Weekdays at Bernie's, 3/30/16: Oakland A's pitching staff seems to be set

Welcome back to Weekdays at Bernie's! It's the best dance in the game, so let's get rolling once more!

• The Oakland Athletics optioned right-hander Jesse Hahn to Triple-A Nashville on Tuesday morning, as the team announced on Twitter. The move came as a bit of a surprise, as the 26 year-old has been totally healthy this spring and continued to flash serious upside, but his horrible spring numbers simply wouldn't cut it. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle hinted at the possibility of Hahn's demotion on Saturday.

• This move means the A's rotation is now set, per John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group. Sonny Gray, Rich Hill, Chris Bassitt, Kendall Graveman, and Felix Doubront figure to comprise the starting five, although there does seem to be a very small chance that top prospect Sean Manaea could force his way in. The bullpen has also been clarified, as it should consist of Sean Doolittle, Ryan Madson, Liam Hendriks, John Axford, Marc Rzepczynski, Fernando Rodriguez, and most likely Ryan Dull.

• The A's, behind ace Sonny Gray, couldn't pull out a victory against the powerhouse Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, falling 9-6. The Cubs swatted five homers (two off of Gray, one off of Rzepczynski, and two more off of Rodriguez) and the A's smacked two (both off of Travis Wood - Chris Coghlan and Josh Phegley). Billy Butler was solid as well, going 2-2 with a double and a walk. For more on this game, check out miky10hrusa's recap here.

• At the bottom of her most recent column, Slusser notes that while nothing seems imminent, talks between the A's and outfielder Josh Reddick regarding a possible extension are "percolating a little bit". For more, check out her article.

• The Texas Rangers have made an upgrade at catcher, but not quite the flashy one that many had been speculating. On Tuesday afternoon, they traded righty Myles Jaye and catcher Bobby Wilson to the Detroit Tigers for catcher Bryan Holaday, as the Tigers announced on Twitter. Holaday has been raking this spring, but will likely open the season as the back-up catcher for Texas.

The Best Shape of My Life

• The Phillies obviously aren't tanking. If they were, they wouldn't have released Tank Commander Edward Mujica! (link)

• It was Billy Beane's 54th birthday on Tuesday, and, surprisingly, the takes on Twitter were pretty cool. The Instagram comments, however, were as fiery as ever (link). My favorite: "#blameBilly hope your birthday sucks as much as the team did after trading Cespedes... (and then you still give out the shirts, #noshame)"