The Next Step For Jack Perkins in A's Rotation
· Yahoo Sports
Jack Perkins expects to be perfect when he takes the mound, and Wednesday's loss to the Tampa Bay Rays was another turn in the Athletics rotation in which he fell short. He allowed seven runs (six earned) on 12 hits and a walk across five innings of work, raising an already high ERA to 7.27.
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The 26-year-old right-hander began the year in Triple-A Las Vegas, but was quickly called up to join the A's bullpen on April 8. When injuries and underperformance continued to mount at the end of May, Perkins was given an opportunity to join the rotation.
In 11 starts this season, Perkins has an 8.17 ERA over 50 ⅔ innings as a starting pitcher. Given the team's lack of depth at the moment, he'll continue to pitch in the rotation, but these final weeks of the 2026 season could be his last opportunities to show some progress as a starting pitcher and earn a spot in the rotation for next year.
If he doesn't, his chance at the rotation may be gone, with a late-inning spot in the bullpen waiting for him.
"I think that for him, he expects to be perfect," A's manager Mark Kotsay said of Perkins after Wednesday's game. "I think that's something that he's got to get away from. I think results are impacting him inside the game when he gives up hits."
Kotsay went on to say that this is part of the maturation process of being a young starter, pointing to J.T. Ginn as a starter who knows how to shut down an inning when he gives up hits.
"He's not focused on what he did, it's about what he can do," Kotsay said of Ginn's approach. "I think that's Jack's next step, really."
The A's entered the top of the fourth inning trailing 3-2, but the Rays scored four runs off Perkins in the inning. The A's skipper decided to challenge his starter by throwing him back out there in the fifth, and after allowing a leadoff double, Perkins got Cedric Mullins to ground out, pushing the runner to third, so he simply struck out the next two batters he faced.
"It was a challenge to show me that you can go out there and do this," Kotsay said. "When you give up a base runner, you can get out of an inning. I think he answered that challenge in the fifth."
After the game, Perkins was asked about his whiff rate going down a bit. Last year it sat at 32.2% in a small sample of just under 40 innings, while this season across 81 ⅔ innings, it has dropped to 27.9%.
"With the way the results have gone this year, it's caused me to be more timid," Perkins said after the game. "Even if you're 99% convicted, that one percent can be the difference-maker."
He also pointed out that his stuff is still moving like it always has, so now the goal is figuring out how to fully compete. Perkins figures to be a big piece of the A's pitching plans next season, but figuring out definitively which role he'll have on the club will be one of the team's main focuses the rest of the season.