Lopez closes '26 on a high note, looking forward to '27

WEST SACRAMENTO -- A premature ending due to injury dampened what was a promising 2025 rookie campaign for Jacob Lopez. One year later, the Athletics left-hander finished his season on his terms, and he finished it strong.

Making his final start of 2026, Lopez produced arguably his best outing of the year in Friday’s 6-5 A’s victory over the Astros at Sutter Health Park, limiting Houston to one run on two hits and two walks with four strikeouts across six innings.

Lopez was well on his way to closing his season with a bang over the second half. Recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas on July 7, the 28-year-old posted a 2.82 ERA and held opponents to a .615 OPS in his first 11 games (10 starts) back from the Minors. Then came a brutal previous three starts before Friday in which he allowed 19 runs in 12 1/3 innings, including a career-high 10 earned runs in a loss to the Guardians in Cleveland last week.

Asked before the game about those struggles in that three-game stretch, manager Mark Kotsay hinted that fatigue may have been setting in for Lopez. After all, he’d already surpassed the most innings he’d ever pitched in one season as a professional, and this season is by far the most he’s pitched in the big leagues.

“These guys are still going through this process of a full season at the Major League level, which is challenging,” Kotsay said of Lopez and other young starters on the roster. “Every aspect of it, from travel to pitching on four days of rest. … The biggest thing going into the offseason for Jacob is going to be training.

“But we’re excited for him to go back out tonight. Any time he takes the mound, you know what he’s capable of doing and you’re hopeful that he can go out and put up zeros for six innings tonight.”

Lopez nearly did put up six zeros. His only blemish was a fastball inside to Christian Walker in the fourth inning that the slugging first baseman pulled to left field for a solo blast to put the Astros on the board. Aside from that, Lopez effectively mixed his four pitches -- slider, four-seamer, cutter, changeup -- to tame Houston’s offense, generating an average exit velocity of 85.9 mph on 16 batted ball events.

“That might be his best outing of the year,” Kotsay said. “To go out at the end of the year in your last start against a contending team and put up six innings and only give up one run, that was exceptional. That’s what we need from him going forward. I think this offseason is going to be a lot different for him and his mindset by learning from what happened last offseason. I’m excited about his 2027 year.”

Lopez acknowledged the need to better prepare his body for what will, hopefully, be a full season in the Majors with the A’s next year as opposed to what took place this season, which saw him start out as part of the club’s Opening Day rotation before getting optioned to Triple-A in June after struggling mightily with a 6.75 ERA through his first 12 games (10 starts).

“A lot of the time, my body breaks down in August,” Lopez said. “It was good to grind it out [this season]. We’re all hurt at this time of the year, but that’s part of being a big leaguer. Just taking this offseason very seriously and hiring top-notch people, I can put myself in a good position next year.”

Lopez finished his '26 campaign having posted a 5.47 ERA in 27 games (24 starts) with 112 strikeouts in 123 1/3 innings. The second half was clearly better than the first half, and if the A’s can get that version of him for a full season, it would be a huge boost for a team that will be in need of improved pitching to find itself in playoff contention around this time a year from now rather than just trying to play spoiler.

“This second half, that’s been the theme for me,” Lopez said. “As long as I can limit my runs to solo home runs, I’m usually going to keep the team in the ballgame. … It was a tough season, but I think just learning through this experience is going to make me a really good pitcher. It’s going to be a good year next year.”