The Current Roster

By Jason Wojciechowski on March 24, 2015 at 11:05 PM

This gives my current sense, as of the date above, with prior versions archived below, of my understanding of the current roster: who fits where, what the lineups are, etc. etc. (In the offseason, this is more guesswork than empirical.)

This version change is occasioned by Ryan Cook I guess being bad at baseball now. (He'll start the year at Triple-A Nashville after struggling to do anything worthwhile in the spring.) The interesting thing is how much easier this makes it for Kendall Graveman to make the team, not a relief pitcher. There's been chatter for the last two weeks that Graveman has been really impressive, but I was having a hard time seeing how he'd make it. The A's could option Drew Pomeranz, I suppose, but it wasn't clear to me whether that made the most sense in the world. Now those problems are taken care of by moving someone into the bullpen rather than Triple-A. My guess is Jesse Chavez.

I wonder whether Barry Zito could make the team at the expense of Evan Scribner.

Starters

Position v. LHP v. RHP
C Josh Phegley Stephen Vogt
1B Mark Canha Ike Davis
2B Ben Zobrist Eric Sogard
SS Marcus Semien Ben Zobrist
3B Brett Lawrie Brett Lawrie
LF Coco Crisp Coco Crisp
CF Craig Gentry Sam Fuld
RF Josh Reddick Josh Reddick
DH Billy Butler Billy Butler

Notes

  • Butler could get time at first base in order to clear DH for Crisp, particularly against lefties, because Canha can shift to left field, leaving the batting order unchanged. There's a sense in which this is now even easier because Gentry is already the center fielder and doesn't have to get bounced back and forth based on Crisp's position.
  • It's harder to make that work against righties, however, because Davis isn't going to play outfield, but you could see, in that situation, Semien starting at shortstop and Zobrist in left, on the assumption that you'd rather have Semien at shortstop against a righty than Gentry in left (or in center with Fuld shifting to left, either way), which is probably a fair assumption.

Starting rotation

Mythical slot Pitcher
1 Sonny Gray
2 Scott Kazmir
3 Jesse Hahn
4 Kendall Graveman
5 Drew Pomeranz

Relief

Player Role
Tyler Clippard Closer
Eric O'Flaherty Eighth inning
Dan Otero Seventh inning / groundball specialist
R.J. Alvarez Middle
Fernando Abad Middle / lefty specialist?
Evan Scribner Middle / mopup
Jesse Chavez Long

15-day disabled list

Player Position Date of return Effect of return
Sean Doolittle RP May 2015? Top half of the bullpen down a slot; Alvarez to Triple-A
Jarrod Parker SP June 2015? Pomeranz to Triple-A

60-day disabled list

Player Position Date of return Effect of return
Taylor Thompson RP ??? DFA Chad Smith
A.J. Griffin SP June 2015? Graveman to Triple-A; DFA Eury de la Rosa

Minor leagues

Player Position Role
Sean Nolin SP Sixth starter (probably seventh behind Chavez)
Chris Bassitt SP Seventh starter (probably eighth)
Arnold Leon SP Eighth starter (probably ninth)
Raul Alcantara SP July 2015 return from Tommy John?
Ryan Cook RP Eighth bullpen man, assuming he gets his shit together
Eury de la Rosa RP Ninth bullpen man
Chad Smith RP Tenth bullpen man
Nate Freiman 1B Platoon 1B if Canha doesn't hit
Rangel Ravelo 1B Prospect
Renato Nunez 3B Prospect
Tyler Ladendorf UT First line of injury defense for Semien, Sogard, Zobrist, Lawrie
Billy Burns OF Fifth or sixth outfielder
Alex Hassan OF Fifth or sixth outfielder

Prior Versions

March 4, 2015
February 28, 2015
February 26, 2015
January 31, 2015