Oakland Athletics: Breaking down the signing of Edwin Jackson

The Oakland Athletics have decided to bring back pitcher Edwin Jackson on a minor league deal after spending most of last season with the club.

In June of last season, the Oakland Athletics opted to take a chance on traveled veteran pitcher Edwin Jackson when they signed him to a minor league contract after some injuries to their starting rotation.

Jackson would go on to make 17 starts for the major league club — of which the A’s won 14 of them — finishing the season with an excellent 3.33 ERA as he proved to be one of the key pieces in Oakland’s late playoff push.

Now, it appears that the team may be looking for a similar outcome as they have officially agreed to terms on another minor league deal to bring the veteran Jackson back to the Bay Area. Only this time, the deal has gotten done a couple of months sooner.

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The Athletics have dealt with their fair share of injuries to their starting rotation and while none of the starting five have gotten injured to this point yet, the team still has multiple starters nursing injuries and working their way back. The likes of Jharel Cotton, Sean Manaea, and A.J. Puk are all still rehabbing from major injuries and could return at various points in 2019.

But for the time being, the A’s have been stuck with the likes of Frankie Montas and Aaron Brooks occupying the back end of the rotation. However, to their credit, the A’s starters, as a whole, have done alright to this point.

There were very little expectations regarding the starting rotation entering the season, but the unit has actually posted a league-average 4.15 ERA to this point, good for 15th in the MLB. Brett Anderson and the aforementioned Montas have been the team’s most effective starters early in this young season each posting ERAs of under 3.20.

That being said, it’s a bit nieve to expect this level of production to last forever.

Anderson hasn’t put together a season with a sub-4.00 ERA since 2015 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Montas was a poor spring training away from not even making the 25-man roster. On top of that, prior to the Jackson signing, the A’s were only one injury away from calling up someone like Daniel Mengden or Paul Blackburn, neither of which present all too appealing options.

All of this means that the team could really use some extra depth.

That’s exactly where Jackson could fit into the equation. It’s likely that Jackson will be back up with the club at some point this season, sooner rather than later.

With Cotton and Puk out until at least June and the status of Manaea unknown, Jackson could be the first one called up if the injury bug strikes again or someone begins to struggle. Oakland could also have young prospect Jesus Luzardo returning at some point but don’t expect him back until at least June or July.

Although the team shouldn’t expect Jackson to play as well as he did last year, he certainly could still contribute as a quality MLB starter at this stage. In fact, he looked better than he had in years last season with his velocity reaching 96 and even 97 mph at points.

Next. Oakland Athletics must sign Khris Davis to an extension. dark

Expect Jackson to join the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators before long and perhaps see some MLB action with the Oakland Athletics even by the end of May. All in all, a quality signing of a player who is beloved in the clubhouse and brings depth and stability to a relatively weak positional unit for the team.

Sounds like a good move to me.

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