Anne Sullivan then moved Helen Keller’s hand to feel the running water from the stream. “Waa—ter!!!” Helen exclaimed intensely. “Also the ghost runner is stooopid!!!!” “That’s enough for today,” Anne replied. “And yes, you’re right, it’s really dumb.”
Anne Sullivan was an incredible trailblazer for what’s possible in an impossible situation, somehow teaching someone who was blind and deaf how to recognize and pronounce words. This was a task only slightly easier than getting A’s pitchers to keep the
ball in park while not walking everyone.
Enter Taylor Smith, who did not write “Cruel Summer” and is trying to avoid another one, and Cam Castro, who will try to do his job with Fidel-ity. They are charged with taking the A’s to the next level, a task that will involve turning the pitching staff from one of the worst in the business to one that performs at a level better than their home ballpark.
Be plenty optimistic that these two imports know a ton about pitching, about developing talent, about bringing out the best in players. But also be realistic that they are not about to replace Anne Sullivan on the “Top 10 ‘Believe it or Not’” lists.
One easy proclamation to make is that “Phew, finally we can expect Luis Morales and Jack Perkins to harness their stuff and pitch like Logan Henderson and Freddy Peralta!” But fixes are not simple matters when you are dealing with what is (or isn’t) between a pitcher’s ears, mechanics their body has internalized that you are trying to “unlearn,” pitchers who may or may not be fully receptive to your preaching, and the reality that “stuff” and “how well you can pitch” just don’t always correlate.
If the premise is “nowhere to go but up,” that the previous regime left every young pitcher stalled and hopeless, Luis Medina and JT Ginn offer a couple quick counterarguments. Similarly, the Brewers and Rays and Red Sox all have failed prospects in their histories whose performance just never played up to their stuff. It’s just the nature of the beast. In other words, even the Rays couldn’t fix Joe Boyle’s control so don’t put all your bullpen hopes in Luke Little’s left arm.
Another hope is to go outside the organization for an infusion of pitching talent, be it proven, “MLB ready,” local or international. As inspiring as it might be to hear that the A’s “plan to be aggressive” starting at some unnamed point that could be now, obstacles abound.
In luring free agents, the A’s will face one more season in a AAA park and are coming off of 98 losses no matter how they came by it. Payroll may be increasing but is not going to rival the top 10 spenders. The bigger free agent deals are known to generally be unwise investments and this off-season most everyone is seeking starting pitching creating a “player’s market”.
So to land someone worth getting excited about, you probably have to accept a player-friendly deal that wipes out much of your existing payroll flexibility for a contract you will later regret. It’s basically “a more expensive Luis Severino”.
In terms of trade, in order to add meaningful starting pitching the A’s would almost certainly have to part with a current key position player, e.g., Shea Langeliers, Tyler Soderstrom, Zack Gelof, or a coveted minor leaguer expected to contribute mightily to the team as soon as 2028, e.g., Leo De Vries, Jamie Arnold, Drew Burress.
Perhaps the best bet is an MLB-ready SP not yet proven, the next Dan Haren — who could also be the next Dan Meyer, an equally touted pitcher only he got hurt and was never the same. The type of pitcher the A’s may well have targeted when they were at AAA would be, I don’t know, Luis Morales and Jack Perkins?
Long term, Smith and Castro figure to greatly improve the A’s pitching through enhancement of the very way they draft, develop, and train pitchers from the ground up. But whether they can spin their magic to turn the current group into gems, whether they can bring in enough talent move the needle in the coming year — you might need Anne Sullivan for that and she’s been, er, retired for 90 years.
