This season’s first 2 months have always been about treading water. The A’s have a gloriously average squad that has been, well, average : Since April 10th, the A’s have been been between 1 game under .500 and 3 games over .500 each and every day.
The ability to stay neck and neck in the standings with their competitors has been enhanced by Seattle floundering (Mariners like fish, after all) under .500. And so the A’s approach Memorial Day where they would have hoped to be: in or near 1st place with a roster that is poised to improve.
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Will Memorial Day bring said improvement in the form of a “high upside” starting pitcher? One can rely only on tea leaves, not on any formal announcements, at this point. Here’s what we know:
– JT Ginn will start tonight against the Padres trying to build on his sensational 8 no-hit innings in Anaheim and hoping to avenge the disappointing final 4 minutes of that start.
– Jacob Lopez is on turn for Sunday afternoon’s game in San Diego. Lopez is fresh off of a shaky start in which he was handed a 6-0 lead and could not complete the 4th inning. His season ERA now stands at 6.14.
– The A’s have been non-committal around Sunday’s SP, offering multiple possible paths and stating that bullpen usage Friday and Saturday could even inform the decision at the 11th hour. Those paths include Lopez taking his normal turn, an “opener” with Lopez to follow, or a “bullpen game”. Really the only option the A’s seem to have ruled out is calling up a new SP — it seems the current group will handle the game in some way.
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– Gage Jump pitched on Wednesday, so he is not on turn to pitch until Monday at the earliest. So he has never been an option for the Padres series but would be ready for any of the games with Seattle. Jump’s start Wednesday was his best of the season: 7 IP, 4 hits, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K.
What does this all suggest might be in the cards? Certainly there are very banal outcomes still on the table, such as that Lopez makes the Sunday start as the A’s continue to hope he rediscovers his 2025 form and the rotation stays on turn with Aaron Civale opening the Seattle series on Monday.
Or … are the tea leaves suggesting that Lopez is headed to the bullpen to give the A’s a valuable long relief arm and lefty option, making room for Jump to debut as an electric and unknown arm the Mariners have to face in a big head-to-head showdown? (I say “big,” even though it’s still May, because the path to the AL West crown runs through Seattle and this represents 3 of 13 “two game swing” games.)
The A’s would have to make a corresponding move on the 40 man roster to call up Jump. The obvious casualty would be Jose Suarez, since shifting Lopez to the bullpen would give the A’s a second lefty. Also, Suarez just isn’t anything special and was a stopgap pickup at best — or least that’s how it should be.
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Coming into the season the A’s hoped Luis Morales would give them a plus arm at the front of the rotation, allowing Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs to settle into more mid-back of the rotation roles. That just didn’t work out, but without question it would buoy the A’s chances to contend significantly if they could find and insert a plus arm into the rotation.
The best hope for this has always been Jump, a top prospect in MLB and the only top A’s pitching prospect who is a step away from the big leagues. It was has been, since Jump’s solid spring training showing, not a matter of “if” but rather “when” he would join the 2026 rotation.
Is that time now? If so, Happy Memorial Day indeed.
