Oakland Athletics: A Bullpen Full of Question Marks

Because their bullpen was one of the worst in Major League Baseball in 2015, the Oakland Athletics did attempt to revamp their relief staff this offseason. However, this overhaul has not dramatically improved the pen. The A’s added some additional arms, but they also lost some relief pitchers who had been key pieces on their 2014 and 2013 postseason teams. 

Let’s go back to the start of the 2015 season when the A’s bullpen seemed to be solid by the time Opening Day rolled around. Few changes were made to the relief staff during the 2014/2015 offseason, since the bullpen had been strong the prior season. And, even though Sean Doolittle was on the disabled list, the rest of the bullpen seemed qualified enough to fill in while he was out. Unfortunately, relievers who had been consistent in 2014 were unreliable this past season. The bullpen’s downfall was blamed on instability caused by Doolittle’s absence. 

Going into 2016, Doolittle is back and healthy for now, which is a good start. Additionally, the A’s decided to sign two free agents, Ryan Madson and John Axford, who have experience pitching in the closer role in case Doolittle suffers another injury. Unfortunately, both of these pitchers have their flaws.

For Madson, this will only be his second season back after a three year hiatus from pitching in the majors. Even though he had a great comeback in 2015, there is no predicting how he will perform in 2016. Will he continue to excel or was this past season a fluke?

Axford, on the other hand, had the third worst season in his career with the Colorado Rockies this year. Additionally, he has never been an extremely dominant reliever and has struggled with his command in the past. There is a reason as to why the Rockies stripped Axford of his closer title in July this season.

The other additions Oakland made to their bullpen via trades were equally as unimpressive. First, there is Marc Rzepczynski, whose career as a relief pitcher had been mediocre up until the 2014 season. That year he began to improve and had a 2.74 ERA with 46 strikeouts over 46 innings pitched. Unfortunately, his success disappeared as quickly as it had come and he ended 2015 with a career high ERA of 5.66.

Then there is also the 26-year-old Australian Liam Hendriks. Hendriks was actually pretty good in 2015, ending the season with a 2.92 ERA over 52 games. However, 2015 was his first year as a full time relief pitcher. Prior to last season, he had been a starter and not a very good one. Going into his second year as a reliever, let’s hope that some of the issues he dealt with as a starter do not start to creep into his new relief role.

The remaining relievers are nothing to get to excited about, except rookie Ryan Dull, who was a September call-up this past season. However, it is still not clear if Dull will even make the bullpen out of Spring Training despite his stellar performance during the last month of the year. He has the skills, but the A’s may want to keep him in the minors a little bit longer since he was drafted just three years ago and had only pitched in 12 games at the Triple-A level before making his MLB debut. 

Next: Reviewing 2014 Top Prospects, Part II: Nolin & Alcantara

Unfortunately for the Athletics, it seems as though their bullpen is mostly full of unproven pitchers and underperforming relievers. Let’s hope they can at least outperform the A’s 2015 bullpen. Perhaps it will be the team chemistry that will help the relief staff find success this upcoming season.