A’s, Osvaldo Bido agree to major league deal

The Oakland Athletics agreed to a major league deal with right-handed pitcher Osvaldo Bido on Monday, according to Robert Murray of Fansided.

Signed out of the Dominican Republic at 21 years old by the Pittsburgh Pirates, the now 28-year-old finally made his major league debut this past season for the club in a swingman capacity. Though not on any Rookie of the Year ballots, Bido had a decent showing in his 16 games, 9 of which were starts. The 5.86 ERA isn’t pretty, but ERA estimators are in consensus that he was much better than that number. FIP has him at a solid 4.10 while xFIP and xERA are a bit more bearish on his performance, pegging him at 4.94 and 4.58, respectively. If you take his terrible month of August, when he gave up 18 runs in 16 ²⁄₃ innings, the lanky righty had a strong 3.97 ERA over 34 innings.

Bido also struck out 20.3% of batters he faced — nearly a batter per inning — putting him right around Ken Waldichuk territory. However, he walked a lot fewer batters than the southpaw, giving up free passes at a nearly league-average 8.9% rate. Though Waldy has a higher ceiling, the two pitchers are right around the same stage of their development as borderline backend starters.

His pitch arsenal is fairly diverse, with his slider leading the way and comprising 35.3% of his pitches. He also has three different types of fastballs: a four-seamer, a sinker, and a cutter that he only threw 3.4% of the time last season but had a strong 38.5% whiff rate. However, his go-to putaway pitch is his changeup, which averages around 89 mph and carries a ton of horizontal movement.

Despite his decent 2023 showing, the Pirates decided to non-tender Bido last week, which allowed the A’s to swoop him up. Since he has less than a year of service time, he’ll likely make the league minimum this year with options remaining. With Paul Blackburn and JP Sears the only guarantees right now, he should have a lot of opportunity, as well as a lot of competition, to earn time as a starter.

With the A’s in a disastrous state — still rebuilding, maybe moving, no home beyond 2024, the worst owner in sports, etc. — this is the type of move we should expect from them this offseason. They’ll either be giving major league deals to players who can’t find one elsewhere or they’ll overpay for league average guys (a la Aledmys Diaz and Jace Pederson last year). Bido in all likelihood won’t be a difference maker this season but he could provide some of the stable innings that have eluded the A’s the past 2 years.