Jesse Hahn back soon?

Posted by Jason Wojciechowski on April 24, 2016 at 2:11 PM

Susan Slusser suggests that Eric Surkamp's struggles (or, to put a finer point on it, exactly the mediocrity that's limited him 71 MLB innings in seven-plus years as a professional) could spell the end of his time in Oakland in short order. Jesse Hahn's probably not out of the woods yet―he'd pitched well in his first three games in Nashville, then gave up three runs on seven hits and three walks in just 3⅓ innings today. The question is whether the A's keep living with Surkamp not even getting through five innings every five days, taxing the bullpen and leading to near-automatic losses in the name of Hahn's development or whether they call Hahn up now and let him take his lumps and get coaching from the MLB staff―even bad Hahn is probably at worst equal to Surkamp, so I'm not sure there's any effect on the MLB team's chances here.

The other thing the A's could do, especially since they just need to cover about three weeks until Henderson Alvarez is ready, is call up Sean Manaea now. For whatever it's worth, he's pitched well in his 18 innings in Nashville, and they could give him a taste of big-league life now, then send him back down when Alvarez arrives. I'm not here to advocate for players getting paid less money, but to the extent the A's are worried about Super Two status, three weeks now vs. later isn't going to hurt that. Of course, you run the risk, to the extent this the word "risk" really fits here, of Manaea going all 1999 Tim Hudson and essentially forcing the team to leave him in Oakland. There was a time when it seemed teams wanted to call players up exactly when they were ready so they'd never have to go back down, but particularly with pitchers, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore―the most recent example is the Rays calling up top prospect Blake Snell to make a spot start on Friday.

Manaea would require a 40-man move, but there are any number of those available―Felix Doubront can go on the 60-day disabled list, as can Eric Sogard, plus there are expendable or outrightable players at the back end of the roster anyway (Max Muncy, Andrew Triggs; you might consider Surkamp himself in this category).

Some of this is complicated by, as Jeremy Koo points out, the fact that weather may cause the A's to need a sixth starter soon, and that sixth starter could easily be Manaea.