Take today’s article with several grains of salt and please watch your cholesterol. I am mostly having fun because it’s the internet, where every idea is equally valid, and anyway how could I ever come up with a trade less believable than “William Contreras and Joel Payamps for Esteury Ruiz!”

The A’s search this winter will be for a front end SP (no easy task), to fortify a bullpen that was terrible in the first half of 2025, strangely great in the second half of 2025, and on paper looks to be spotty for 2026, and possibly to add an infielder to a mix that currently includes Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson and a lot of uncertainty (Darell Hernaiz, Max Muncy, Brett Harris).

In perceived decreasing order of likelhihood — meaning odds fall from 2% down to more like 0.2 % — here are some ways the A’s could potentially zag by taking advantage of circumstance…

Starting Pitcher: Pablo Lopez

Circumstance: Lopez established himself as a legitimate FOTR starting pitcher with the Miami Marlins and continued to shine with the Minnesota Twins, but his 2025 season saw a couple troubling physical developments that make him a risk: he missed the start of the season with a teres major strain in his right shoulder, then was shut down at the end of the year with a “mild forearm strain”. That risk might be the opportunity for the A’s to swoop in and land a pitcher who would normally command too much prospect capital in return.

The Appeal: Lopez is the real deal, with a career 9.27 K rate and 2.34 BB rate. He was coming off seasons of 3.0, 4.2, 3.2 WAR and his 1.8 WAR in 2025 came in half a season with his velocity intact (94.7 MPH). Prior to 2025 he made 32 starts each of the previous 3 seasons and he is expected to be fully good to go come spring training.

The Twins are rebuilding, having sold off several key players at the deadline. They might be interested in some of the A’s good prospects, some of whom the A’s could part with and still maintain their basic core. Some examples of young players that might interest the Twins are Colby Thomas, Tommy White, Zack Gelof, Max Muncy, and Henry Bolte (who I really want to hold onto, but realistically he is in the conversation).

Add Lopez to the other Lopez (Jacob), Luis Morales and to other Luis (Severino), plus Jeffrey Springs, and your rotation starts to look like the kind of group that compete for a division title backed by one of the league’s better offenses.

I would deal, say, Thomas, Gelof, and White to get Lopez, who has 2 years left on his contract at around $18/year. That trade has potential to be a bit of a steal for the Twins given Gelof’s upside as a reclamation/change of scenery candidate and given that Thomas and White ranked around #3 and #5 on A’s prospect lists at the start of the season. (White currently ranks #7 on MLB Pipeline but 4 of the 6 ahead of him, Leo De Vries, Jamie Arnold, Braden Nett, and Devin Taylor, only joined the organization in July.)

Lopez could succumb to arm/shoulder problems — it’s a known risk of the trade given recent history — so it’s hardly a steal for the A’s even not offering their very top prospects. But the upside is there and #2 SPs are hard to acquire, making it a fair “go for it” type of deal.

I don’t know if it would be exactly those 3 anyway, so I ask AN: would do you think a deal for Pablo Lopez would look like, and would you want the A’s to do it?

Leverage Reliever: Orion Kerkering

Circumstance: I know, I know: “Hey, corpse is still warm, buddy…” Orion Kerkering is all the news today and not in the way you would want. His epic blunder came with the Phillies’ season on the line, bobbling a slow comebacker and then panicking with his human brain temporarily hijacked by his lizard brain and inexplicably throwing home instead of to 1B — late, and for good measure wildly.

One might conclude that Kerkering is not good under pressure, not a guy to trust important games or situations to, but realistically it was one really awful moment unlikely to repeat. But what you might more reasonably conclude is that he becomes a pretty solid “change of scenery” candidate, someone the Phillies might decide they need to move on from for their sake and for his. It’s going to be a long, long, long off-season for Orion Kerkering.

The Appeal: Lost in the agony of self-defeat is that Kerkering has established himself as a quality reliever and he’s still just 24 with 5 years of contract control ahead of him. His fastball averages 97.6 MPH and his career K/9 IP rate is 10.36. His addition would make the A’s bullpen better.

The Phillies aren’t rebuilding, at least not yet officially, but they are an aging team that needs to be looking to a youth movement sooner rather than later. Whether or when they will embrace this is hard to say, but if they feel a change of scenery is best for all, moving Kerkering for a prospect or two might be a wise move for Philly.

Would you like the A’s to acquire today’s goat (not GOAT), a quality reliever who just choked on the biggest stage and might be available mostly because of it? And if so, what would you be willing to offer that the Phillies might be intrigued by enough to pull the trigger?

Yes this one is quite the stretch in that Volpe is a shortstop and the A’s have a shortstop in Jacob Wilson with a potential franchise player on the horizon in Leo De Vries — and he happens to be a shortstop as well. And Volpe is coming off quite a disappointing season followed by a horrific ALDS in which he struck out in 11 of his last 13 plate appearances (0 for 13 overall).

Circumstance: The Bronx can be unforgiving and fans want to run Volpe out of town following the ALDS. Management might be more measured in its assessments, but clearly some of the shine has worn off the apple in the Big Apple since Volpe burst onto the scene as a rookie in 2023 and then excelled in 2024 (3.5 WAR). Volpe’s hitting and defense both took a dive this year, so much so that late in the season Jose Caballero got a lot of starts at SS.

The Appeal: From the A’s point of view, though, there is also reason to think Volpe is a strong bounce back candidate for 2026. His troubles trace to a shoulder injury (partially torn labrum) he played through, which will be addressed with off-season surgery.

Volpe was +2 DRS/-7 OAA at SS in 2025, but he was +6/+14 OAA in 2024 and given that he’s 24 there’s reason to believe that if fully healthy he can return to being a top defensive player. His shoulder injury almost certainly affected his hitting as well.

If any team can appreciate Volpe’s potential as a hitter it should be the A’s as Volpe is a career .333/.412/.493 hitter against them. Like Lopez, Volpe could be available affordably due to recent injury and like Kerkering he could be available partly due to the scrutiny of post-season implosion wearing out his welcome locally.

The catch is that for the A’s even to want to acquire Volpe they would probably have to view him as a 2Bman (with Wilson shifting to 3B upon De Vries’ arrival). There are other iterations around the horn, e.g., Volpe-De Vries-Wilson or Wilson-Volpe-De Vries, but they make less sense especially since in the event Volpe’s shoulder strength is at all sapped a move to 2B makes the most sense in his career anyway.

It’s a reach since Volpe is a RH batter, as are Muncy, Hernaiz, and Harris, his acquisition would necessitate a position switch for someone, and he’s not even known to be potentially available. But it’s kind of an intriguing “zag” to consider — with the all important question being, if the Yankees did decide to move Volpe, what would they be asking for in return?

So there are some “deals that will never happen” to ponder and discuss on this Friday, a day in which either the Tigers or Mariners will advance to the ALCS and someone will go home for the winter. Hopefully not after throwing wildly to the wrong base.