Gone are the days when starting pitchers were starting pitchers and relief pitchers were relief pitchers. Nowadays it seems like every failed SP with good stuff is actually a high leverage RP in the making. Wade Davis, Trevor Cahill, Joe Blanton, and our own Liam Hendriks, are recent examples of pitchers whose inability to get batters out as SPs turned to some short-term, or long-term, dominance out of the pen.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that a team like the A’s might have a couple decisions to make as to whether a couple pitchers would be better utilized in the rotation or in the bullpen.