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Athletics Recall Gunnar Hoglund For MLB Debut

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May 2: The Athletics have recalled Hoglund and optioned fellow righty Carlos Duran to Triple-A in his place, per a team announcement.

May 1: The A’s are set to promote pitching prospect Gunnar Hoglund for his major league debut, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’s already on the 40-man roster, so they’ll only need to open a spot on the active roster.

Hoglund, 25, was the 19th overall pick by the Blue Jays out of Ole Miss back in 2021. He landed with the Athletics as the headline prospect in the trade that sent Matt Chapman to Toronto. Hoglund’s path to the big leagues has been slowed by Tommy John surgery, but he pitched a full minor league season in 2024 and has been terrific through six Triple-A starts so far in 2025.

The elbow injury, plus some dip in velocity and diminished rate stats, prompted Hoglund’s stock to decline a bit in recent seasons. He still ranked 14th among A’s prospects at MLB.com heading into the season and 16th at Baseball America, but the general outlook had been that he profiled more as a back-of-the-rotation arm at this point.

That outlook has improved rapidly in 2025, however. After sitting 91.7 mph with his heater last year, Hoglund has seen his average fastball jump to 93.6 mph in 2025, per Statcast. His swinging-strike rate hasn’t made any substantial gains, but his overall strikeout rate is up from 22.7% last year to 26.1% this season. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel wrote today that while Hoglund didn’t rank among his top-10 A’s prospects prior to the season, the early jump in his stuff has propelled him back to the No. 2 spot on his ranking of the A’s system, trailing only first baseman Nick Kurtz.

The improved stuff has led to improved results, at least in the earlygoing. Hoglund posted a 3.44 ERA, 22.7% strikeout rate, 7% walk rate and 39.1% grounder rate in 130 2/3 innings last year — with most of those innings coming in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting. Despite pitching in an extremely hitter-friendly Triple-A Pacific Coast League this year — the same league in which he posted a 5.88 in five starts down the stretch in ’24 — Hoglund has delivered a 2.43 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 44% ground-ball rate.

Adding a couple ticks to his fastball isn’t likely to put Hoglund on an ace trajectory, but there’s a notable gap between projecting as a mid-rotation arm and a more fungible fifth starter. With the arrow pointing up, the A’s will hope that he can now profile as more of the former. Beyond the velo jump, Hoglund has also begun to incorporate a sinker into his repertoire and has largely scrapped his slider in favor of more curveballs and changeups. He’s always had plus command, and the revamped and revitalized arsenal is reason for some optimism. McDaniel noted in his update on the A’s system that Hoglund now looks “the way he did at his best at Ole Miss.”

The A’s have effectively been working with four starters for the past couple weeks. Joey Estes has already been optioned to Triple-A after a pair of nightmarish starts to begin his season. Fellow righty J.T. Ginn hit the injured list with elbow inflammation a bit more than a week ago. Lefty Jacob Lopez got the nod in Tuesday’s game against the Rangers but was optioned to Triple-A after Texas tagged him for three runs in a 2 2/3-inning start during which he issued three walks.

Hoglund will step into the rotation alongside Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, JP Sears and Osvaldo Bido. Each of Severino, Sears and Bido has produced solid or better results. Springs had a decent start but has been torched for nine earned runs in his past 8 1/3 innings, ballooning his earned run average to 6.04.

On the whole, A’s starters rank 26th in the majors with a collective 4.66 ERA. Plugging Hoglund into the mix could be a nice boon. Getting a consistent fifth starter into the mix would ostensibly benefit the bullpen, which has the eighth-highest ERA in MLB (4.51), a reprieve as well.

In terms of service time, enough has elapsed in 2025 that Hoglund won’t accrue a full year even if he’s in the majors to stay. In that scenario, he’d finish the year with 151 days of service, putting him on track to be arbitration-eligible four times, rather than the standard three, as a Super Two player. The first of those trips through the arb process would come in the 2027-28 offseason, and he’d be under club control through 2031. Of course, being optioned to the minors at any point in the future could change either of those timelines, but the club’s hope will be that Hoglund’s minor league days are behind him. The A’s stockpiled a massive number of arms in their prior rebuild, but Sears is the only one who’s proven himself in the majors so far.

A’s Select Carlos Duran

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The A’s have selected the contract of righty Carlos Duran from Triple-A and optioned lefty Jacob Lopez, per a team announcement. Right-hander Jose Leclerc was transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL in order to open space for Duran, who’ll be making his MLB debut the first time he takes the mound.

Duran, 23, was just acquired from the Dodgers in exchange for outfielder Esteury Ruiz earlier in the month. He’s pitched 16 innings between the Triple-A clubs for the Dodgers and A’s in 2025 and posted unsightly results, due largely to poor command. Currently, Duran holds a 6.75 ERA on the season. He’s fanned a respectable 24.3% of his opponents but also issued walks at an untenable 16.2% clip (in addition to three hit batters and a pair of wild pitches).

This year’s command troubles notwithstanding, Duran has a decent minor league track record. He pitched 53 1/3 innings across three minor league levels with the Dodgers in 2024 and notched a combined 3.71 ERA with a robust 29.4% strikeout rate. His location still wasn’t sharp, evidenced by a 12.9% walk rate, but it wasn’t quite as rough as it’s been so far in 2025. Duran is averaging better than 95 mph on his heater this season and pairing it with a slider that sits about 10 mph slower on the radar gun.

That slider, in particular, has drawn heaps of praise from scouts. Baseball America in 2023 called it a plus-plus offering that stood as perhaps the best individual pitch in the Dodgers’ entire minor league system. That’s high praise, but commanding that slider (and his fastball) have been an issue for Duran — as one might expect from a pitcher listed at 6’7″. Duran also has a notable injury under his belt, having missed the 2023 season due to Tommy John surgery (which may also have contributed to his poor command dating back to last year).

Leclerc’s move to the 60-day injured list shouldn’t come as a surprise. The A’s placed him on the 15-day IL due to a lat strain last week. The team noted at the time that Leclerc would be shut down entirely for an indefinite period. There’s still no firm timetable, but it’s been clear for the past seven days that the right-hander wasn’t going to be a candidate to return from the IL at any point in the near future.

The A’s signed Leclerc to a one-year, $10MM contract in the offseason. He’s had an ugly start to his 2025 campaign, yielding six runs on 13 hits and five walks in only nine innings. Leclerc has whiffed just eight of his 46 opponents — a 17.4% rate that’s miles shy of his career 30.8% mark — and has seen his average fastball drop by more than one mile per hour. It currently sits at a career-low 94.2 mph.

Walt Jocketty Passes Away

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Former Cardinals and Reds general manager Walt Jocketty has passed away at age 74, as initially reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.  Jocketty was a fixture within baseball front offices for more than four decades, and he was the architect of the St. Louis team that won the 2006 World Series.

Cardinals chairman and CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. issued a statement in memory of Jocketty, stating “On behalf of the entire St. Louis Cardinals organization, I would like to offer our condolences to Walt’s family and his many friends.  Walt was our first GM when we purchased the ball club, and he helped to lead our baseball operations through some of the franchise’s most successful and memorable years.  He will be sorely missed, but long remembered for his distinguished career in baseball.”

Jocketty began his career working in the Athletics’ front office in 1980 as their director of minor league operations, and soon moved into another role as the director of baseball administration.  During Jocketty’s 14-year run in Oakland, he helped draft and develop the core group of players that led the A’s to three straight AL pennants from 1988-90, as well as the 1989 World Series title.  Jocketty moved on from the A’s to work with the Rockies in an assistant GM role for part of the 1994 season, but in October of that year, he received his first GM job when the Cardinals hired him to run their baseball operations department.

Tony La Russa was the Athletics’ manager for much of the team’s successful run in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and Jocketty’s past relationship with the skipper led to La Russa being hired as the Cardinals’ new manager prior to the 1996 season.  That year saw the Cards win the NL Central and fall just short of the pennant with a seven-game loss to the Braves in the NLCS.  1996 was also one of only two winning seasons in Jocketty’s first five years with the Cardinals, though the team continued to amass talent — most notably another ex-Oakland staple in Mark McGwire, who launched his then-record 70 home runs in a St. Louis uniform in 1998.

Known for being a canny trader, Jocketty brought McGwire and many other star names to St. Louis during his 13-year run as the Cardinals’ general manager.  Franchise icons Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina were also drafted and developed during Jocketty’s tenure, and this combination of both internal and external production again turned the Cardinals into a perennial contender.  The Cards reached the playoffs six times in seven years from 2000-06, capturing two NL pennants and winning it all in 2006 for the Cardinals’ first championship since 1982.

Ironically, the 2006 team might have been one of the weaker Cardinals teams Jocketty put together, as the club won only 83 games in the regular season before catching fire in the playoffs.  After the Cards posted only a 78-win season in 2007, Jocketty was fired following the season, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted that there was something of a clash within the front office between Jocketty’s more old-school approach and the more analytical approach of then-Cardinals VP and future Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow.

It took Jocketty only a few months to land with the Reds in an advisory role, and just a few months after being hired, Jocketty was promoted to the GM job barely a month into the 2008 season.  The Reds had losing records in every season from 2001-09, but in Jocketty’s third year on the job, Cincinnati got back on track by winning the NL Central crown.  That was the first of two division titles and three overall playoff appearances for the Reds from 2010-13, as Jocketty again relied on an experienced veteran manager (Dusty Baker) and a homegrown star first baseman (Joey Votto).

Jocketty’s title changed to president of baseball operations following the 2015 season, as Dick Williams was promoted to the GM job as the first step in the Reds’ succession plan.  A year later, Williams became Cincinnati’s PBO and Jocketty moved into an advisory role, and continued in various advisory capacities within the organization through the 2024 season.

We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our condolences to Jocketty’s family, friends, and colleagues.

Athletics Place J.T. Ginn On 15-Day IL With Elbow Inflammation

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The Athletics have placed right-hander J.T. Ginn on the 15-day IL with inflammation in his pitching elbow. In a corresponding move, left-hander Jacob Lopez was recalled from Triple-A. The team announced the moves ahead of today’s game against the White Sox at Sutter Health Park.

Drafted by the Mets in 2020, Ginn came over to the A’s in 2022 as part of the return for Chris Bassitt. After working his way through the minor league system, he made his debut in August 2024. The righty looked capable in his eight appearances (six starts), posting a 4.24 ERA and 4.01 SIERA over 34 innings. While he didn’t miss many bats, his sinker-heavy approach helped him induce groundballs.

Ginn failed to make the A’s rotation out of camp this year; he pitched to a 7.62 ERA across 13 innings this spring. However, he quickly earned a promotion by producing a 1.64 ERA in his first two Triple-A outings, striking out 19 batters in 11 innings of work. When Joey Estes was optioned earlier this month, Ginn took over in the rotation. Through his first two turns, he looked sharp, pitching to a 3.60 ERA and a 2.60 SIERA. He was throwing his sinker with increased velocity and movement, and the results were good. He struck out more than 30% of the batters he faced, and nearly two-thirds of balls hit into play against him were on the ground. Unfortunately, things unraveled quickly in his third outing, when the Rangers tagged him for three home runs in 3 2/3 innings of work. Now, two days later, it seems we’re finding out why. The A’s will hope Ginn hasn’t suffered any structural damage and that some time off is enough to get his arm back into pitching shape. That said, it’s always concerning to hear that a young pitcher is dealing with elbow inflammation, especially when said pitcher recently showed off an increase in velocity. All the more concerning, Ginn previously suffered a UCL injury; he underwent Tommy John surgery before he was drafted in 2020.

Lopez, 27, joined the A’s over the offseason as the secondary piece in the trade that brought Jeffrey Springs to Sacramento. The southpaw began his professional career with the Giants in 2018 before they traded him to the Rays a year later. He made his big league debut with Tampa Bay in 2023 and pitched a total of 22 2/3 innings over eight games (two starts) with the Rays between 2023 and ’24. While he started the 2025 season at Triple-A, this is already his second call-up to the majors; he threw 4 1/3 innings for the A’s earlier in April, striking out five, walking three, and giving up two unearned runs. He has primarily worked as a long reliever at the MLB level, but Lopez has continued to start in the minors and could be an option to replace Ginn in the A’s rotation.

MLBTR Podcast: Justin Steele, Triston McKenzie, And Tons Of Prospect Promotions

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Can high-caliber early-career players like Paul Skenes demand trades or are they stuck where they are? (44:45)
  • With constant injuries and DFAs, could the new CBA lead to some changes in roster rules? (49:25)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images

José Leclerc Shut Down With Lat Strain

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6:18pm: Leclerc will be shut down from throwing for an undermined amount of time, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. He’ll go for a second opinion next week and seems to be in for an extended absence.

5:00pm: The Athletics announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported promotion of prospect Nick Kurtz, which is now official. They also recalled pitchers Grant Holman and Hogan Harris. In corresponding moves, they optioned infielder Max Muncy and left-hander Jacob Lopez, as well as placing righty José Leclerc on the 15-day injured list with a right lat strain.

Leclerc was put into last night’s contest but departed after just seven pitches due to shoulder soreness. Manager Mark Kotsay told reporters, including Jessica Kleinschmidt of Baseball America, that it was more of a strain than soreness.

That makes today’s IL stint fairly unsurprising but it’s still unwelcome for the A’s. Leclerc was the club’s big offseason bullpen investment, as they gave him $10MM on a one-year deal this winter. Throughout his career, he has generally been able to rack up punchouts, even if he gives out a high number of free passes. At this point, he has 369 1/3 major league innings with a 3.34 earned run average, 30.8% strikeout rate and 13.1% walk rate.

He’s off to a rough start so far this year but it’s only nine innings and it’s possible that the shoulder has been bothering him even before this IL placement. His fastball is averaging 94.2 miles per hour this year, a drop from last year’s 95.3 mph. All his other pitches are down by similar amounts.

The A’s surely hoped that he would be a key setup guy for closer Mason Miller but the early results have been shaky and he’s now going to be out of action for at least a couple of weeks. Guys like Tyler Ferguson and Justin Sterner have been given some leverage work early on and will try to hold onto those roles while Leclerc is out.

Photo courtesy of Joe Nicholson, Imagn Images

A’s To Give Tyler Soderstrom Reps In Left Field

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The Athletics’ promotion of first base prospect Nick Kurtz, the No. 4 overall pick from last year’s draft, gives the team three middle-of-the-order but defensively limited sluggers: Kurtz, first baseman Tyler Soderstrom and designated hitter Brent Rooker. Soderstrom and Rooker have primarily handled first base and DH, respectively, in 2025, but GM David Forst tells reporters that Soderstrom is now expected to see some time in left field (link via Martin Gallegos of MLB.com). Rooker could also see occasional corner outfield time; he’s briefly appeared in both left field and right field already this season.

Kurtz, listed at 6’5″ and 240 pounds, is unlikely to see any time on the grass. He was a bat-first selection by the A’s last year, and his performance in Triple-A this season has largely mirrored that of Soderstrom on the big league roster. Through 97 plate appearances, he’s slashing .321/.385/.655 with seven homers and seven doubles. Kurtz has fanned in 26.8% of his plate appearances but also walked at a 10.3% clip.

Though he’s not likely to see time in the outfield, that doesn’t mean Kurtz is without defensive value. Baseball America tabs him as a potential plus defender at first base, noting that he moves better than one might expect given his size and that he has reliable hands. MLB.com agrees, calling him an “excellent” first base defender despite lacking the speed or range necessary to play other positions.

With Kurtz seemingly ticketed for regular work at first base or designated hitter, Soderstrom and Rooker will be forced to see more regular time in the outfield. Soderstrom has slightly above-average sprint speed, per Statcast, and scouting reports have long credited him with an above-average arm — as one would expect from a former catcher. He probably won’t be a plus defender in the outfield, but he also hasn’t graded well at first base anyhow. If he can continue at even 75% of his current .298/.362/.643 pace, the A’s probably won’t care much about the defense — regardless of which position he’s manning.

It’s a similar story with Rooker. He’s played first base and the outfield corners in the past, never drawing positive grades at any spot. For a player who’s sporting a .268/.343/.523 batting line and 75 home runs over his past 1240 plate appearances, however, that’s a secondary consideration.

If all three of Rooker, Soderstrom and Kurtz are hitting anywhere close to their full capabilities, the A’s suddenly look like one of the most formidable lineups in the American League. Leadoff man Lawrence Butler, who signed an extension prior to the season, is out to a terrific start after a big finish last year. He’s batting .289/.340/.534 (150 wRC+) in 424 plate appearances dating back to last June. JJ Bleday, who hit .243/.324/.437 with 20 homers last year, has begun to heat up after a cold start. Shortstop Jacob Wilson, the No. 6 overall pick in 2023, doesn’t have much power but has some of the league’s best contact skills and has hit .299/.332/.402 in his first 185 plate appearances. Catcher Shea Langeliers isn’t likely to hit for a high average, but he popped 29 homers last season and already has five in 2025.

Athletics To Promote Nick Kurtz

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The Athletics are going to promote top prospect Nick Kurtz, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. The A’s already have a 40-man vacancy, so they will only have to make a corresponding active roster move to make this official. Alden González of ESPN reports that Kurtz actually won’t be activated until Wednesday since he’s a left-handed hitter and the club is facing a lefty starter tomorrow, after today’s off-day.

Kurtz, 22, is one of the top prospects in baseball. He put up a .333/.510/.725 line in three seasons for Wake Forest, which led the A’s to select him fourth overall in last year’s draft. Since going pro, Kurtz has continued to mash.

He has appeared in 32 minor league games thus far, with appearances at Single-A and Double-A last year, followed by a jump to Triple-A this year. Combined, he has 147 plate appearances. His 24.5% strikeout rate is a bit high but he’s also drawn walks at a huge 15% clip and launched 11 home runs. He has a combined .336/.432/.689 line across those levels with a 171 wRC+, indicating he’s been 71% better than league average.

Coming into this year, before he even started mashing at Triple-A, Kurtz was considered one of the top prospects in the league. Baseball America initially gave him the #34 spot, though he has since jumped up to #32. FanGraphs put him at #31, MLB Pipeline has him at #35, ESPN at #52 and Keith Law of The Athletic at #35. All outlets generally heap praise on his combination of power and his work covering the plate. While he’s only capable of playing first base, he is considered likely to be a strong defender at that spot.

It’s a pretty aggressive promotion, with Kurtz having just been drafted less than a year ago, but his numbers certainly suggest he’s ready for the show. The question is now is how the A’s will line up defensively. Tyler Soderstrom has been the regular at first base so far this year and he’s having a great campaign. He and Cal Raleigh are tied atop the major league home run leaderboard with nine. That has helped him produce a .298/.362/.643 line and 191 wRC+ so far this year.

Using the designated hitter spot would be an easy way to get both Kurtz and Soderstrom into the lineup on a regular basis, except that Brent Rooker is the DH most days. Rooker has been a huge power bat for over two years now, launching 30 homers in 2023 and 39 last year. He already has six so far this year. He does strike out a lot but the overall contributions are still huge. The A’s clearly agree, as they signed him to a five-year, $60MM extension in January.

Rooker does have 955 career innings in the outfield corners but with poor numbers out there. He has tallied -17 Defensive Runs Saved and -16 Outs Above Average in that time, which is why the A’s have used him as the DH so often.

Soderstrom came up as a catcher but there were questions about whether he could stick back there defensively. The A’s haven’t shown much interest in moving him back behind the plate, especially with Shea Langeliers performing well back there.

Gallegos recently suggested that the A’s have considered putting Soderstrom at third, though that would be a pretty bold in-season move since he’s never played the position. The simplest solution for now would be to live with Rooker’s defense in left field, cutting into the playing time of Seth Brown and Miguel Andujar out there, with JJ Bleday in center and Lawrence Butler in right.

Time will tell how the A’s line it up. There are no guarantees that Kurtz will hit the ground running, as even the top prospects sometimes struggle when first promoted to the majors. For now, it seems to be the latest exciting development in a gradually coalescing position player core for the A’s. Recent years have seen guys like Rooker, Butler and Langeliers cement themselves as solid core pieces. This year, Soderstrom seems to be doing the same, alongside Jacob Wilson. The group has been coming together nicely, which made the A’s a somewhat trendy underdog pick for a playoff spot coming into 2025. If Kurtz is able to thrive quickly, that would obviously help.

The pitching group is perhaps a bit behind the hitters and the rebuild is still a bit of a work in progress, with the club currently 10-12. That puts them last in the American League West but it’s still early and they’re only three games back of the lead. It’s been a dreary stretch in the club’s history, with three straight losing seasons from 2022-24 and the agonizing bolt from Oakland. But there are now reasons for optimism during their detour in West Sacramento, so things seem to generally be trending well as the club gets ready to make a new home in Las Vegas in a few years.

At this stage of the season, Kurtz can’t earn a full year of major league service time, at least not the traditional way. That means the A’s will not be in position to earn an extra draft pick via the prospect promotion incentive, regardless of how Kurtz performs in awards voting. But as a top prospect, Kurtz can be retroactively awarded a full service year if he’s able to finish in the top two in American League Rookie of the Year voting this year.

Assuming for now that he doesn’t pull that off, the A’s will be able to control him for six seasons after this one, meaning he won’t be slated for free agency until after 2031. If he stays up from now on, he would be a lock for Super Two status after 2027, meaning he would have four passes through arbitration instead of three.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

A’s Outright Angel Perdomo

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The Athletics announced that Angel Perdomo cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Las Vegas. The southpaw has the right to elect free agency since this is his second career outright, though the team did not provide any indication that he plans to do so.

Perdomo was designated for assignment over the weekend. He’s out of minor league options, so the A’s needed to get him through waivers in order to send him to Triple-A. The A’s had grabbed him off waivers from the Angels, who’d DFA him before Opening Day. Perdomo struggled through four appearances, giving up four free passes (three walks and a hit batter) in 3 1/3 innings. He recorded two strikeouts and allowed a pair of runs.

This was Perdomo’s first major league work in a year and a half. The southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery in the second half of the 2023 season while a member of the Pirates. That led Pittsburgh to waive him at the end of the year. Perdomo landed with the Braves, who non-tendered him but brought him back on a major league contract to keep him on the injured list for all of 2024.

Atlanta gave Perdomo a look in Spring Training. He pitched eight times, running a pedestrian 6:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 8 1/3 innings. The Braves concluded that he wouldn’t break camp and traded him to the Angels. Perdomo pitched twice in Spring Training for the Halos before they decided not to carry him on the Opening Day roster either.

Before the elbow injury, Perdomo showed interesting ability to miss bats. He fanned more than 37% of opposing hitters with a 3.72 ERA over 29 innings for Pittsburgh two seasons ago. Perdomo has a career 34.2% strikeout rate at the major league level, though his effectiveness has been undercut by a 16% walk rate.

Luis Severino Discusses Offseason Talks With Mets

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Luis Severino is scheduled to start for the Athletics on Sunday when the Mets and A’s face off in Sacramento, and as the veteran righty gets set to face his old team, Severino opened up about New York’s limited pursuit of a reunion last winter when Severino was a free agent.  Severino told SNY and other media members that he had interest in re-signing with the Mets last winter, and said he “told my agent that I’d stay for two years and $40MM.”

This is notably less than the three years and $67MM than Severino received from the Athletics, but the righty was open to the lesser payday.  “I knew it was going to be less money, but I just liked the environment there,” Severino said.  “The trainers were unbelievable, everything there, it was good.  So I was trying to sacrifice more money by staying in a place that I know…I can get better.  But by the end, like I said, I was not in their plans.”

From the Mets’ perspective, the club had some level of interest, though apparently only at an even lesser price.  Severino said he heard from his agent that the Mets’ “only offer they were going to give me was the same deal that they gave [Frankie] Montas.  So I think for me that was not fair.”

New York signed Montas to a two-year, $34MM deal that allows Montas the ability to opt out of the contract following the season.  (Severino’s deal with the A’s also has an opt-out clause following the 2026 season.)  The $17MM average annual value of that contract is also well below the $22.333MM AAV Severino is getting from the Athletics, and also less than the Mets’ one-year, $21.05MM qualifying offer that Severino turned down last fall.

Even if Severino was willing to drop to a $20MM AAV with his proposed two-year, $40MM contract, a further haircut down to $17MM was a bridge too far for the 31-year-old, especially given the interest he was garnering from other teams.  The Cubs and Blue Jays were publicly linked to Severino’s market before he surprised many by joining the low-payroll A’s, whose uncharacteristic spending spree this winter was more than a little related to the team’s desire to post a minimum luxury tax number related to its revenue-sharing recipient status.

Apart from the unique circumstances of the Mets’ record-setting splurge to add Juan Soto, president of baseball operations David Stearns was otherwise relatively measured in his offseason transactions, as evidenced by the lengthy staring contest of a negotiation with Pete Alonso before the slugger returned to the fold.  It could be that Stearns simply didn’t value Severino beyond a particular price point, or that the Mets prioritized Alonso and Sean Manaea (who both also received qualifying offers) moreso than Severino.

The QO perhaps factored into the Mets’ decision process in another fashion, as the Mets ended up down one draft pick overall for the winter despite having three players rejecting QOs.  The compensatory pick the Mets received for Severino ended up being one of the two picks the Mets had to surrender as compensation for signing Soto.  Of course, the club didn’t get any compensation for re-signing their own free agents — Alonso re-upped for two years and $54MM (with an opt-out after this season), and Manaea for a three-year, $75MM deal that contains $23.75MM in deferred money, dropping the current value in terms of luxury tax numbers to roughly $22MM per season.

Severino signed a one-year, $13MM deal with New York in the 2023-24 offseason, which he viewed as a bounce-back contract after several injury-plagued years with the Yankees.  The plan worked out well, as Severino had a solid 3.91 ERA over 182 innings with the Mets that paid off in the form of his three-year commitment from the Athletics.  It proved to be a win from the Mets’ perspective as well, as Severino provided steady rotation work for a team that made the NLCS, and New York even get an extra draft pick back for its investment.

Time will tell if the A’s made a wise move in locking up Severino, or if the Mets made a good call in letting him walk.  In the short term, however, some second-guessing is inevitable since both Manaea and Montas are hurt.  Manaea will be out until late May at the earliest after suffering an oblique strain and then a setback in his rehab, while Montas also figures to be out until roughly mid-May after a lat strain cost him all of Spring Training.  Severino has a modest 4.74 ERA over his three starts in an Athletics uniform, but he is at least healthy and on the mound, whereas the Mets have already had their rotation depth stretched in the early going.

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