​The Athletics’ latest signing may sound a lot like signings the club has made in the past, but this time around could offer the first real test of the pitcher development system the team’s new front office is hoping to implement in the coming months. According to his own Instagram, the A’s have signed left-handed relief pitcher Luke Little. He had spent parts of six seasons in the Chicago Cubs system before being designated for assignment by Chicago in early August and picked up by the Kansas City Royals for the rest of the season. In 2026, Little posted a 7.28 ERA (5.46 FIP) across 50 ⅔ innings in the minors and tossed one inning with the Cubs, giving up two hits and a home run while striking out one. Little has made appearances with the Cubs each of the past four seasons, accumulating a 2.97 ERA (4.14 FIP) over 36 ⅓ innings. His profile will be familiar to A’s fans as a high-strikeout, high-walk-rate pitcher. Both his slider (122) and sinker (129) graded out incredibly well on FanGraphs’ Stuff+ grades, with 100 being league average. His four-seamer graded out at an 89. Of course, this was all over his one inning of work, so it’s an extremely small sample size, but the sinker was a new pitch in 2026 and the other grades were in a similar range in previous stints. The goal now will be harnessing that command. In his 23 ⅔ innings with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate, Little held a walk rate of 20% while his strikeout rate barely outpaced it at 21.7%. One factor working in his favor is a fairly low home-run-to-fly-ball rate, sitting at 7.7% overall on the season, while also holding a 46.9% ground-ball rate. His ground-ball rate has consistently sat above 45%, which is one skill the A’s figured to target this season to help limit the number of home runs they allow. The A’s allowed the most home runs in baseball in 2026 with 247, and keeping the ball on the ground would certainly help limit the long fly next season. The challenge for the A’s coaching staff will be getting Little’s pitches under control on a regular basis. The front office has said that it wants to provide the best information possible to the coaches and the players, and this will be a good initial test for the club’s new approach. The deal has not been confirmed by the club.