The A’s announced that they have claimed right-hander Joel Payamps off waivers from the Royals, who designated him for assignment earlier this week. To create room on the 40-man roster, fellow righty Paul Blackburn was transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Payamps, 28, has appeared in the big leagues in each of the past four seasons, spending time with the Diamondbacks, Blue Jays and Royals. With KC this year, he’s logged 42 2/3 innings out of the bullpen with a 3.16 ERA. His 17.6% strikeout rate is a few ticks below league average, but his 53.3% ground ball rate is a few points above.
For the rebuilding A’s, they will take a shot on Payamps, which makes sense for a couple of reasons. His low-strikeout, pitch-to-contact profile could be a good match for the spacious confines of the Coliseum. He’s also yet to reach arbitration, having come into this season with just over a year of service time. If he sticks with the low-spending A’s as a valuable bullpen piece, they can keep him around cheaply for years to come.
As for Blackburn, it was reported earlier this week that he’s been shut down for the remainder of the season. That means today’s transfer is a mere formality.
So I think literally the first team eligible to claim him
A’s were 2nd in line behind the Nats.
If two teams claimed him, then the claim goes to the same league first so actually the A’s were first in line.
League-specific claims have been eliminated, so the Nats had first choice of refusal.
For surface stats just based on era he looks decent for jays in 2021 and royals this year. Walks and hits a bit high. Why was he DFA by a equally lousy royals team? I wonder why A’s would claim payamps but pass on dilson Lamet a couple weeks ago
If you saw how bad a few of the bullpen are that would answer your question. Snead and Tapia have no reason to be above AAA.
I think the fear with Lamet is after the injuries he’ll never really be the same.
I’ve had to quit watching the Royals. They used to be my favorite team, but, They try once every 30 years. they’ve got a roster full of AAAA players, and cut a guy with an ERA in the low to mid 3s. The organization has zero clue. when you live equal distance from KC and STL, and you can watch Nolan Arenado, or Goldschmidt, or Yadi, or you can watch some cobbled up roster that no one wants, there’s not much choice to be made. It’s sad too. they’ve got some promising guys, that will be playing for someone else at free agency. Beautiful stadium, great atmosphere, awesome fans. garbage front office and lowsy ownership.
I agree. Gosh it seems like the same teams rebuild and rebuild then start the rebuild over again. Royals Pirates A’s…..others as well. Don’t want to hear about the small market thing either. If these teams weren’t making money where they are they would move. Making money is the bottom line.
The A’s are generally playoff contenders and don’t really belong in the same category as the Royals or Pirates. I mean sure, the Royals have the world series championship, but I don’t know many fans that would want to be bad for 20 years until the team finally gets enough high draft picks that work out.
You are right about the A’s. They accomplish something once in a while as the others just languish. What they did last winter was horrible. Traded everyone and starting over. Again.
Somewhat agree but Payamps is meat. Front office actually made a smart decision here
Problem is he wasn’t the worst pitcher on KC.
Not a Royals fan but I disagree. They try, they just are in a rough patch right now The A’s have probably one player in the lineup that should be in the majors, Pirates lineup is putrid. KC has Melendez, Witt, Vinnie P, Pratto, all of whom are prospects who are not falling flat on their face.
Not sure where you get the idea they let their players walk from? They extended Salvy twice, Alex Gordon, Merrifield,, Holland, Duffy, etc all in the primes of their careers. Pirates and A’s have extended??? Hayes, Cutch (for a bit), and Oakland held onto Olsen and Chapman for a bit, but I don’t think past any years of FA. Easy to be upset about the Royals right now but they aren’t like the Pirates and A’s who are annually asleep during free agency.
I mean the Royals lost a World Series and won a World Series within the past 8 years. Do you realize how many fans of other teams would kill for that? I wouldn’t moan about them right now.
Pirates and A’s aren’t really a high bar though, they both have horrible ownership issues.