Mitch Spence to Make His First Start of 2025

Chris Townsend of A's Cast Live let it be known that right-hander Mitch Spence will start the series finale in Sacramento against the Minnesota Twins. This will be Spence's first start of the season, as he's served a bullpen role for the team this year.

Spence, 27, currently holds a 4.38 ERA in 22 appearances with the Athletics this season. In those 22 games, he's pitched 39 innings, which means some of his outings were good for multiple innings. In his last 7 games, he holds a 3.14 ERA with 12 strikeouts and just 4 walks. He last pitched on June 1 in Toronto, going two innings. His high pitch count this year is 56, back on April 6 in Colorado.

Last season, Spence had to remain in the big leagues for the entire season as he was the club's Rule 5 Draft selection. The right-hander made 35 appearances last season, and 24 of them were starts. He pitched just over 150 innings for the team, and posted a 4.58 ERA between the two roles.

This past Spring Training, Spence lost a battle for the fifth rotation spot to the 23-year-old Joey Estes. Funny enough, Estes would end up losing the spot after just a pair of starts, and he would end up in Triple-A Las Vegas, whereas Spence would remain in the A's bullpen, and will now get a shot at rejoining the rotation.

Picking him specifically for this Thursday game is an interesting choice, though with both J.T. Ginn and Gunnar Hoglund on the IL, the A's don't have a ton of options to consider.

This season, Spence has a 7.71 ERA in home games (2.52 on the road), and a 6.23 ERA in day games (2.91 at night). Tomorrow's first pitch at Sutter Health Park is scheduled for 12:35.

The A's are currently on a nine-game losing skid, and are 1-20 in their last 21 games. The team is looking to switch things up and find a way to get back in the win column. This final game of the series will likely be caught by backup catcher, Willie MacIver with it being a day game after a night game.

Spence and MacIver will have to be on the same page and hopefully put together a clean start to give the A's offense a chance to score and win the game. How deep Spence will be able to go is a fairly open-ended question, but the bullpen is more rested after the A's have used openers the past couple of games, so they should have enough arms to get through nine innings.