The Athletics officially hired Taylor Smith as the club's new president of baseball operations on Monday, and if he wants to get a quick start on addressing the team's biggest need — pitching — targeting players he's already very familiar with would be one way to go about that search.

Coming from the Boston Red Sox, Smith knows a number of players who could be of interest to the A's, but the group we want to look at (in true A's fashion) will be the ones who may be a little easier to pry away. After the World Series, teams' rosters will have to be trimmed down to 40 players. They will also have to add any players they hope to protect from the Rule 5 Draft to the roster in the coming weeks.

The A's are currently at 46 players, while the Red Sox are sitting at 44. Trims will certainly have to be made, but the Athletics are looking for upgrades up and down the roster, while Boston is looking for space on an already competitive group of players. 

For the A's, players on the Red Sox who are either out of options or who will be Rule 5 eligible without a clear spot on the roster for them could be the best targets. 

Thirty-one-year-old reliever Zack Kelly is out of options, and Roster Resource has him starting in the minor leagues, meaning he would need to be placed on waivers to stick with the Sox. He has spent parts of the last five seasons with Boston and held a 3.31 ERA (3.65 FIP) in 2026 across 16 ⅓ innings.

His biggest selling point for the A's would be his ground-ball rate of 45.8%, while his 9.9% walk rate last season is a little higher than they may be targeting. Chris Roycroft (63.6% GB%), Scott Blewett (50.5% GB%), and Joel Kuhnel (48.8% GB%) were the only three A's right-handers with higher ground-ball rates last season, though Kelly had a lower walk rate than Roycroft's 14.1% and a higher strikeout rate than Kuhnel's 13%. 

Kelly finished with a strikeout rate of 19.7%. 

Max Carlson is a Red Sox prospect who flew under the radar in 2026 after suffering a shoulder impingement in 2025. The right-hander finished this past season with a 4.31 ERA (3.63 FIP) across 79 ⅓ innings in his first taste of Double-A. He also struck out 28.9% of the hitters he faced while walking just 5.5%. His ground-ball rate wasn't as high as Kelly's, but the walk rate would play.

Carlson is Rule 5 eligible this winter, and if there's a draft following CBA negotiations, he would figure to be one of the players selected if he's not protected. 

At just 24 years old, Carlson could be a nice pickup for the A's, who could continue to develop him in the minors (albeit on the 40-man roster) before unleashing him on the league. 

One last name that would be intriguing for the A's to bring aboard would be Blake Wehunt, who is the only player mentioned who is also part of the team's prospect rankings. MLB Pipeline has him at No. 16, while FanGraphs has him 31st. He's also the only one of this trio who is a starting pitcher, coming with three above-average pitches. 

Wehunt finished with a 3.50 ERA (4.22 FIP), splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A. In Double-A, his ERA was 3.52 with a 3.62 FIP, and he was striking out batters at a 33% clip. Add in a 7.3% walk rate, and he was having a great season through 53 ⅔ innings.

When he made it to Triple-A in July, he still ended up with a 3.47 ERA, but his FIP ended up at 4.92 across 46 ⅔ innings, while his strikeout rate plummeted to 15.9% and his walk rate increased to 10%. 

In his final start of the season, his sinker was sitting at 93.5 mph while touching 95 mph, and he threw it 45% of the time, generating a 30% whiff rate against Durham. On the season he held a 48.7% ground-ball rate, which held steady at both stops. 

If the A's new president of baseball operations looks to his old club to restock his new one, these are three names that would make sense for the team to target.