Oakland Athletics: Re-Examining the Rotation in the Absence of Sonny Gray

Kendall Graveman is easily the A’s first choice for their Opening Day starter against the Los Angeles Angels on April 3.

The 26-year-old will now be entering his third full season in the majors. He’s had his own struggles with injuries in his rookie season, yet when healthy he has truly shown signs of brilliance on the mound.

Last season, after it was known that Gray would be out for quite some time and Rich Hill had been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, it was Graveman who anchored the ever-changing rotation in the second half of the season.

While Graveman has had his struggles, like being sent down to Triple-A in April of his rookie year, he’s always come back with a vengeance. Upon his return from the minors on May 23, 2015 through July 4, 2015, Graveman did not allow more than three earned runs in any of his nine starts over that span.

From May 23 until he suffered an oblique injury in early August, Graveman put up a 3.10 ERA over 15 starts.

Last year Graveman led the A’s in WAR (3.3) over both sluggers Khris Davis (2.5) and Marcus Semien (3.0). Sixteen of his 31 starts were considered to be quality starts and despite a slightly elevated ERA of 4.11, he had a strikeout to walk ratio of 2.29.

He also produced what was probably the highlight of the season, alongside Davis’ 42 home runs, when he took a perfect game against the Texas Rangers into the seventh inning.

It appears in Gray’s absence, Graveman will have to anchor the rotation again this season, but at least the string of different pitchers and rookies filling out the rest of the rotation won’t be quite as diverse and inexperienced as they were in 2016.