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Paul Blackburn

Paul Blackburn, Manny Piña Questionable For Opening Day

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Athletics manager Mark Kotsay provided reporters with some injury updates on a few players today, with Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle relaying the information. Right-hander Paul Blackburn and catcher Manny Piña have each been slowed down by injuries recently and it’s now unclear if either player will be available to the A’s when Opening Day rolls around.

In Blackburn’s case, he has a fingernail avulsion, or torn nail, on the middle finger of his right hand. He’s playing light catch at the moment but it seems that he can’t do much else and he won’t make his scheduled spring start tomorrow.

The 29-year-old Blackburn is going to be one of the more seasoned pitchers in the A’s rotation this year, at least in terms of major league experience. Shintaro Fujinami and Drew Rucinski are slated for two spots after lengthy showings in Japan and Korea, respectively. Blackburn and James Kaprielian each have just over 50 major league appearances and should also have spots, with another job available to one of the club’s pool of less-established pitchers like JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk, Adam Oller, Kyle Muller or Adrián Martínez.

Blackburn had a nice breakout campaign last year, pitching to a 4.28 ERA over 21 starts. That ERA might not jump out so much, but he had a much lower 2.90 figure through early July. His 18.8% strikeout rate in that time was subpar, but he paired that with a strong 6.2% walk rate and 48.7% ground ball rate. His results took a step back from that point as he dealt with pain in his pitching hand, eventually resulting in a diagnosis of a torn tendon sheath in his right middle finger.

Blackburn was looking to get back on track here in 2023 but it seems he will at least be delayed now due to that same finger. Blackburn tells Kawahara that the current issue is unrelated to last year’s injury. At this point, it’s still not clear if he’ll need to miss some of the start of the regular season, but if he does, it would potentially open up an opportunity for one of those aforementioned pitchers looking to earn a job with the club.

One other pitcher who could have been in that mix but is also facing his own setback is Freddy Tarnok. Kawahara relays that Tarnok is experiencing some right arm discomfort and is shut down from throwing while undergoing testing. At this point, it’s unclear what’s ailing Tarnok or how long he will be out of action, but he’ll be on the sidelines of the rotation competition for the time being. The 24-year-old, acquired in the Sean Murphy trade, made a one-game MLB debut with Atlanta last year. He spent most of the year in Double-A and Triple-A, posting a 4.05 ERA over 106 1/3 innings.

As for Piña, Kotsay says he “felt something” in his left wrist and will be evaluated. He signed a two-year deal with Atlanta last year but was shut down in May with surgery on that left wrist, limiting him to just five games on the year. The A’s brought him over in the Murphy deal to serve as a veteran complement to rookie Shea Langeliers, who is going to take over Murphy’s job as the primary backstop in Oakland. At this point, it’s unknown how significant this issue is for Piña, but it will be noteworthy to watch for the A’s as he and Langeliers are currently the only two catchers on the 40-man roster. If Piña does end up needing to miss some time, that would create an opening for a non-roster invitee, with Kotsay naming Yohel Pozo or Kyle McCann as potential options. When asked about prospect Tyler Soderstrom, Kotsay had this to say: “I think Tyler could handle himself. I also think from a polished, development side for Tyler, I think it would be a bit rushed. But not to exclude him in the process.”

Quick Hits: Stephenson, Meneses, Oakland

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Tyler Stephenson was one of the bright spots of a tepid Reds offense that contributed to them finishing 62-100 and securing their first 100-loss season since 1982. The trouble was the Reds only called upon Stephenson in 50 games last year, and getting a full season out of their young catcher will be a huge boost to their lineup in 2023 and beyond.

As Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports, the Reds are looking to utilize Stephenson in 140-150 games in 2023, but the majority of those appearances could come at designated hitter to try and protect his body from the rigors of catching. He did, after all, hit .319/.372/.482 with six home runs across 183 plate appearances so it’s no surprise that the Reds are trying to figure out the best way to get a full season’s worth of that offense.

The Reds have signed Curt Casali and Luke Maile to their roster and plan to carry three catchers throughout 2023, and Nightengale writes that the team could look to use Stephenson as a catcher twice a week, which would equate to 54 games over the course of the season, with Casali and Maile handling the rest.

Here’s some more bits and pieces from around baseball:

  • Joey Meneses was a revelation for the rebuilding Nationals in 2022, slashing .324/.367/.563 with 13 home runs over 240 plate appearances in his age-30 rookie campaign. As the Talk Nats podcast revealed, the Nats tried to sign Meneses after the 2019 season but he opted to go to Japan instead. At the time, Japan was likely a far more financially appealing option for Meneses given he would’ve been looking at another minor league deal had he stayed in the States.
  • The A’s are planning to use Jesus Aguilar at both first base and designated hitter in 2023, general manager David Forst told reporters, including Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. Aguilar appeared in 63 games at first and 60 at DH last year for the Marlins and Orioles, and it seems likely he’ll have a similar split this year. The 32-year-old had a disappointing 2022, slashing just .235/.281/.379 with 16 home runs over 507 plate appearances. He’d been a productive hitter for a few years prior though, and that was enough for Oakland to give him a one-year, $3MM deal for 2023. The rebuilding A’s will surely be hoping for a rebound at the plate so Aguilar can turn himself into a valuable trade chip at the deadline.
  • Sticking with the A’s, and Forst says Paul Blackburn and James Kaprielian have both progressed well in their rehab and should be ready for spring training. “I think it’s reasonable to expect both guys to be ready to go,” Forst said (Twitter link). Both players figure to be part of Oakland’s rotation this year. Blackburn, 29, pitched in 21 games last year and worked to a 4.28 ERA over 111 1/3 innings, striking out batters at a 19.1% clip against a 6.4% walk rate. He was a productive pitcher for the first three months of the season and earned his first All Star game callup. He was shelled for 21 runs over 14 1/3 innings while pitching through pain in his pitching hand before he ultimately went on the injured list. That pain ballooned out his ERA a bit and wound up ending his season, so it’ll be interesting to see if Blackburn can rediscover his early season form in 2023. He’ll earn $1.9MM in his first year of arbitration. Kaprielian threw 134 innings of 4.23 ERA ball in 2022, but underwent shoulder surgery in the off-season to repair his AC joint. His rotation spot is probably a little less secure than Blackburn’s, but the trade of Cole Irvin opens up another spot and if healthy he seems likely to at least start the year in the rotation alongside Blackburn, Drew Rucinski and Shintaro Fujinami.

Sorting Through The Athletics’ Rotation Options

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The A’s formally announced newly signed right-hander Shintaro Fujinami at a press conference last week, where general manager David Forst confirmed that Fujinami is indeed viewed as a starting pitcher. That’s the role he’s held in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball for the bulk of his career, so perhaps it’s not a surprise, but Fujinami is a hard-throwing righty with command issues, so there was a case to be made for putting him in the ’pen.

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.

Athletics Claim Joel Payamps

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The A’s announced that they have claimed right-hander Joel Payamps off waivers from the Royals, who designated him for assignment earlier this week. To create room on the 40-man roster, fellow righty Paul Blackburn was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Payamps, 28, has appeared in the big leagues in each of the past four seasons, spending time with the Diamondbacks, Blue Jays and Royals. With KC this year, he’s logged 42 2/3 innings out of the bullpen with a 3.16 ERA. His 17.6% strikeout rate is a few ticks below league average, but his 53.3% ground ball rate is a few points above.

For the rebuilding A’s, they will take a shot on Payamps, which makes sense for a couple of reasons. His low-strikeout, pitch-to-contact profile could be a good match for the spacious confines of the Coliseum. He’s also yet to reach arbitration, having come into this season with just over a year of service time. If he sticks with the low-spending A’s as a valuable bullpen piece, they can keep him around cheaply for years to come.

As for Blackburn, it was reported earlier this week that he’s been shut down for the remainder of the season. That means today’s transfer is a mere formality.

A’s Shut Paul Blackburn Down For Rest Of Season

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The Athletics are shutting All-Star right-hander Paul Blackburn down for the remainder of the season, manager Mark Kotsay announced to reporters (Twitter link via Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle). Blackburn has been plagued by discomfort in his pitching hand and recently saw a specialist regarding inflammation in his right middle finger. An exact diagnosis has not been announced by the team just yet, nor has a treatment plan, but it seems there’s enough concern that they’ll call it a season for the 28-year-old righty.

Blackburn was the Athletics’ lone All-Star representative — as one would expect for a club in the early stages of a rebuild — but was a plenty deserving candidate all the same. Through his first 16 starts this year, the right-hander worked to a tidy 2.90 ERA, and while that came with a pedestrian 18.8% strikeout rate, Blackburn’s strong 6.2% walk rate and 48.7% grounder rate helped him to overcome that sub-par mark.

Things have gone off the rails completely for Blackburn in his five most recent starts, however. In that span of 24 1/3 innings, he’s been tattooed for 25 runs on 31 hits — eight of which have left the yard — and eight walks. The average velocity on his sinker is down about a half mile per hour over those five starts, and it seems quite likely that Blackburn was pitching at less than 100 percent as he labored through that ugly stretch of five starts.

That string of poor outings ballooned Blackburn’s ERA from 2.90 all the way to 4.28, but that’ll still go down as one of the sharper seasons of his career to date. Blackburn was removed from the A’s 40-man roster prior to the 2021 season, after all, going unclaimed on waivers and battling his way back to the Major League roster. His early breakout and All-Star nod made for one of the best storylines of the year for A’s fans in an otherwise miserable campaign that has seen a beloved manager and several popular veterans depart while the front office commences yet another teardown of the roster.

Blackburn’s solid showing through 111 1/3 innings will net him a decent raise in arbitration, which he’ll reach for the first time this winter. While teams surely inquired on his availability prior to the trade deadline, it seems unlikely that the A’s would sell low on him following a season-ending hand injury. As such, even with a bump to a couple million dollars or so in the offing this winter, Blackburn figures to be back with Oakland in 2023. The A’s can control him all the way through the 2025 season.

A’s Release Jed Lowrie

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Aug. 11: The A’s announced that Lowrie has been released.

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.

The Other Potential Trade Candidate In The Athletics’ Rotation

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For much of the offseason, all talk on the Athletics centered on where the likes of Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas would head once the trade market picked up. We got answers to four of those five, with only Montas surviving the offseason teardown. That’s expected to be temporary, as Montas stands out as one of the most prominent trade targets on the summer market. Arguably the best arm who’ll be available this summer, Montas will dominate headlines over the next seven weeks. However, while Montas is understandably the highest-profile trade target on the Oakland roster, he’s not the only starter on whom the A’s will receive trade interest.

Paul Blackburn | Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Fans would be forgiven if Paul Blackburn isn’t someone who’s been on their radar — or even if Blackburn is entirely unfamiliar. The 28-year-old right-hander came into the 2022 season with a 5.74 ERA in 138 career innings at the MLB level. He’d accrued two years of big league service already, but much of that was time spent on the injured list. Blackburn missed time in 2018 with a forearm strain and then with a tendon issue in his elbow (lateral epicondylitis). In his two years of service, he’s appeared in just 30 total games — 27 of them starts.

Blackburn, however, has come out of the gate strong so far in 2022. His 66 1/3 innings already represent a career-high in the big leagues, though he’s surpassed 140 total frames in a season several times when combining his Triple-A and Major League work, so workload management shouldn’t be a major concern. So far, in 12 starts, the former No. 56 overall draft pick (Cubs, 2012) has pitched to a sterling 2.31 ERA. Blackburn doesn’t miss many bats, evidenced by a sub-par 17.9% strikeout rate, but he’s also issued walks to just 5.7% of his opponents and induced grounders at an excellent 51.3% clip.

There’s surely some degree of good fortune at play for Blackburn, who’s currently benefiting from a .253 average on balls in play, an 80.5% strand rate and a tiny 6.0% homer-to-flyball ratio. Even with some expected regression on those marks, ERA alternatives like FIP (3.13), xFIP (3.64) and SIERA (3.91) all feel there’s some legitimacy to the idea that Blackburn has pitched like a capable mid-rotation starter thus far.

Statcast largely agrees, crediting Blackburn with a 3.36 “expected” ERA based on his lack of free passes and the generally poor quality of contact his opponents make. Hitters have posted an average exit velocity of just 87.4 mph against Blackburn (league average is 88.8 mph), and just 3.6% (seven total) of the balls hit against him have been considered “barrels” by Statcast — less than half the league average (7.7%).

It’s tempting to assume that Oakland’s cavernous home park has played a significant role in suppressing Blackburn’s ERA, and perhaps it has to an extent, but it’s not clearly reflected in his home/road splits. Blackburn’s two “worst” starts of the season (four runs apiece) have come at the Coliseum, in fact, and he’s sporting a 4.39 ERA at home against a nearly spotless 0.91 ERA in 39 2/3 innings on the road this season. Oakland’s spacious dimensions help any pitcher on the mound from time to time, but Blackburn isn’t the frequently seen case of a pitcher who excels at the Coliseum and is regularly hit hard on the road.

Blackburn doesn’t have overpowering stuff by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s at least worth pointing out that he’s made some velocity gains and altered his pitch usage so far in 2022, which certainly seems to have contributed to his improved results. The right-hander’s sinker sat at 90.4 mph from 2017-20 before climbing to an average of 91 mph in 2021, and it’s now up to 91.9 mph so far in 2022.

Blackburn is also throwing his curveball at a career-high 17.8% rate — and getting outstanding results. He’s thrown 172 curves this season (already a career high) and finished 44 plate appearances with the pitch; opponents have just three hits (all doubles) and 19 strikeouts (43.2%) in those 44 plate appearances. FanGraphs’ run values credit Blackburn with the fifth-most valuable hook in MLB this year (min. 50 innings pitched), trailing only Kyle Wright, Shane McClanahan, Corbin Burnes and Framber Valdez. Among pitchers in that subset who actually throw a curveball regularly, Blackburn’s has been the most valuable on a strictly per-pitch basis.

There’s an easy case to be made for the A’s simply hanging onto Blackburn even if (or when) they trade Montas. While both are controllable beyond the current season, Montas is a free agent after the 2023 campaign and will see his $5MM salary jump close to $10MM next year. His trade value won’t ever be higher than it is over the next few weeks. Blackburn, however, is controlled for three more years beyond the current campaign. The A’s may well decide that’s enough value to hang onto him — particularly if the offers aren’t all that aggressive given the right-hander’s lack of track record prior to the 2022 season.

At the same time, money was the general driving force behind Oakland’s offseason teardown, which stripped the payroll to just under $50MM — second-lowest in all of Major League Baseball ahead of only the rebuilding Orioles. The A’s don’t have a single guaranteed contract on the books for 2023, so payroll should be less of a concern than ever, but Blackburn will reach arbitration for the first time this winter and see his salary jump from its current $710K to somewhere north of $2MM. Oakland will have to spend at least some money on a few players, and Blackburn seems like a solid, affordable option to plug into the rotation at least for the next couple seasons. There’s also a bit of “found money” appeal to the idea of getting a potentially decent return for a starting pitcher who cleared waivers in Feb. 2021 and was barely on the big league radar prior to the 2022 season

It’s unlikely that the A’s will aggressively shop Blackburn, but controllable pitching is the most coveted resource at the trade deadline, so teams will at least inquire about the right-hander’s availability. And the A’s, in the midst of their most aggressive step-back in years, aren’t likely to take any player off the table unless they can control him for five or six more years. That’ll likely lead to some conversations about Blackburn and perhaps about lefty Cole Irvin as well — though Irvin is controllable for an extra year over Blackburn and has some more questionable secondary marks to go along with rather glaring home/road splits. Blackburn, of course, isn’t the ace that his rudimentary ERA currently suggests, but contending clubs need capable innings to round out the middle or back-end of their rotation as well, and he certainly appears capable of filling that role for the foreseeable future.

Athletics Select Paul Blackburn

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The Athletics announced they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Paul Blackburn. He’ll get the start in tonight’s game against the White Sox. Oakland placed starter Chris Bassitt on the 10-day injured list to open an active roster spot, while the club already had a pair of vacancies on the 40-man roster.

Blackburn appeared in the majors for Oakland in every season from 2017-20. Tonight will mark his first big league outing this year, as he’s spent the year with Triple-A Las Vegas after being passed through outright waivers in February.

Over the past four seasons, Blackburn took the ball 21 times (18 starts), working 99 2/3 innings. He’s only managed a 5.69 ERA at the highest level, thanks largely to his trouble missing bats. Blackburn has struck out just 11.9% of opposing hitters — a little more than half the league average — with a tiny 7.1% swinging strike rate.

Despite the lack of swing-and-miss stuff, Blackburn looks like a capable fill-in for the starting staff. He’s a very good strike-thrower, walking hitters at a minuscule 6.5% career clip. The sinkerballer has also had plenty of success keeping the ball down, racking up groundballs at a huge 53.2% rate in the majors. It’s been more of the same for Blackburn in 2021, as he’s induced grounders on 53.9% of balls in play at Triple-A. His 20% strikeout rate with the Aviators is still below-average, but it’s Blackburn’s best mark at any level of his professional career.

Oakland also offered an update on Bassitt, who sustained fractures to his right cheek and jaw after being struck by a 100 MPH line drive in a terrifying incident during last night’s start. A’s trainer Nick Paparesta told reporters (including Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News) Bassitt is expected to undergo surgery next Tuesday. Paparesta estimated it’d take around six weeks for the bones to heal. General manager David Forst said the team is understandably more concerned about Bassitt’s individual well-being than a potential timeline for his return to action at this point, but he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Bassitt making it back to the mound this season (via Rubin).

Minor MLB Transactions: 2/27/21

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The latest minor moves from around the sport…

  • The Athletics will bring right-hander Paul Blackburn back into their big league Spring Training camp after Blackburn cleared waivers.  (Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News was among those to report the news.)  Blackburn was designated for assignment earlier this week.  The grounder specialist has a 5.69 ERA over 99 2/3 innings in the majors, all since Oakland since the start of the 2017 season, and Blackburn’s usage has dipped over each of those four years — he appeared in just one game in 2020.  With a decent track record as a starter in the minors, however, Blackburn does provide the A’s with some rotation depth.

Athletics Designate Paul Blackburn For Assignment

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The Athletics have designated right-hander Paul Blackburn for assignment, the team announced Tuesday. His spot on the 40-man roster goes to first baseman/designated hitter Mitch Moreland, who has passed a physical and thus made his one-year agreement with Oakland official.

Blackburn, 27, has seen time in the big leagues with the A’s in each of the past four seasons but has yet to consistently put together strong results. He did notch 58 2/3 innings of 3.22 ERA ball as a rookie in 2017, but that was accompanied by a paltry 9.2 percent strikeout rate that served as a clear indicator he’d have difficulty maintaining that output. While Blackburn has succeeded in upping his strikeout rate a bit — it’s still well below league average — he’s nevertheless been hit quite hard in the three years since that debut. Over his past 41 innings in the big leagues, he’s yielded 44 earned runs.

Overall, Blackburn carries a 5.69 ERA in 99 2/3 MLB frames to date, although there are certainly some intriguing aspects to the righty’s track record. He’s induced grounders at a rather hefty 53.2 percent clip thanks to a low-spin sinker, and he’s walked just 6.5 percent of opponents he’s faced in the Majors. Blackburn has a sub-4.00 ERA at every minor league level and a 3.47 ERA mark in parts of eight minor league seasons overall. He’s also out of minor league options, however, meaning he’d have to break camp with another club in order to avoid again being designated for assignment.

The A’s will have a week to trade Blackburn, try to pass him through outright waivers or release him. Should he go unclaimed on waivers, he’ll remain with the club and presumably head to Major League Spring Training as a non-roster invitee. At that point, he’d have a chance to force his way back onto the MLB roster or could be sent to Triple-A to open the year as a relatively seasoned upper-level depth piece.

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