The Athletics Nation Season In Review series continues this morning with a pitcher that made just four relief appearances for the A’s. Though maybe they should have kept him around longer after he switched teams midseason. He really seemed to run away with his chance at starting, something that the A’s could have used more of this season. The player we’re taking a look back on today is right-handed journeyman Jason Alexander.
The A’s brought the Santa Rosa native on board on a minor league pact on November 15th of last year, almost a year ago exactly. He also got an invite to Major League Spring Training after spending the entirety of the previous season pitching with the Boston Red Sox’s Triple-A affiliate and posting a 4.42 ERA across 27 starts (plus two relief appearances). Also of note: he’s the younger brother of former Athletics reliever Scott Alexander, who spent the 2024 season in the A’s bullpen.
What were the expectations?
Considering the fact that Alexander had last pitched in the majors back in 2022 with Milwaukee (his only major league experience), there wasn’t really any expectations for the former undrafted free agent. He hadn’t really had any standout pitching performances the previous few seasons in the minors so there wasn’t any obvious indication that there was something more to unlock. That said he was able to handle both starting and relief duties after splitting time between the roles leading up to 2025. At the very least he could be a warm body to soak up some innings in blowout games, and possibly handle a spot start or two when inevitable injuries arose.
The 32-year-old righty predictably began the year in Triple-A with the Aviators. He started out in the Aviators’ rotation but only made one start and pitched 3 1/3 innings before the Athletics purchased his contract and brought him up to the big league roster, his first time suiting up at the major league level in three years.
His first appearance went smoothly enough as he allowed a single and also collected two punchouts in a scoreless relief appearance against the New York Mets. His next outing against those same Mets two days later went much more poorly as he got tagged for four runs (three earned) in cleanup work in a blowout loss. He’d make one more scoreless relief appearance before returning to Triple-A. There he returned to the starting rotation and looked strong in four starts, pitching 18 innings and allowing just two earned runs.
That earned him another look with the A’s but he’d self-implode in his next outing, allowing nine (!) earned runs in a disaster outing against the Dodgers. At that point no one was mad that Alexander was designated for assignment the next day, but the Houston Astros would swoop in and claim the righty off waivers.
From that point on Alexander looked like a much different pitcher wearing the Houston uniform. It wouldn’t take long for him to get a shot at starting for the Astros and this time he ran with his opportunity. At the end of the season he was a full-fledged member of the Houston starting five after making 13 starts and pitching to a solid 3.82 ERA across 68 innings over the final two months during their failed playoff push.
Alexander’s performance with the Astros earned him a 40-man roster spot for the offseason and the journeyman right-hander looks like a strong candidate to begin next year in Houston’s starting rotation. And the Athletics likely won’t have to wait long to see their former player next year as they’ll welcome the Astros to town in the second week of the season. Since he doesn’t have an extensive track record he’ll need to keep performing to keep that spot, but his patience finally paid off this past season and the late-bloomer will try to build on it next year.