8 relievers and not a long man in the bunch. But as Opening Day demonstrated, the A’s do have some depth as on Thursday they coaxed 6 shutout frames from their pen without even going to one of their high leverage relievers, Emilio Pagan.
It’s a long season and Bob Melvin has to balance putting his team in the best position to succeed with keeping fresh the best arms he has to work with. This is especially tricky on a team that figures to have more than its fair share of shorter stints from its starting pitchers. You can anticipate that the A’s will have a lot of games in which they are in a position to compete yet the starting pitcher lasts only into the 6th inning.