Former New York Mets Prospect Nearing Return to A's Rotation

Athletics starter J.T. Ginn made his 2025 debut against the New York Mets, allowing one run across 5.1 innings of work while collecting six strikeouts against his former club. Ginn was traded to the A's back in 2022 as part of the return for Chris Bassitt, and after a couple of seasons of working his way through the minor leagues, he made his MLB debut in 2024.

After that start, Ginn went on to have two more in 2025 before landing on the IL with right elbow inflammation on April 26.

On Friday he threw a bullpen, and he told Athletics on SI that he felt good afterwards. It was what manager Mark Kotsay calls a "two-up" which was basically two 15-pitch sessions with a simulated break in between to mimic a game situation.

Ginn was using all of his pitches in the bullpen session, and the plan, according to both Ginn and Kotsay, is for the righty to head to Triple-A Las Vegas for a rehab start early next week. It's still unclear how many pitches he'll be limited to in that rehab outing, and how many rehab starts he'll need, but given that he hasn't been out long, he should be available to return shortly.

We also received an update from left-hander Brady Basso, who is currently on the 60-day IL. He said that he's been playing catch all week, and that the hope is for him to get a bullpen session of his own next week as he begins to build back up after missing time since late February.

His initial bullpen is expected to be 15 pitches, all fastballs.

Kotsay said before Friday's game that Basso has made a lot of progress. "I watched his long toss today. He's got a lot of carry behind the baseball, which is a great sign. This young man, obviously we had plans for him to be a part of this club coming out of spring training, and the injuries set him back, but he's made a lot of progress.

"That's a good sign that he'll start his bullpen progression next week."

Michel Otañez is another A's pitcher that is currently on the IL, though he is already out on his rehab assignment with Las Vegas. In his most recent outing on Thursday night, he pitched one-third of an inning and mixed in a pair of wild pitches.

"I think he still has another outing or two. The biggest thing is with the command, as well as the velo. The velo is definitely there. He's probably in that phase where he's just trying to sharpen the command aspect. And, you know, he's never been a command guy, but you also want to make sure that there's an efficiency to the work that he's putting in."

If the "outing or two" timeline holds up, Otañez could be ready to re-join the A's either at the tail end of the Los Angeles Dodgers series next week, or the beginning of the series against the Giants in San Francisco next weekend.