A's Woes About to Turn Around Against Twins

McFarland was supposed to fly up to Tacoma, Washington to make another rehab appearance with the A's Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas Aviators, on Thursday, but given the club's dire need of pitchers that can get outs, it looks like one rehab start in the low minors will be good enough.

You're probably asking yourself why his inclusion on the roster is going to turn things around. Doesn't he have a 5.23 ERA this season? First off, heck of a pull on knowing his exact ERA. Secondly, I don't make the rules.

The goofy reason that McFarland's return is going to be monumental for the A's and will help them turn things around is because when he landed on the IL back on May 12, the team had a 21-20 record--right where they wanted to be. Without McFarland, the A's have gone just 2-20. Obviously he's the American League MVP because the numbers don't lie.

The more serious answer is that the A's have had trouble getting out of innings this season. As one example, in Tuesday's game Osvaldo Bido entered with two on and two out in a one-run game, and failed to end the inning before allowing two runs to score. If that remains a one-run game, perhaps that changes the vibe in the dugout and the A's offense rallies for a pair of runs.

Those types of innings have been commonplace the past three weeks.

On the season, McFarland has allowed just three of the 16 runners he's inherited to score. That's 19%, but it's manageable. It should also be noted that while the sample size isn't huge, McFarland has a better ERA at home (3.86 in 4.2 innings) than on the road (6.35 in 5.2).

He's also a ground ball guy, getting 56.4% grounders this season after racking up 57.3% in 2024. Windy days at Sutter Health Park won't affect him as much.

The other reason is something that A's manager Mark Kotsay talked about after Tuesday's loss, and that was the leadership in the room, particularly in the bullpen. There aren't many guys in the bullpen that have a ton of service time, but José Leclerc (on the IL) and McFarland are two of those guys.

Kotsay also mentioned that when you're on the IL, it's a little harder to lead since you're not in the trenches with the guys on a day-to-day basis.

McFarland has certainly been a veteran voice in the clubhouse the past two seasons. Last home stand he was the one to present Gio Urshela with his gold card for accumulating eight years of service time in the big leagues, which gets Urshela into any MLB game he wants for life.

While getting McFarland back on the roster and available to pitch may not seem like a huge deal on the outside, his ability to be available every other day and get out of jams will surely have a positive impact on the entire pitching staff.