this year with the aforementioned trades of Bassitt, Manaea, Olson and Chapman, and this deal will allow them to bring in four more fresh faces. The highlight of the bunch is probably Waldichuk, 24, who is enjoying a tremendous breakout season. Selected by the Yankees in the fifth round in 2019, he has split his time this year between Double-A and Triple-A. In 17 starts between the two levels, he’s thrown 76 1/3 innings with a 2.71 ERA and incredible 36.5% strikeout rate. The 10.4% walk rate is a little above-average, but there’s still plenty to be excited about in that performance. The southpaw was recently ranked the #5 prospect in the Yankees’ system by Baseball America.

Sears, 26, came in 20th on that same list at BA. He made his MLB debut this year and has looked good so far, notching a 2.05 ERA in his first 22 big league innings. He’s only gotten strikeouts at an 18.1% clip in that time, but is much better at getting punchouts in the minors. In 43 Triple-A innings this year, he has a 1.67 ERA with a 33.7% strikeout rate, along with a 4.3% walk rate.

Medina, 23, has also been considered one of the top Yankee prospects by BA, oscillating between the #7 and #11 spot from 2018 to the present. He’s made 17 starts in Double-A this year, throwing 72 innings with a 3.38 ERA, 50.9% ground ball rate, 26.4% strikeout rate, but a high 13% walk rate.

As for Bowman, he’s the most long-term play among the new Athletics, as he’s just 22 years old and was just drafted last year, being selected in the fourth round. He’s played 80 games in High-A this year, putting up a line of .217/.343/.355 while playing second base and shortstop.

While the A’s are ramping up for the future, the Yankees are loading up for right now. Their 69-34 record is the best in the American League and only percentage points behind the Dodgers for best in the majors. In recent days, they’ve bolstered their lineup by adding Andrew Benintendi, added Montas to their rotation and Effross and Trivino to their bullpen. Though there’s still about 24 hours until the trade deadline for them to make further moves, they’ve clearly cemented themselves as one of the strongest teams this year.

With Castillo and Montas now both off the market, teams looking for rotation upgrades will likely turn their attentions to Tyler Mahle. Teams like the Cardinals, Twins, Padres and Blue Jays have been connected to Montas in recent days, with those clubs now likely to pivot to Mahle or other arms.

Jack Curry of the YES Network reported the particulars of the deal before the official announcement (Twitter links).

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Frazier and Wade are arbitration-eligible, but the Yankees evidently determined they weren’t going to bring either player back. It’s easy to envision both attracting interest over the coming days, and New York will ten days to explore offers.

Frazier was a middle-of-the-order presence as recently as last year, when he mashed at a .267/.394/.511 clip. That came in a small sample of 160 plate appearances during a truncated season, but it was the kind of offensive upside talent evaluators have lauded for the former #5 overall pick. While Frazier’s a limited defensive player with swing-and-miss concerns, he also flashed a tantalizing blend of raw power and plate discipline.

The 2021 season was a disaster, though. Not only did the 27-year-old’s line fall to a miserly .186/.317/.317, he didn’t play past the end of June due to recurring vertigo-like symptoms. It’s certainly not how either he or the team would’ve envisioned his time in pinstripes coming to an end.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Frazier for a modest $2.4MM salary if he were to proceed through the arbitration process. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see another team roll the dice on his upside for that affordable sum, either via trade or waiver claim. If Frazier were to clear waivers, he’d have the right to elect minor league free agency.

That’s also the case for Wade, who’s projected for an affordable $700K arb salary. The 26-year-old doesn’t bring much power potential, but he draws a fair amount of walks, runs well and can handle multiple positions. Wade is coming off a .268/.354/.323 showing in 145 plate appearances, and it’d register as a surprise if he didn’t land elsewhere in the coming days.

The Yankees swung a deal to acquire Odor from the Rangers just before the start of the 2021 season. While the left-handed hitter had some timely hits, his overall production was lackluster. Odor managed just a .202/.286/.379 mark over 361 plate appearances. The 27-year-old will be guaranteed $12MM next season, the final year of his contract. Texas remains on the hook for essentially all of that sum, so any team that acquires Odor would only owe him the league minimum salary.

Turning to the prospects involved, Ridings may be the best known. The big right-hander already made his MLB debut this past season as a COVID replacement. While he only worked five innings of relief, he looked like a potential late-game weapon. Ridings averaged 97 MPH on his fastball and generated whiffs on a massive 18.9% of his offerings. The 26-year-old also posted dominant numbers in the high minors.

Cabrera is the highest-regarded of the group, according to Baseball America. BA’s #8 organizational farmhand, Cabrera is coming off a solid .256/.311/.492 showing with 24 homers over 478 plate appearances at Double-A Somerset. He’s regarded as a high-end defensive infielder with strong bat-to-ball skills and burgeoning power.

Pereira, a lefty-hitting center fielder, was limited to 221 low minors plate appearances by injuries. The 20-year-old probably isn’t a near-term big league option, but the Yankees didn’t want to chance another team taking a shot on his upside. A highly-regarded amateur coming out of Venezuela in 2017, he raked at a .303/.398/.686 clip when healthy enough to take the field this year. Neither Sears nor Marinaccio has ever made an organizational ranking at FanGraphs or BA, but both posted strong numbers in the high minors and could be big league options in 2022.