Should A's Target San Francisco Giants Former First Rounder?

The Athletics pitching staff hasn't been great for about the past month, holding an ERA right around seven, and they began the month of June by giving up eight runs to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday. The bullpen has certainly been struggling, but with so few options to choose from on the 40-man roster, the A's may have to think outside of the box a little bit to right the ship.

They may be in luck.

The Minnesota Twins released former San Francisco Giants first-round pick Tyler Beede on Sunday after the 32-year-old held an ERA of 8.00 through seven appearances that spanned nine innings. He also started one game, which is the outing that ballooned his ERA as he went just 1.2 innings of work and gave up four earned runs.

So why would the A's be interested in a pitcher that is already struggling in the minor leagues? There are a couple of reasons.

The first is that Mark Kotsay was talking after Sunday's loss about a few of the bullpen guys lacking experience, so in going through these tough times they don't have they don't have the experience to fall back on, and potentially help them turn things around. Beede has spent parts of five seasons in the big leagues, racking up 201 innings of work while holding a 5.55 ERA.

So he has the experience, but the results haven't been great. Big deal. That's certainly true, and may be the case for not taking a chance on him. But the second reason may be tantalizing enough for the A's front office to bring him in.

That's because he has plenty of experience pitching at Sutter Health Park, a place that many A's pitchers are still trying to figure out. Perhaps he has a trick he could show them. Or maybe he was helped by the previous batter's eye, which made it impossible for batters to see for the first three innings.

When Beede was last in the Majors in 2024 with the Cleveland Guardians, he was relying heavily on his split-finger, tossing it 40% of the time. In 2022 with the Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates, he was utilizing his changeup most often. In his most recent outing on May 25 with the Twins Triple-A affiliate, it was the cutter that was getting the bulk of the workload.

At different points in his career, the changeup, cutter, and splitter have all been plus "stuff" pitches for him. One skill that's been lacking for him this year has been his command, however, holding a 19.6% walk rate in the minors with just a 15.2% strikeout rate.

The A's have taken a chance on guys with limited command in the past, but usually the strikeout rate is a bit higher. One reason to think there may be more left in the tank is that he has thrown so many different pitches over his career, that it may just take finding the right mix and sequencing to make them all blend together. That's something the A's tend to do fairly well.

Now, Beede wouldn't necessarily be someone that the A's should immediately just add to their 40-man roster and give him a spot in the bullpen in West Sacramento, but he's certainly a guy that they could take a flier on with a minor-league contract in the hope that he could figure things out enough to be useful pitching big-league games at his former minor-league home.