{"id":591603,"date":"2026-02-25T06:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T06:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/591603\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T06:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T06:37:10","slug":"as-notes-butler-clarke-bullpen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/591603\/","title":{"rendered":"A’s Notes: Butler, Clarke, Bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u2019s outfielder\u00a0Lawrence Butler<\/a> is working back from the patellar tendon procedure<\/a> that he underwent in early October. He has entered camp a little behind schedule as a result, though it seems he\u2019s on track to be ready for the start of the season.<\/p>\n

Mart\u00edn Gallegos of MLB.com<\/a> writes that the lefty batter has been cleared to take batting practice and do simple defensive drills. He has yet to get the sign-off to play defense at full effort or run the bases, which is holding him out of game action for the moment. Manager Mark Kotsay told Gallegos that the A\u2019s are hoping Butler will be able to make his Cactus League debut midway through the spring. That\u2019d give him a couple weeks to get up to speed before Opening Day.<\/p>\n

Butler is coming off a .234\/.306\/.404 showing across 630 plate appearances. He had a 20-20 campaign and hit 30 doubles, but his rate metrics were around league average. Although it wasn\u2019t a bad season, it was a step back from the huge 2024 second half that established him as a core piece. Playing through the injury probably had something to do with that. Butler took a .251\/.326\/.433 line into the All-Star Break but hit .203\/.268\/.351 in the second half.<\/p>\n

The A\u2019s could ease him into the lineup early in the season to avoid placing too much stress on the knee. He\u2019ll be an everyday player once he\u2019s fully healthy. Butler should see the majority of his work in right field. He can kick into center if\u00a0Denzel Clarke<\/a> struggles enough at the plate that the A\u2019s prefer to swap out his superlative glove to plug a better hitter into the corner outfield mix.<\/p>\n

Clarke missed the final two and a half months of his rookie season with an adductor strain in his right hip. He was a human highlight reel in center field over his first 47 big league contests. Statcast credited Clarke with an astounding 13 Outs Above Average in less than 400 innings. He was fifth in MLB among center fielders while logging around 30-40% of the playing time of the players above him in that category.<\/p>\n

The bat is a much bigger question. Clarke has posted worrisome strikeout tallies throughout his minor league career. He punched out 61 times while drawing all of six walks in his first 159 MLB plate appearances. He can hit the ball hard when he makes contact, though a lot of that comes at such low angles that it limits his power ceiling.<\/p>\n

Clarke appears to be without any restrictions as camp gets underway. He started his first exhibition game as a designated hitter but has played center field without issue during his two most recent appearances. Clarke also signed on to represent his native Canada in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. That\u2019ll give him the opportunity to play alongside his cousins Bo Naylor<\/a> and\u00a0Josh Naylor<\/a>, each of whom is also on the Canadian national team.<\/p>\n

Most of the A\u2019s lineup is settled. Assuming Butler is ready for Opening Day and Clarke wins the center field job, the only lineup spot up for grabs is third base. There\u2019s much more variability on the pitching side. The A\u2019s have multiple young pitchers competing for two spots<\/a> at the back of the rotation. The bullpen is also fairly open, especially in the late innings.<\/p>\n

Kotsay said at the beginning of Spring Training that he does not intend to designate a closer by Opening Day (separate MLB.com link<\/a> via Gallegos). The A\u2019s found success with a committee approach after trading Mason Miller<\/a> at the deadline. They explored the market for an established closer this offseason but were seemingly priced out of a quick-moving, generally robust free agent relief class.<\/p>\n

The A\u2019s added a pair of veteran arms,\u00a0Mark Leiter Jr.<\/a> and\u00a0Scott Barlow<\/a>, on cheaper one-year contracts. Barlow has a decent amount of closing experience but has been in lower-leverage roles for the last two seasons. Both righties are reclamation types rather than lockdown arms at the back end. Of the A\u2019s returning arms, Hogan Harris<\/a> led the way with four saves last season. He\u2019s likely to be in high-leverage roles alongside\u00a0Justin Sterner<\/a>, with\u00a0Tyler Ferguson<\/a> and\u00a0Elvis Alvarado<\/a> potentially in the mix as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u2019s outfielder\u00a0Lawrence Butler is working back from the patellar tendon procedure that he underwent in early October. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,14905,7634,4813,6616,4810,890,4,11148,4915],"class_list":["post-591603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-denzel-clarke","tag-elvis-alvarado","tag-hogan-harris","tag-justin-sterner","tag-lawrence-butler","tag-mark-leiter-jr","tag-mlb","tag-scott-barlow","tag-tyler-ferguson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116129893319049645","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}