The term “bottom feeders” has been ascribed to the A’s plan for assembling their starting rotation this off-season. It’s a rather pejorative way to describe a team’s strategy for such an important piece to what Oakland hopes is a contending season coming off of 97 wins.
The phrase arises from the fact that the A’s are not rushing to add pitchers, waiting out the market as some of more desirable free agents settle in elsewhere, that the front office has made it clear it does not intend to spend a lot of money on the rotation — it lends itself to a belief that the A’s will let all the desired pitchers land on other teams and will then accept whatever scraps are left, hoping to find gold amongst the dumpster’s fishbones and used napkins.