Photo credit: bleacherreport.com

By: Lewis Rubman
SRS Contributor
April 22, 2019

OAKLAND — The other night, someone said to me that half of the A’s starting rotation for the second half of this season currently is pitching for the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators.

The A’s starting rotation certainly needs a boost, given the struggles Mike Fiers and Marco Estrada have been experiencing. Estrada already has been removed from the rotation, having been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a lumbar strain. He had been battling lower back pain during spring training, and it’s not unlikely that the two 10-hour flights between Oakland and Tokyo aggravated his condition.

For the moment, Fiers, the mound staff’s ace as the season began, remains in the rotation, but it’s questionable how much longer the team can afford to keep him there.

To make matters worse, Brett Anderson, who had been a steadying presence on the mound until yesterday, when injured his left ankle trying to field Randal Grichuk’s swinging bunt in the top of the third . The good news that Anderson reports that he feels better and now can walk without limping.

But, in spite of this hopeful development and Chris Bassitt’s successful, albeit short (five innings) start in tonight’s 6-1 win over the Texas Rangers, the question of which, if any, Aviator starters are likely to help the parent club remains an important one.

Now seems like a good time to look at some of the possible answers, not only in Vegas, but also among the hurlers working their way up the ladder with the Double-A Midland RockHounds and the Class A-Advanced Stockton Ports. While we’re at it, a few glances at the A’s injured list also would be in order.

21-year-old lefty Jesús Luzardo is considered the team’s top prospect. He started two games for the big club during spring training, going a total of 9 2/3 innings, including his two stints in relief. He was impressive in that small sample, with 15 strikeouts against four walks, allowing six hits, no homers, and achieving a 0.93 ERA and a 1.034 WHIP. A shoulder strain shut him down in mid-March, and it’s likely he’ll be activated soon for a few appearances with Stockton or Midland before a promotion to what might be a brief fling with the Aviators, followed by a leap to the majors. Alas, this is the plan, but not the reality.

29-year-old Jake Buchanan, with a major league lifetime record of 2-3, 4.73 ERA, hardly qualifies as a prospect. But we’re not talking about prospects here. What interests us is someone who might help solve the A’s current need for effective starting pitching. After three starts, Buchanan looked like he might be the man for the job. He went 2-0 for the Aviators and boasted a 2.50 ERA while holding opponents to a .222 BA. But that was before yesterday’s outing against the Fresno Grizzlies. Buchanan was knocked out of the box after surrendering nine hits, two of them home runs, and five runs, all of them earned in four innings.

A.J. Puk, the A’s top draft pick in 2016, and the promising, but as yet unproved Jharel Cotton are recovering from the Tommy John surgery they underwent a little over a year ago. Reports on them have been encouraging, but, as with Luzardo, when they’ll return to full form remains an open question.

Daniel Mengden, who started 17 games for Oakland last year, is available in Las Vegas, where he’s won his three starts with a 3.00 ERA, throwing seven innings of two-hit ball in his last appearance, Saturday night in Fresno.

Edwin Jackson, who bolstered the A’s sagging pitching corps last year, going 6-3, 3.33 ERA after joining the team on June 25, didn’t land a major league contract after the season ended. The A’s signed him to a minor league deal a little over a week ago and sent him to Arizona for spring training. The plan is to bring him up to Vegas, where he’ll pitch himself into starter mode. We can only hope he’ll be able to repeat his mildly miraculous 2018 campaign.

Sean Manaea, the lefty who no-hit the Red Sox a year ago yesterday, is an outlier. He underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery in September and might rejoin the rotation late this season. He has likely done some rehabbing.

Oakland obtained Jorge Mateo, Dustin Fowler and right-handed pitcher James Kaprielian in exchange for Sonny Gray just before the 2017 trading deadline. Kaprielian was the Yankees’ first choice in the 2015 but has missed over three years of action due to the Tommy John-shoulder syndrome. He’s on the A’s 40-man, assigned to Stockton, but has yet to make an appearance with the Ports. He seems the least likely of the A’s recuperating moundsmen to have any impact on the team in 2019. Daulton Jeffries and Wyatt Marks are two other Ports starters who might have a bright future with Oakland, but it’s more likely going to be at Howard Terminal than at the Coliseum.

Daniel Gossett had been recovering nicely from Tommy John surgery but was returned to the 60-day injured list last week. He’s not expected to be available this season.

None of the pitchers on the A’s double-A affiliate in Midland is on the 40-man roster. Until last Saturday, Brian Howard seemed to have a shot at making that list in the near future. In his first three starts, he threw 16 innings to go 2-0. The tall (6’9”) 23-year-old righthander accompanied that with a 0.56 ERA, a .200 opponents’ batting average and a 2.06 WHIP. Then last Friday he had a melt-down against the Frisco Rough Riders, allowing seven earned runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings, letting his ERA balloon to 7.20.

23-year-old righty Barry Feigl, with just one year’s experience in pro ball, has the best record on the Ports’ pitching so far this season. He’s started three games and has gone 1-0. His ERA is 2.25, and he has held opponents to a batting average of .175 over 16 innings. His WHIP is a sparkling 0.94, and his BB/K ratio is 5/22. It’s unlikely we’ll see him with A’s this year, but two or three years down the line, he’s a possibility (if he doesn’t flare out or get traded).

The picture I’ve just sketched is not a pretty one, but it’s not a complete one either. They are based on stats, not on observation or even a careful reading of the play-by-play. In any case, three starts are not enough to show a pitcher’s ability or potential or even to judge his performance with any great accuracy. Nor do my remarks necessarily mean that there is no one pitching in the A’s system who could rise quickly to the occasion. There may indeed, be several major league quality hurlers under contract to Oakland who haven’t caught my eye. And Fiers might catch fire, and Estrada could yet make his mark. But until then, the A’s face some serious problems with their starting pitchers.