Adam Oller's Up and Down (and Up Again) Journey

On August 22, 2022, in a start against the Miami Marlins, Adam Oller gutted his way through six innings, and to me it looked like he had taken a step forward. 

Whenever the A's bring in someone new, I watch them a little more closely because the guys the A's bring in via trade tend to be works in progress. That start against the Marlins looked like a breakthrough for Oller. I talked about that start when it happened, and brought it up multiple times during the off-season on the Locked on A's podcast. That start stuck with me, and had me believing we may see a new version of Adam Oller in 2023.

I caught up with Oller last week to ask him about his pitch mix, and to find out what he remembered about that outing on August 22, but we ended up talking about the journey to get to that moment, too. Here is that journey.

"Throw it over the plate and watch what happens." That's what the A's told Adam Oller when they sent him down to Triple-A at the end of June last season. 

Oller, part of the return in the Chris Bassitt trade with the New York Mets ahead of the 2022 season, reported to Las Vegas and filled up the zone. In back-to-back starts in the minors against the Oklahoma City Dodgers on July 4th and 9th of last season, Oller combined for 8.2 IP, 8 hits, 3 ER, 2 walks, and 9 strikeouts. The OKC Dodgers led the Pacific Coast League in walks last season and had one of the league's best offenses.

Before that demotion, the right-hander said that sometimes he would be aiming for a first pitch dot on the corner instead of a strike on the outer half of the strike zone. That led to some walk issues in the first half of the season. The A's assured him that he has good stuff, he just needed to throw it over the plate. 

Before he was told to trust his stuff, Oller admitted to feeling some hesitance as far as throwing it in the strike zone. "These are big league hitters. If I throw it over the plate they're going to crush it."

That two-game stint against the OKC Dodgers in early July was a confidence boost against a good-hitting squad that he carried with him back to the Majors. "I can get guys out just by throwing it over the plate. I don't have to be perfect every time." Those two starts against OKC were the last ones Oller made in Triple-A last season.

"It was a huge confidence boost for me. When I came back up, obviously I didn't want to go back down, and I knew that the reason why I was going up and down wasn't because I was giving up runs or anything, it was more so just walking guys. That's something that I can control. If they hit it, that's fine. But if I walk you, that's on me."

I asked Oller if the Miami start was a turning point for him, and he said that the turning point was actually in a game against the Houston Astros before the All Star break after he came back up. 

In that start against Houston his mentality was that if he was going to give up ten runs, he was going to give up ten runs because they scored ten runs on fifteen hits. He didn't want free passes to lead to those hypothetical ten runs. He went 4.1 innings, gave up 6 hits, 3 ER (two home runs), walked one and struck out three.

"From then on every outing was like 'stay in the zone, stay in the zone.' Whatever happens, happens."

Back to the night that piqued my initial interest: 

In that start against Miami his command was off. He issued five walks and struck out just two. But with an exhausted bullpen needing him to eat up some innings, Oller gutted out six innings, tossing 111 pitches, just 62 for strikes. He allowed five hits and three runs, effectively keeping his team in the game despite his lack of command.

"I was warming up, and was just like 'I don't have anything today.' In those situations you can't say 'I don't want to throw today.' You gotta wear it. You've got to do what you can to grind through it. That was one of those ones where it's like I don't have it, but I can get you six."

In his next outing later that week against the New York Yankees, Oller went eight scoreless innings, took a no-hitter into the sixth, and faced the minimum through eight. "I wanna say I threw three breaking balls [in that start]. Everything else was fastball, cutter, change-up. That was a huge confidence boost because I'd just faced one of the best lineups in the league, and I dominated them with the fastball."

That start against New York would be the last one he'd make in 2022 that was injury-free. He faced the Baltimore Orioles on his regular turn on September 3, but landed on the IL a couple of days later with a rib injury. He missed almost a month of action before returning on October 1 to pitch an inning against the Seattle Mariners. 

In his eight MLB starts before the Baltimore start spanning July and August, Oller went 45.1 innings, gave up 42 hits, 20 ER, 7 HR, walked 16 (five in that Miami start), and struck out 25. That's a 3.99 ERA, with a 1.28 WHIP, and in 2022 that was almost exactly a league average starting pitcher. 

In his most recent outing of the 2023 season, Oller went five innings against the highest-scoring team in baseball, the Tampa Bays Rays, and allowed just two hits, one run (solo homer to Wander Franco), walked three and struck out three. 

The Athletics have not named a starter for Thursday's game against Cole Irvin and the Baltimore Orioles just yet, but Oller seems like the guy that could get the nod given his workload so far this season mirroring that of a starter.

If he gets the nod on Thursday, a good outing could lead to more starts with the A's rotation struggling to provide innings this season. Oakland starters have accumulated just 49.1 innings through 11 games. Only two teams have gotten fewer innings from their starters, the Cubs and Tigers, and both of those teams have played in one fewer game than the A's. 

Is it a curve, or a slider?: Oller called his breaking ball a slider, but admitted that analytically it's a curveball. Baseball Savant registered that breaking pitch as a curve to begin the season, but now it's a slurve, and it's one of his most-used pitches this season. 

"I think the A's call it a curveball. I think it's kind of a gray area because there are times where I get a lot of horizontal movement on it. I threw one in the game that was like 18 horizontal, which is technically classified as a sweeper. The other gray area is that a curveball traditionally is 75-80 miles per hour. Mine is anywhere from 82 to in Spring Training up to 87-88, so it kind of has slider velocity, but curveball movement."

Whatever you want to call it, batters are 1-for-18 against it so far this season. 

He added, "I throw a cutter as well, and I think at times the cutter also registers as a slider." 

Tony Kemp said last week that being an Oakland A is having a never-give-up attitude, and always grinding it out. Adam Oller and his curveball/slider/slurve embody that attitude and provides the fans with an underdog to root for.