A tough year for the veteran lefty all-around
Today we take a look back on a buy-low candidate that the A’s struck out on, veteran left-hander Alex Wood and his lone year donning the Green & Gold.
How was he acquired?
The A’s signed the veteran left-hander to a 1-year deal back in February, bringing him aboard on a modest $8.5MM deal after Wood spent the past three seasons across the bay playing for the Giants.
What were the expectations?
Brought on board the same day as fellow veteran Ross Stripling, Wood had bounced between the starting rotation and bullpen in his third and final year in San Francisco after starting 52 games during the 2021-2022 seasons. Over that time Wood posted a 4.41 ERA for the Giants while providing a veteran presence on the team that already had multiple 30-somethings in the starting rotation.
Adding him to a young rebuilding squad had a lot of positives. As a veteran maybe Wood could help some of the younger options during their transition to the major leagues. With little in the way of obvious innings-eaters (outside of perhaps fellow lefty JP Sears), injuries and ineffectiveness could quickly derail the team if they didn’t have someone who could soak up frames. Wood, who has dealt with some serious injuries in his career, looked healthy pitching for the Giants and if he performed well the team could flip him to a contender, thus recouping some future value. It was a worthy buy-low move that we have seen similar deals work out before.
2024 Results
Things went sideways pretty quickly for the 33-year-old. Playing in his 12th season in the majors Wood got the Opening Day nod, a surprise for a lot of fans who thought JP Sears was a better option. We’ll never know but Wood’s first career Opening Day start was a complete disaster. Facing the Cleveland Guardians (and old friend Stephen Vogt’s first game as a manager), Wood got torched for six runs in just 3 1⁄3 innings, with most of the damage coming in that fourth and final frame. The team ended up losing that game 8-0 as it was a sign of things to come for both Wood and the Athletics.
While the rest of his season didn’t go as badly as that first outing, Wood still struggled over the first month of the season. For the month of April Wood posted a 5.14 ERA over six starts. Not what the club was hoping for when they signed him to an $8.5MM deal but maybe he could pick it up once the summer really trolled around. Instead the club wound up placing their high-priced investment on the IL on May 15th after he looked like he was turning a corner. It would be another month before the club moved him to the 60-day IL and soon after the team announced that Wood needed to undergo the knife, ending his season to rotator cuff surgery.
Still, even with his season over Wood was reportedly a consummate professional, sticking by the young club as he began his rehab and acting as a model to all the young arms on the team. In all Wood finished the season with a 5.26 ERA over 9 starts, costing the team roughly $1MM per start. Not the return on investment the club was hoping for.
2025 Outlook
Wood is now back on the free agent market looking for his next home, though he may have to wait a while before getting an opportunity. Now a year older and coming off major shoulder surgery, Wood may have to wait until Spring Training rolls around before getting a chance to latch on with a club. Who knows? That could be with the Athletics on a minor league deal that allows him to try to reestablish himself and make good on last year’s contract. The team is reportedly interested in adding an arm to the rotation, having been connected to former Dodgers top prospect Walker Buehler a couple days ago, but if they strike out on enticing a bigger name to Sacramento then it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see Wood rejoin the team come spring.
