Athletics 2024 Season In Review: Scott Alexander
A successful most recent stop for the lefty journeyman
Happy Friday A’s fans! Hope you Bay Area natives are keeping dry this weekend.
After reminiscing yesterday about the potential of a lefty-starting pitcher, we now take a look back at a successful left-handed reliever on the 2024 Athletics, manager Mark Kotsay’s top lefty option Scott Alexander.
How was he acquired?
A 9-year veteran looking for his fourth team, Alexander didn’t have much leverage in contract negotiations hitting the open market as a 34-year-old lefty specialist. If the recent rule changes requiring relievers to pitch to at least three batters didn't exist, Alexander would have seen a better market for his services. Still, he was able to at least secure a major-deal with the Athletics just before pitchers and catchers reported for springing training, signing for $2.25MM on February 14th to become the A’s top left-handed bullpen option.
What were the expectations?
At the time of the signing, the top left-handed options in the Athletics bullpen were Hogan Harris, Easton Lucas, and Sean Newcomb, so not an especially deep and proven group. Add in that Ken Waldichuk, who the club was considering moving to a relief role, would be missing at least the first half of the season, and it’s easy to see why the team decided to shell out some guaranteed money and throw it at Alexander. Even for a team as frugal as the A’s have been, adding someone like Alexander for a mere $2MM just made too much sense.
Alexander was joining the team after spending the past two season across the San Francisco Bay playing for the Giants. Before that he’d endured a couple significant injuries while playing for the Dodgers, including both shoulder and elbow surgeries. Alexander was able to show he was finally fully healthy again with a 46 appearance campaign with the Giants in ‘23. If the A’s managed him carefully and used him sparingly and only against left-handed hitters, the hope was that the team might have a legitimate lefty weapon that Mark Kotsay could count on. Even rebuilding teams need left-handed relievers they can count on.
2024 Results
That $2.25MM roll of the dice worked out beautifully for the Athletics and Alexander. Alexander’s season got off to the wrong start in early spring when he suffered a left rib stress reaction that cost him the first few weeks of the season. When he finally returned to the club Alexander stepped right into his role and stayed there all season. Over 45 games Alexander posted a 2.56 ERA over 38 2⁄3 frames, putting together one of the best seasons of his career out of Mark Kotsay’s bullpen. Alexander came as advertised as he was especially tough on left-handed batters by holding them to a .375 OPS, essentially a buzzsaw for opposing left-handed batters.
Alexander was doing so well that there was heavy speculation that the club would flip the lefty to a contending team at the trade deadline. It certainly would have made sense for both sides as the A’s were going nowhere and no one knows how long Alexander has in this league. Apparently no strong offers came in for the A’s top left-hander and the team elected to hold onto him for the rest of the year. We don’t want to just give away solid players like him, right?
2025 Outlook
Now on the free agent market once again. the veteran lefty is free to sign anywhere. The soon-to-be 36-year-old was in the Dodgers’ organization when they won the pandemic-shortened 2020 World Series but wasn’t on the playoff roster for that run. and he has never pitched in the postseason once to date. As a middle reliever Alexander won’t break the bank on his next contract but he’ll be affordable for pretty much every team. The question now is which does he prioritize: going for the biggest contract possible? Or looking for the best opportunity to find postseason success? Alexander would love both and while we hope he gets it, it likely won’t be with the Athletics.