A’s look to solve rotation puzzle as games begin

A’S SPRING TRAINING

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A’s manager Mark Kotsay says he is excited to see the team’s newcomers as the Cactus League begins. JEFF CHIU — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Laurence Miedema

lsmiedema@ bayareanewsgroup.com

In just over 12 months since Chris Bassitt was sent to the New York Mets, signaling the start of a major organizational overhaul, the A’s have acquired 27 players in 10 different trades.

Throw in about a dozen more free agents (mostly on minor league deals) and it’s no wonder most fans don’t see a lot of recognizable names when they scan the A’s spring training roster. Only 13 of the 68 players in camp were on Oakland’s 2021 spring roster. The A’s are still trying to figure out just what pieces they have and how they go together heading into the 2023 season, too.

Some of those questions will begin to be answered today, when the A’s open Cactus League play against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Mesa, Arizona.

The A’s have attempted to address all their positions with the trades of stars such as Bassitt, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Frankie Montas, Sean Manaea and Sean Murphy, but nearly half of the players they’ve received in return were pitchers. Two of their significant offseason additions were adding hard-throwing right-hander Shintaro Fujinami from Japan and bringing Drew Rucinski back stateside after he pitched four seasons in South Korea.

Not surprisingly, two recent additions to the franchise will be the first pitchers the A’s use this spring.

Left-hander JP Sears, who appeared in 10 games with the A’s after coming over from the Yankees last August as part of the Montas and Lou Trevino deal, is scheduled to start. He’ll be followed by hard-throwing righty Freddy Tarnok, who was acquired this winter from the Braves in the Murphy trade.

Adam Oller and Kyle Muller are scheduled to pitch Sunday. Fujinami is on track to make his highly anticipated debut Tuesday against the Angels and his former high school rival, Shohei Ohtani.

It’s a crowded group vying for spots in the rotation and bullpen as the A’s look to improve from last season’s 60-102 finish. Only the 108-loss season in 1979 was worse since the franchise moved to Oakland.

“I’m looking forward to (today) and once we start playing games and getting a chance to lay my eyes on all of the guys we’ve acquired this offseason,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said this week.

The rotation is a big question mark again this season. The departure of Montas in the deadline deal and last month’s trade of Cole Irvin to the Orioles cost the A’s two pitchers who made a combined 113 starts the past two seasons — and Montas missed about a dozen starts because of injury even before he was traded.

Bay Area native Paul Blackburn, who went from being removed from the A’s 40-man roster to their All-Star representative last season, is the veteran of the group. He’s coming off a breakthrough season that saw him go 7-6 with a 4.28 ERA in 21 starts, but he didn’t pitch after Aug. 4 because of a finger injury. All signs so far in camp suggest the 29-year-old right-hander has recovered and is ready to resume his role as staff ace.

Blackburn has made 48 career starts in the majors, the most on the team. James Kaprielian is right behind with 47, but the 28-year-old had shoulder surgery in the offseason to repair an AC joint and might be limited to open the season — if he’s ready for Opening Day.

The A’s have five weeks of games before Opening Day on March 30 at the Coliseum against the Angels, but the rotation figures to be in flux for at least another season. Last season 12 different pitchers started games for the A’s and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they challenge that total again in 2023.

“We’re going to see some competition in the spring and then I think as the season goes along, we’re going to see guys competing for spots, and I think that’s healthy,” A’s general manager David Forst told reporters recently. “These guys will push each other. We have seen historically here that when starters compete with one another and push one another, that’s when things go really well.”

Forst indicated heading into camp that the team is looking at Blackburn, Fujinami (a 10-year veteran in the Japanese League, though primarily as a reliever) and Rucinski (who has just one big league start, but started 121 games the past four seasons in the KBO) to help anchor the rotation.

At least to start the season.

The rest of the contenders are 20-somethings just getting established. Ken Waldichuk, Sears, Tarnok, Oller and Adrian Martinez all made their big league debuts last season. Muller, a key piece in the Murphy trade, pitched in part of the past two seasons with the Braves, but is just 25 (only Tarnock, 24, is younger among the rotation hopefuls) and has started 11 games in the majors. Another name to remember is Hogan Harris, who is 26 and has pitched just eight games above Double-A, but pitched at three levels last season and the hard-throwing lefty averaged nearly 13 strikeouts per nine innings.

“There is something about a group of guys coming in together, and feeding off one another and competing against one another to be the best, or to be the ace,” Kotsay said. “We have some guys that you can see assimilating to each other and taking that situation they’re in and rising to that way. That’d be great.”