Taylor Smith’s Improbable Quest: A Quality SP

You don’t want to trade from your talented core of position players. You only have so much money to throw around to free agents who don’t exactly list West Sacramento as their first choice. Starting pitching is at a premium. So how exactly does a smaller budget team add to a position player core with a SP while roughly 37 other teams are aiming to do the same? Some names have come up repeatedly, such as Clay Holmes, whose extreme ground ball tendencies would be a terrific fit. We’ll see how much the A’s are willing to open their pocketbooks for a desirable free agent SP — they did it once with Luis Severino and got mixed results. Perhaps more likely is a trade for a SP whose warts make him attainable but whose stuff makes him a potential steal. Here are a couple “out of the box” possibilities for how Smith and the A’s could “zag” in their quest to compete in 2027… Brayan Bello One of the reasons his name tops the list is that he is on the Red Sox and Smith has a working relationship with his former club. This has already been evidenced in Smith’s first deal, a relatively minor one to acquire the versatile defender and speedster Nate Eaton. Bello’s 2026 season started rougher than even a Jeffrey Springs outing in West Sacramento. Bello pitched himself right out of the rotation with a first half that produced a 6.06 ERA with 11 HR amongst a ghastly 80 hits in 65.1 IP. However, in the second half Bello righted the ship and then some, albeit out of the bullpen. Not only did he post a stellar 2.12 ERA in 51 IP, he surrendered just 1 HR. Why might Bello be a “hidden treasure” for the A’s to target? 1. With a career fastball velocity of 95.7 MPH (95.8 MPH in 2026), a slider, and a plus changeup, Bello’s stuff has always been in the “front of the rotation” category when he can harness it. 2. Bello has a heavy sinker that gets a lot of ground balls (52.6% career), which is a great fit for the A’s right now and probably in Las Vegas. 3. Due to his recent struggles, questions around his suitability to start rather than relieve, and his contract ($49.5M over 4 years from 2026-29 with a $1M buyout for 2030), the prospect/player capital required to acquire Bello should be low. 4. If Bello is a solid mid-rotation SP he’s a steal at around $12M/year and gives the A’s a quality pitcher for 4 seasons. Even as a key “plus reliever” he would be valuable. Drew Rasmussen Hey, aim high. Rasmussen is a true #1 SP when he’s healthy, just the kind of pitcher the A’s would love to add. Normally he would be completely out of the question, but circumstances put him into the conversation for a team like the A’s. 1. There has been considerable buzz that the Rays will move Rasmussen because his 2027 salary rose to $20M when several incentives kicked in and he is only under contract for one more season. The Rays, like Billy Beane’s A’s, tend to make decisions less on emotion and more on good business, and moving Rasmussen to cash in on his value appears to be the way the Rays are thinking — at least according to pundits who claim to be in the know. 2. The A’s don’t have to play “red-headed step child” in a sweepstakes for Rasmussen like they do with free agents. The two teams have a trading history, recently with Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez coming to the A’s, and if the A’s are the team making the offer which makes the most sense to Tampa Bay there’s no reason a deal can’t be made. Tampa Bay also happens to be the other team with whom Smith has a history. 3. Because he has only one year left on his contract, and because he is now owed $20M, the haul needed to acquire him is not quite what his stats might suggest off the cuff. That being said, he’s good enough that the return won’t exactly be cheap. Are there win-win deals for either of those potential trades and if so what might a swap look like? Or are there other targets more likely to come to pass you want to put out there for consideration? It’s hard to dabble in the free agent market for a top end SP because they tend to be prohibitively expensive, looking for destinations and World Series aspirations the A’s just can’t boast along side their peers right now. So I’m more expecting a trade to bolster the rotation. The question is, can the A’s find a worthy SP going that route? Perhaps soon we’ll learn what Smith thinks the answer is.