Athletics' JP Sears: Working with sinker this spring

Sears is incorporating a sinker into his repertoire this spring and enjoyed success with it in his first Cactus League start Tuesday, Steve Stockmar of MLB.com reports. "I've been feeling pretty confident with it. It's a new pitch for me," Sears said. "I've never thrown a sinker. I'm just trying to get educated on it from the other guys that throw it and the catchers and results from the hitters on my team whenever I face them live."

Sears was the picture of stability in an otherwise makeshift Athletics starting rotation last season, logging a team-high 32 starts and posting a 4.54 ERA and 1.26 WHIP that somewhat belied an ugly 5-14 record. The 28-year-old southpaw, who had 70 innings of big-league experience coming into the 2023 season, will be counted on as the No. 2 starter to open the new campaign, and he got his official regular-season prep off to an impressive start against the Guardians on Tuesday with two perfect innings during which he threw only 19 pitches (13 strikes). Sears rolled out the sinker for the first time in live action as well, recording a strikeout and a flyout on two of the three occasions he deployed it.