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Oakland Athletics: Five Bounce-Back Pitchers to Target in Free Agency

The Oakland Athletics need serious help when it comes to the Starting Rotation. Here are Five Players who are due for a bounce-back season.

By Bryce Naughton |
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No. 1 Carlos Carrasco

Carlos Carrasco is currently having his worst season on record, most contributed to his pitches not seeming as dominant as they have recently. Most of his stats and projections are at all-time lows too. Since the All-Star break in 8 games, his record is 0-5 with a 10.24 ERA.

When it comes to giving up Hard-Hit balls, he's one of the worst in the league. xERA is a 1 to 1 of Expected Weighted On-Base Average (xwOBA) converted to an ERA scale. It uses stats like (strikeouts, walks, hits, hit-by-pitch) and the quality of at-bats for hitters like (Exit Velo and Launch Angle), all of which he has struggled with this season. In his 20 games of 2023, his xERA is a shocking 6.76, which is one of the worst in the league. His career high prior to this was 4.96. While in 20 games in 2023, his record is 3-8 with a 6.80 ERA, but you can say at least it can't get much worse. It's unlikely too many teams will try and acquire him in free agency, so he could be a steal for a bounce-back player.

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No. 2 Brad Keller

Brad Keller, who has recently returned from the Injured list, has only played in 9 games in 2023. In 9 games, he has pitched 43.1 Innings with a 4.36 ERA, but in the period, he walked 40 and only struck out 31. He's mostly a ground-ball pitcher and struggled in 2023 with walking too many batters, but all signs point to a bounce-back season. In his first 2 seasons in the majors, he was a solid innings eater, then showed he could dominate hitters and could return to form with another team, but it might be hard to acquire him as several teams could be interested in him.

New York Mets v Minnesota Twins
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No. 3 Kenta Maeda

Kenta Maeda has never been a dominant pitcher, but his consistency is unmatched. While he did miss all of the 2022 season after getting Tommy John surgery, he's come back into the 2023 without skipping a beat. In 18 games, his record is 4-7 with a 4.65 ERA, but that doesn't tell the full story. He doesn't walk players too often, at just 2.4 per 9 innings, and has 9.7 strikeouts per 9 innings. While this isn't the best, he's just a guy who comes in and eats the innings you ask him to while pitching well. In 2020, he was one of the best pitchers, finishing 2nd in Cy-Young voting behind Shane Bieber. The only problem is there could be quite a few teams, including his current team, the Twins, interested in him.

Philadelphia Phillies v San Diego Padres
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No. 4 Rich Hill

Rich Hill thrived in the first half of the 2023 season with a 7-10 record and a 4.76 ERA. In those 22 games, he went deep into many games and helped the Pirates achieve a winning record to start the season. After getting traded to the Padres, he played in 7 games, 5 of which he started, but struggled massively with a 9.27 ERA and an 0-4 record. Rich Hill would be going into his 20th season; he is more of a piece that you would use a lot and then trade him at the deadline.

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Vince Velasquez is another player who was on the Pirates in the 2023 season. He underwent surgery to repair his UCL. They projected a 14-16 month window for his return, so he could miss the start of the 2024 season. In the 2023 season, he was pretty dominant before suffering his injury. In 8 games, he pitched 37.1 innings with an ERA of 3.86. At the rate he was going, he was on pace to have his best career season ever. His main problem is he keeps getting hurt, but when he's healthy, he has shown he can be a huge part of your team. Going into his 10th season, he's never been able to pitch a full qualifying season, in which you would need 162 innings, with a career high of just 146.2 innings in 2019 with the Phillies.

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