Pitching Deficiencies Continue To Cause Losses: A’s 2026 Mid-Season Report -

While all the MLB teams have now played over half of their 162 regular season games, the All-Star break is always a good time to take stock of how your team’s season is good, and what they need to do going into the second half of the season.

Going into the All-Star break, the Athletics’ record stands at 41-55, putting them fourth in the American League (AL) West. This is not ideal, as the A’s had been hovering around the .500 mark and had been first in the division at various points in the first half of the season.

However, July has not been kind to the A’s – it started well enough with a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on 1 July. Since then, the A’s have gone on a nine-game losing streak, comprising of consecutive three-game sweeps by the Miami Marlins, Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox going into the All-Star break. There are multiple reasons why the A’s have arguably had this decline in form that I will mention later, but it is now imperative that head coach Mark Kotsay and his coaching staff work with the players to get the team out of this slump following the All-Star break.

Reasons for Optimism

Let’s be clear; the A’s 2026 has not been all doom and gloom thus far, as was the case in recent seasons – Nick Kurtz has followed up his AL Rookie of the Year campaign in 2025 with a sophomore season that has made him more than worthy of the All-Star call-up he received.

As part of this, Kurtz equalled Mark McGwire’s on-base streak of 48 games to start the season and has already hit 20 home runs and contributed 66 RBIs in 2026. On this, I would argue that, while Vladimir Guerrero Jr is a very talented player, the exposure he had to the wider MLB fanbase getting to the World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays last season contributed to him leading the fan voting for his position and therefore being named the starter at first base for the AL’s All-Star team, even after going directly head-to-head with Ben Rice of the New York Yankees – who has also been markedly better than Vlady this season – in the second round of All-Star voting for that AL first base spot. Circumstance has meant that Rice will now most likely be the AL’s starting first baseman anyway, and, even as an A’s fan, I will say it is thoroughly deserved. It is just a shame that Vlady had to turn down his selection and Kurtz had to be injured for it to happen.

Furthermore, the A’s also saw Shea Langeliers named the AL’s starting catcher for the All-Star game, and this is fair recognition of what has been a strong campaign for him thus far in 2026, with him hitting 21 home runs and accumulating 46 RBIs for the A’s going into the All-Star break.

Elsewhere on the A’s roster, Zack Gelof went on a 24-game hitting streak, which matched the longest single-season streak in the Majors over the last two years, before it coming to an end because of a hand injury suffered against the San Francisco Giants. Gelof had a patchy campaign in 2025 for the A’s due to injuries and not being able to get a solid run of games for the Athletics because of those injuries, so it was good to see him starting to consistently string a series of good performances together. Hopefully, he can continue that momentum once he returns from injury having once again been placed on the injured list, this time with a knee laceration suffered against the Tigers.

It has also been great to see Jonah Heim back at the A’s having been acquired for cash from the Atlanta Braves at the start of May. Heim’s stats – 8 HRs, 21 RBIs and a .745 OPS – haven’t jumped off the page, but he has been a solid addition that has put up solid numbers for the A’s since returning, has also been an upgrade in the back-up catcher position while also playing first base and as the designated hitter at times, and it’s always good to see old A’s players returning to the fold given the A’s nasty habit of trading away players – Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Murphy, Heim himself, etc – for prospects once they’ve shown their value to the rest of the league.

On that, the A’s have also continued its fine tradition of giving major league opportunities to young players thus far in 2026. Outfielder Henry Bolte, pitchers Gage Jump and Kade Morris, and infielder Joshua Kuroda-Grauer have all made their major league debuts for the Athletics this season, with Bolte, Jump and Kuroda-Grauer all looking good. Of note, Jump has played in nine games, all starts, and has struck out 48 pitchers in 48.2 innings pitched and has a respectable ERA of 3.51. Karoda-Grauer, meanwhile, has 19 hits from 45 at-bats – that is second all-time for the A’s in a player’s first 12 games of his major league career.

However…

The A’s have had some rotten luck with injuries to starters in 2026 – in addition to Kurtz and Gelof’s time on the injured list, Brent Rooker is now out for the season with a knee injury that will require surgery, and outfielder Denzel Clarke continues to be out having been placed on the injured list in April. Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom have also missed time through injury this season, and will now have to manage their respective shoulder and hip injuries for the rest of the season, which is not ideal given they won’t be playing at 100% and will likely need rest days to help manage those injuries.

The A’s defence also continues to let the side down, with the A’s have committed 39 fielding errors thus far in 2026. While the league average is 50 going into the All-Star break, it has been very frustrating to see as a fan. In particular, given he is an eight-season veteran in the major leagues, I have been struck by just how basic some of Jeff McNeil’s errors have been since he joined the A’s, and he is currently tied for second on the A’s for fielding errors. These team fielding errors have then contributed to A’s pitchers having an ERA of 5.21, which is the second-worst in MLB. As part of this, the A’s have allowed 884 hits thus far in 2026 as well as 494 earned runs which are both again the second-worst in MLB, and 150 home runs, which is the worst in MLB.

While the A’s have been performing very well on offence then, improvements need to be made on the defensive side of the ball if the team is to not only make the playoffs, but actually be competitive once they are in the postseason.

On this, the return of Denzel Clarke from the hamstring injury he suffered early in the season cannot come soon enough; as much as Zack Gelof, Lawrence Butler and Henry Bolte have all performed admirably in center-field, there have been a few times when the opposition have achieved a base hit or gotten a home run where I’ve thought to myself ‘Denzel would have caught that’ – Braden Montgomery’s three-run home run in the final game before the All-Star break is a perfect example of this with Butler just missing the ball as it went over the wall. As we saw last season, Clarke’s defensive heroics kept the A’s in numerous games and spared the pitchers’ blushes by saving the A’s from conceding multiple runs, and so, I have to hope that he will be able to return to the field soon.

Final Thoughts

There are certainly reasons for optimism – I noted Gage Jump as the One To Watch in my 2026 Season Preview article on the A’s, and so, it has been great to see him make a good start to his major league career. If Kurtz and Gelof can both shake off their injuries and continue their standard of offensive play alongside Langeliers, Heim et al, the A’s can hopefully start to make a push for the playoffs and prove MLB’s pre-season analysis that the A’s had the fifth-best lineup in the league correct.

For that to happen though, the A’s pitching needs to improve. While some silly and very frustrating errors have been made, the fielders have generally been doing their jobs well and have committed a below-league-average number of errors. The onus needs to be on the A’s starting pitchers and bullpen to step up their game then. For example, Jeffrey Springs has an ERA of 6.08 and has allowed more hits, more runs and more home runs in less innings pitched than J.T. Ginn thus far this season. Aaron Civale, meanwhile, has an ERA of 5.42. While they have both had some good games this season, Springs and Civale are both starting pitchers for the A’s who are multi-year veterans in the major leagues, but they are being out-performed by much-younger starters like Ginn and Jump. While some of Jump’s fine start to his major league career can be put down to hitters not yet knowing his arsenal of pitches, there are only so many excuses that can be made for the extent to which Springs’ performances have fallen off since he joined the A’s.

If the A’s are to improve their fortunes enough to be in contention for a playoff spot then, the starting pitchers collectively need to up their game, and Mark Kotsay also needs to be more strategic in his use of the bullpen. As part of this, the A’s front office may also need to add some more quality to the starting pitching rotation and the bullpen before the trade deadline too.

Brett Walker is The Athletics contributor for Bat Flips & Nerds, and can be found on Twitter @BrettChatsSport. He can also be found on Bluesky.