Meet the Oakland A's spring training roster: Pitchers

After introducing Oakland Athletics position players yesterday, today we turn to the pitchers. I have drawn up brief notes on each player invited to A's major league spring camp, beginning today with the position players, and rated their chances of getting on the "25-man" as "Definite", "Probable", "In the mix", "Questionable", or "Doubtful."

A player is Doubtful if there is practically no chance that player makes the opening day roster. I would guess the team would make a trade to acquire a better player than allow him to remain on the roster for very long in case injury forces the issue.

A player is Questionable if there is a chance that a breakout improvement in the player's tools could allow the team to consider that player. On the flipside, a player is Probable if there is a significant chance that a significant drop in the player's skills could cause the team to drop that player in favor of another.

Players are In the mix if there is an open competition for a spot with no clear frontrunner.

Starting pitchers

Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir are the only two definites for the 25-man roster. Jesse Chavez is listed as probable, though he is only in the mix for the starting rotation. The out-of-options Chavez will otherwise end up as the long man in the bullpen.

Jesse Hahn should be the number three starter, though a lot of fantasy baseball articles suspect the A's will have him on an innings limit. After a Tommy John surgery in 2010 that caused his draft stock to fall, his 2014 campaign was the first time he ever exceeded 100 innings, finishing at 115⅔ after the Padres put him on an innings limit.

For Hahn, a 150-inning season would represent around a 30 percent increase, though I am not sure the A's will limit him to that. In 2012, Jarrod Parker jumped from 136⅓ innings to 202, just in the regular season. To be fair, the A's were in the midst of one of the most exciting finishes to a division race in memory, and so the team may have been willing to risk the marginal increase in injury risk associated with extra innings. The A's may simply give Hahn a few extra days off here or there, as the A's did with Sonny Gray last season.

In the mix for the last two rotation spots are Chavez, Drew Pomeranz, Kendall Graveman, Chris Bassitt, and Barry Zito. Sean Nolin had to shut down at the start of spring because he was not quite fully recovered from sports hernia surgery. As for Arnold Leon, there are questions about the extra workload he put in pitching in the Caribbean Series this winter.

Bullpen

Tyler Clippard is widely-tipped as the favorite to take over as closer until Sean Doolittle returns from the slight tear in his throwing shoulder. Ryan Cook and Eric O'Flaherty have an outside shot at winning the role. The A's lose Luke Gregerson from last year's bullpen, and in the mix to replace him are R.J. Alvarez, Chad Smith, Fernando Rodriguez, and Evan Scribner.

Alvarez seems to be the front-runner to replace Gregerson, given his age and fastball speed, though his command is the main question. He walked his first two batters in the weekend's intrasquad games, but then he struck out the next two. His Double-A statistics suggest he has been able to corral those issues, striking out 61 and walking just 13. In his September call-up with the Padres he struck out nine and walked five in eight innings.

Whether one or two bullpen spots are available depends on whether Jesse Chavez wins a spot in the rotation or is Oakland's long man in the pen. Jarrod Parker and Raul Alcantara have yet to be placed on the 60-day disabled list, so there is room for up to two players to be added to the 40-man roster. Off the roster reliever Fernando Rodriguez may benefit, as might everyone's favorite switch-pitcher, Pat Venditte.