Playing GM: 3 Moves To Complete the Athletics Roster for 2026

The 2025 Athletics had, at least arguably, a top-10 offense in Major League Baseball.

They only finished 12th in runs per game, but their 219 home runs ranked seventh, their .749 OPS ranked eighth, and their 105 wRC+ ranked 10th, as did their 32.3 offensive runs above average (per FanGraphs).

That success was largely thanks to five players: Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers, Tyler Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson, and Brent Rooker. That core will be back in 2026, as will bounce-back candidate Lawrence Butler and recent trade acquisition Jeff McNeil. Max Muncy, Denzel Clarke, and Zack Gelof – three young players with upside – will round things out.

It might be too much to call this team’s offense a true strength, but compared to the pitching staff, the offense might as well be the Large Hadron Collider.

A’s pitchers ranked 27th in ERA, FIP, and FanGraphs WAR in 2025. Take away the contributions of Mason Miller and Sean Newcomb, two players no longer with the team, and last year’s stats look even worse.

So far this winter, the Athletics have signed one free agent to a major league deal: right-handed reliever Mark Leiter Jr. He’s a solid pitcher, but they need to do more. They owe it to their hitters.

Right now, FanGraphs projects their pitching staff to be a bottom-five unit in the sport once again – and “bottom-five” might be a charitable description.

Considering how many unproven, inexperienced arms this team is going to be counting on, I wouldn’t be surprised if the A’s have the worst pitching staff in the American League. (The only reason I don’t say the worst in MLB is that, well, the Rockies are just that bad.)

So, when Aram Leighton and Peter Appel discussed some realistic targets for GM David Forst on a recent episode of the Just Baseball Show, the recurring theme was veteran arms.

Let’s take a closer look at the three free agent pitchers Aram and Peter suggest the A’s should sign to low-risk, one-year deals. Here are three moves to complete the Athletics roster for 2026.

Sign Nick Martinez

• Projected contract: One year, $10 million
• 2025 stats: 40 G (26 GS), 165.2 IP, 4.45 ERA, 3.97 xERA, 2.1 fWAR

Nick Martinez is Major League Baseball’s preeminent swingman.

Since returning from NPB in 2022, the right-hander has made 61 starts and 131 appearances in relief. He has nine saves, 34 holds, 21 quality starts, and even a complete game. Pitching out of the bullpen, he owns a 2.94 ERA and 3.58 FIP; as a starter, he has a 4.10 ERA and 4.19 FIP.

An earlier entry in this series had Martinez signing with the Orioles, but now that the Orioles have traded for Shane Baz and signed Zach Eflin, I don’t see them adding another pitcher to compete for starts unless it’s a top-of-the-rotation type.

The A’s, on the other hand, could desperately use some more experience on their starting staff. Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs are the de facto No. 1 and 2 starters. After those two, the questions start piling up quickly.

Luis Morales, Just Baseball’s No. 27 overall prospect, has the stuff to assert himself as the best pitcher on the team. At the same time, he’s a 23-year-old with 10 big league outings to his name. Gage Jump (JB’s No. 59) is another very talented arm who could contribute at some point this year, but he’s yet to pitch above Double-A.

Others who could factor into the mix include Jacob Lopez, J.T. Ginn, Luis Medina, Joey Estes, and Gunnar Hoglund. Any one of them could establish himself as a capable big league starter, but crashing and burning is a real possibility too.

The Athletics used 12 different starters last year, not including openers. They understand the importance of rotation depth. Martinez is the proven starter they need who won’t drive their payroll up above $100 million.

From his perspective, signing with the A’s would give him a good chance to start for a full season for the first time since his days in Japan. From the team’s perspective, however, it should be appealing that Martinez could slide into the bullpen if enough of their younger arms force the issue.

Sign Justin Wilson

• Projected contract: One year, $3 million
• 2025 stats: 61 G, 48.1 IP, 3.35 ERA, 3.67 xERA, 1.0 fWAR

The Athletics have three left-handed pitchers on their 40-man roster: Jacob Lopez, Hogan Harris, and Brady Basso. Presumably, Lopez will stay in the starting rotation. That leaves Harris and Basso for the bullpen.

Harris looked much better as a reliever than a starter in 2023 and ’24, and he thrived in his first full season pitching out of the bullpen in 2025. He’s still an inexperienced arm with middling stuff and plenty to prove, but he should be guaranteed a role in the Opening Day arm barn.

Basso, however, only has 18 games of MLB experience, including five starts. He owns a 3.44 ERA, 3.66 xERA, and 3.95 FIP in 34 career innings, and he should get another chance to prove himself in 2026. Still, with Harris and Basso as their only options right now, it’s undeniable that the A’s could badly use a tested southpaw for their ‘pen.

Well, to be honest, they could badly use any sort of veteran help for their bullpen. Wilson is one of the better relievers left on the free agent market. The fact that he’s left-handed is only a bonus.

In 61 games (48.1 innings) last year, Wilson struck out 27.5% of the batters he faced. He did an excellent job of limiting hard contact, giving up just three home runs on the season. He finished with a 3.35 ERA and 3.67 xERA.

Wilson is already 38 years old, and that’s going to scare off some of his suitors. Yet, the other side of that coin is that he owns a 3.59 ERA in 648 games. You could count the number of active pitchers with more career appearances on one hand. His experience is an asset that could really benefit this young roster.

Sign Liam Hendriks

• Projected contract: One year, $1 million
• 2025 stats: 14 G, 13.2 IP, 6.59 ERA, 6.10 xERA, 0.0 fWAR

If the A’s sign Justin Wilson, he’s probably their closer on Opening Day. He only has 20 saves in a 13-year career, but that might be more than the rest of the bullpen combined.

That is, unless the A’s pull off this last signing too.

Signing Liam Hendriks would be a low-risk, high-reward reunion with a beloved former Athletic. Over five seasons in Oakland, Hendriks pitched 247 games with a 3.08 ERA. His A’s tenure was highlighted by two dominant years in 2019 and ’20 when he was the best reliever in baseball.

Hendriks will be 37 soon, and he’s no longer the pitcher he was at his peak. He has not played a full season since 2022. The righty overcame cancer in 2023, but injuries have held him back ever since. In the 14 games he was able to pitch last year, he gave up 11 runs (10 earned) on 12 hits and seven walks.

There’s no small chance that Hendriks’s days as an effective big league reliever are behind him. Having said that, the last time he was healthy, he was still damn good, pitching to a 2.81 ERA with 37 saves in his age-33 season.

He deserves a chance to prove that if he can stay healthy, he can rediscover the stuff that made him so great. The A’s can afford to give him that chance.