With Sandy Alderson's induction into the A's Hall of Fame over the weekend, former GM Billy Beane was in town, and discussed the current state of the team.
The Athletics season is winding down, and after an encouraging start to the season that saw them at 38-38 on June 19, the club has been drowned in injuries to key players while not having enough pitching to compensate for those losses. Entering play on September 16, their record sits at 61-90.
Over the weekend, former A's GM Billy Beane was in Sacramento to help celebrate his friend and mentor Sandy Alderson being inducted into the A's Hall of Fame. He joined A's Cast and shared plenty of memories of the players that were being inducted, but also provided a key compliment to Mark Kotsay's managing this season.
"Credit to Mark [Kotsay]," Beane said. "As challenging as the bullpen was at the beginning of the year, they're finding a way to make it work these last few weeks. It's really been fun. Mark and the players are finding a way — in a very challenging situation — to pull something very positive...It's been really fun to watch him take something that was a challenging part of the club and turn it into now where you feel pretty good about it."
He credited the players, Kotsay, and the coaching staff for those gains this season.
Athletics Roundtable asked Kotsay about the bullpen's recent performance during the last homestand, and he credited the continuous moves that the front office has been making over the past six weeks or so to find arms that can help the club.
He also mentioned that the players they've been bringing in — especially the ones with options remaining — will have an opportunity to be a part of the mix for this club moving forward.
Kotsay knows that the A's need more pitching depth heading into the 2027 campaign, and if these new bullpen arms are a part of that depth, then that's great.
The A's manager also recalled last year when the team had the second-best bullpen ERA in baseball (2.99) after trading away Mason Miller from August 1 through the end of the regular season. This year's bullpen hasn't quite performed up to that same level, and there have been a number of changes made to the relief mix because of those performances in 2026.
Hogan Harris, Brady Basso (now vying for a starting role), and Elvis Alvarado are the only members of that bullpen still on the team. Sean Newcomb signed with the White Sox in free agency; Justin Sterner is injured, but guys like Tyler Ferguson, Osvaldo Bido, Michael Kelly, and Mitch Spence have all been moved.
The A's bullpen has a 3.69 ERA (3.74 FIP) since August 23, so there have been some positive developments over the past few weeks, as Beane pointed out.
Part of that change has been the next step taken by Luis Medina, who missed all of 2025 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. In his 11 innings in this span, the right-hander has recorded a 0.82 ERA (1.01 FIP) with a 46.3% strikeout rate. That's the fourth-highest in baseball over that span, behind Garrett Whitlock (50%), Mason Miller (48.8%), and Brendon Little (46.7%).
He's one arm that the team will likely be ready to rely upon in 2027, along with Harris and Alvarado. The key will be figuring out the group around them that will have a determining effect on the A's campaign.
