For various reasons, the A’s did not add an off-season starting pitcher despite its rotation being its biggest question mark on paper. First we heard that the A’s “liked their young starting pitchers” and wanted to see what they could do, a sentiment that held more water until Jharel Cotton and A.J. Puk went under the knife, Grant Holmes and Paul Blackburn shut down not to be heard from again (yet). Then we heard that the front office just wasn’t wild about the pitchers available in their price range, followed by insinuations that their price range was near nil — a claim which was soon after contradicted by the signing of Jonathan Lucroy to a $6.
An Early Look At Starting Pitchers The A’s Eschewed
