The long road home for this A's pitcher

This story was excerpted from Martín Gallegos’ A’s Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Of the 33 players who traveled with the A’s for their two-game series against the Reds at Las Vegas Ballpark over the weekend, none had a connection to the trip as significant as right-hander Joe Wieland.

Who is Wieland? In 2008, he was the best pitcher in the state, earning Nevada State Player of the Year honors by both the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Reno-Gazette-Journal for his standout senior season at Bishop Manogue High School in Reno.

Wieland signed a Minor League deal with the A’s this offseason, and it’s the journey he has taken since those days as a local star upstate that made him appreciative.

“The last few years have been a road long traveled,” Wieland said. “To be back around a Major League team and go on a trip, it’s definitely something special.”

A fourth-round pick by the Rangers in the 2008 MLB Draft, Wieland was traded to the Padres in July 2011. Called up early in the 2012 season to make his Major League debut, Wieland made five starts with San Diego before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the next 15 months.

Upon returning from injury, Wieland’s big league chances were scarce. From 2014-16, he was traded two more times and made just a handful of appearances with the Padres, Dodgers and Mariners.

Wieland became a free agent after the ‘16 season and opted to sign with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, kicking off a three-year overseas tour that also included a stop in Korea with the Kia Tigers of the KBO League in ‘19.

“Going to a different culture and learning the game that they play, it’s baseball, but it is a little bit different,” Wieland said. “You appreciate the game a lot. It’s a kid’s game that you grew up playing. [It] doesn’t matter where you’re playing on the planet. It’s baseball, and it’s a lot of fun.”

Wieland returned home unsigned during the 2020 pandemic and found an opportunity through the Constellation Energy League, a four-team independent baseball summer league created as a way to give Minor Leaguers an avenue to keep playing.

There was no traveling due to COVID-19 restrictions. All games took place at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas, with former big leaguers Roger Clemens, Greg Swindell and Dave Eiland among the league’s managers.

“It wasn’t typical baseball,” Wieland said. “We all lived in the same hotel. We had roommates. We played two or three games a week and didn’t practice in between. To be honest, it was like going back and playing backyard baseball. An organized, ‘Hey, we’re going out and we’re playing ball.’”

The league was unorthodox but effective. Wieland emerged from it with a Minor League deal from Cubs later that year. After missing the ‘21 season with a shoulder injury, he signed with the Rays in ‘22. Though the pitching opportunities were limited, he posted a 1.93 ERA in 18 2/3 innings last season while mostly pitching at Triple-A Durham.

With Oakland, Wieland is expected to provide Minor League pitching depth as a starter with Triple-A Las Vegas. He was not invited to big league camp, but he’s fared well in a couple of outings when called up from Minor League camp, including two innings of one-run ball with three strikeouts in Saturday’s exhibition against the Reds in Las Vegas.

"I’m soaking it all in,” Wieland said of his opportunity with the A’s. “It reminded me of where I was at early in my career and it’s really lit another fire to get myself back here.”

Playing in the A’s organization is also something Wieland describes as “full circle,” given his history with Oakland manager Mark Kotsay. When Wieland debuted with the Padres in ‘12, Kotsay was his teammate. But the relationship goes deeper than that.

“To be honest, Mark was like a father figure to me,” Wieland said. “There’s a lot in my early career that I owe to him. He showed me what it was like to be a big leaguer. [He] showed me the ropes. I was pretty fortunate to be a rookie and have him guiding and helping me along.”

It was certainly a full-circle moment on Saturday, when Kotsay made a call to the A’s bullpen for Wieland.

“He’s gone through a lot of adversity,” Kotsay said. “He’s grinded. It’s great to see a guy that has the passion to continue and get an opportunity.”