Who Is The A's Closer? Fantasy Baseball Saves Outlook

April 23, 2023

Who is the A's closer in 2023? Rephaell takes a look at the early season results, and what that means moving forward. Who will get the most chances for the A's?

The Oakland A's are what you would classify as moribund. We're 21 games into the season, and the A's have nothing to show other than a horrific 4-17 mark. At this rate, they have a fair shot at shattering the Cleveland Spiders' 20-134 season.

Oakland has slowly rebranded their organization by cleaning house over the past few seasons, starting with the core of their roster. Most notably, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Marcus Semien, Chris Bassitt, and Cole Irvin to the addition of several other names, were all hauled to different teams to restock their farm system. Clearly, that strategy was poorly devised, and the A's are now a consistent last-place team.

The A's are dead last in almost every significant category, but at least they value the importance of the basepath. They rank seventh in the league in stolen bases (19), yet they somehow figure a -2.7 BsR. That's A's baseball for you. Now that we made sense of their inability to play above-average baseball, let's discuss their bullpen. Do they even have an established closer? A 6.78 bullpen ERA doesn't make it any easier to identify their closer.

Who Will Be The A's Closer In 2023?

Typically most teams have the luxury of appointing a closer, which is the so-called "lights out" pitcher that can be relied on in high-leverage situations. Although there are some cases where a team's bullpen is unstable and can't rely on one pitcher to close out tightly contested games. In such a case, the team would construct a "closer committee" which consists of their most reliable pitchers, even if they get knocked around from time to time.

Last season Dany Jimenez was used the most in later innings, which inherently gave him more save opportunities. He converted 11/14 which is fairly impressive for a bullpen lacking true vitality. Sadly, Jimenez was recently transferred to the 60-day IL with a shoulder strain, which will sideline him through the middle of June. This season, however, a new face has become apparent to the committee. Zach Jackson has hurled 8 2/3 innings of scoreless ball, and the A's could be looking at their new closer.

The right-hander owns a 2.08 ERA (3.22 FIP), with a 29.7% K rate and 18.9% walk rate. He's definitely inducing the swing and miss as demonstrated by his 82nd percentile in K%, but he needs to minimize the traffic on the bases.

The A's haven't designated Jackson as their closer just yet, but he's certainly proving to be dependable in high-pressure innings. In his first few outings Jackson was the first number called out of the bullpen, but the A's have slowly transformed him into a late-inning reliever. Ironically, the 28-year-old hasn't recorded a save this season, but that can be attributed to the incapable A's offense.

Who Else Will Contribute To The Closing Committee?

Once Jimenez returns, he will likely inherit a fraction of save opportunities, but Sam Moll and Jeurys Familia could be in the mix if they straighten themselves out. Otherwise, Jackson is likely to be appointed as the primary closer unless another arm emerges as a candidate.

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