On paper the A’s appear to have some enviable depth, as well as necessary upside, in their projected 2026 rotation/depth chart. Here are names, in approximate order on the current depth chart, with likely potential upside in parentheses:
Luis Severino (front-mid rotation)
Jeffrey Springs (mid-rotation)
Luis Morales (front of the rotation)
Jacob Lopez (mid-rotation)
Jack Perkins (front-mid rotation)
JT Ginn (back of the rotation)
Gunnar Hoglund (back of the rotation)
Mason Barnett (back of the rotation)
Kade Morris (back of the rotation) Ken Waldichuk (mid-back of the rotation) Gage Jump (front of the rotation) Wei-In Lin (front-mid rotation) Jamie Arnold (front of the rotation)
Additional depth includes Hogan Harris, Brady Basso, Mitch Spence, Joey Estes, and Luis Medina.
Not only is that a lot of guys, many of them have shown flashes of potential to fill in those essential #1-#3 spots in the rotation. Sounds great, right?
Then the reality of starting pitching comes in: you can never have enough of it because it is constantly breaking, breaking down, shifting in seemingly random directions. Here’s where the A’s actually stand with regard to fielding a competitive enough rotation to make contention in 2026 a reality.
Severino & Springs
Severino and Springs are the two establishedpitchers seemingly assured of beginning the 2026 season in the A’s rotation. They were signed to fill the #1 and #2 slots in the 2025 rotation but were miscast in that role. Ideally, Severino and Springs are your #3 and #4 starting pitchers, slots where they are worthy of anchoring the middle part of the rotation.
Front of the Rotation: One down, One To Go?
The A’s might have one of the needed complementary “front of the rotation” arms in Luis Morales. Though only 22, Morales has shined in his maiden voyage around the league and certainly has the stuff to dominate. It remains to be seen how it goes when he hits some bumps in the road, but you have to be encouraged so far.
Here’s where it gets tricky. After the seemingly set and solid Morales-_____-Severino-Springs-_____, filling in that first blank becomes dicey.
Jack Perkins
Perkins is on the IL with a shoulder injury, which is never good. What’s worse is that Perkins is no stranger to the IL. With great stuff and a tendency to break down early and often, his career is more on the Mason Miller track than the track of any #2 SPs you like as comps.
The A’s don’t have a closer, having dealt Miller at the deadline, and what probably makes the most sense of all is to put Perkins in the closer’s role “for now,” with for now possibly extending indefinitely as a way to keep him on the mound and contributing in a meaningful way.
Jacob Lopez
With his elite extension playing up his mediocre velocity Lopez was on a roll in August, likely on his way to being named Pitcher of the Month. Then he had a disastrous outing (2 IP, 9 ER), and then he landed on the IL with the dreaded “forearm tightness”. Forearm tightness is often a precursor to Tommy John surgery, but thankfully so far we have not heard any terrible news.
Whether Lopez rests and comes back strong in April, or whether he goes under the knife this winter and misses all of 2026, his IL stint is a grim reminder of how precarious any spot in the rotation is. If healthy Lopez has a chance to be a solid mid-rotation SP, or at least a valuable #4 SP even if he suffers some regression. But for now we are holding our collective breath to see if he can, hopefully, pitch at all.
JT Ginn
Ginn is intriguing, with insane movement on his sinker, good velocity (averaging 94MPH), and impressive K rates (71.1 IP, 81 K, 10.22/9 IP). But a harsh reality is setting in: Ginn’s L/R splits are huge.
While RH batters are managing only a .186/.239/.359 line against Ginn, LH batters are assaulting him to the tune of .348/.421/.637. Unless he makes quantum gains against LH batters, Ginn’s best role is probably in the bullpen where he can be leveraged to face a series of RH batters or to pitch to a primarily RH lineup, e.g., relieving a LH starter against whom the lineup has been stacked with righties.
The Rest
Hoglund and Waldichuk will be trying to come back from injuries, with Waldichuk’s attempt already bumpy with terrible results at AAA. Jump, Lin, and Arnold have the upside but aren’t here yet. Barnett’s debut was more ominous than exciting and Morris has not put up good numbers at AAA — though it’s the PCL so it’s hard to say how well he is throwing right now.
Suddenly, all that depth and upside looks downright thin, so much so that that key blank at the front of the rotation still looks blank. Will the A’s ask Severino to pitch like a #2 SP? His K rates and his inherent inconsistency make that a stretch. Springs’ 91 MPH velocity probably renders him best served in the #4 slot, not playing the part of a true mid-rotation SP.
And so it’s reasonable to say that the A’s might be “a true #2 SP” away from contending, and that’s a big deal because those are hard to find, prohibitively expensive to sign, too essential to ignore.
Right now I would envision the expected rotation to be led by Severino-Spring-Morales-Lopez with Ginn in the bullpen and Perkins as closer. That’s not as robust or deep as the original list made things seem.
The question of the day becomes: where do the A’s find that additional “front of the rotation arm” they hope they have found in Morales? Is it Severino stepping up in his second year, conquering the Sutter Health Park mound to pitch at home like he has on the road? Is it Perkins maintaining health and shining in the rotation? Is it Lopez being both healthy and as good as he was until his elbow tightened up? Is it Gage making the Jump early in the season and hitting the ground running? Or Arnold putting in as much minor league time as Kurtz and joining the big league club by mid-season? Or………what?
