The A’s have announced that they have designated right-hander Austin Pruitt for assignment. The move opens a spot on the active roster for fellow righty Joel Payamps, who was claimed off waivers from the Royals on Saturday.
Pruitt, 32, has been in the majors since 2017, spending the first three seasons with the Rays. He showed enough promise that the Astros acquired him prior to the 2020 campaign, though Pruitt ended up missing that entire season due to a hairline fracture in his right elbow. He returned to the mound in July of 2021, making two appearances for Houston before they traded him to the Marlins. He was later outrighted by the Marlins twice, making just four appearances for them in between.
After reaching free agency, he signed with the A’s on a minor league deal in March. He got selected to the big league club in May and has been with them since. In 37 2/3 innings over 27 appearances, he has a 4.78 ERA, 17.2% strikeout rate, 5.1% walk rate and 41.3% ground ball rate.
Oakland currently has a record of 45-77, the worst in the American League. At this point in the season, they are focused on evaluating younger players to see if they fit into the club’s future plans. As such, it seems that the veteran Pruitt has been nudged out of the picture. With the trade deadline now passed, the club will have to place him on outright or release waivers in the coming days. Players who have previously been outrighted in their careers or who have over three years of MLB service time can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Pruitt qualifies on both counts.
I liked Pruitt. Hope he clears waivers and comes back…
His WHIP was actually better than some of their other relievers but he doesn’t strike out a lot of hitters. Maybe that’s why.
It should be Snead he is their worst reliever.
You’re the one that liked him
Thanks for the save last night, now see you in hell.
Off topic but on A’s: its crazy how they can pair Murphy and Langeliers to always be C or DH. Do the rules allow for position switching between innings? With both being really great defensive and offensive players, the A’s can do something interesting with them if they so chose to. They likely, however, will do the awful/boring thing and trade one of them instead due to shoddy, scammer ownership.
Think Murph is definitely getting traded this offseason even though id love to keep him
A team would need to over pay for Murphy so the ball is in their court. Would be 2 top prospects for him since he is being paid cheap and can play great defense with hitting.
He’d probably go for `1 top prospect and 3 or 4 mid grade prospects. The A’s ownership is super cheap and if we aren’t competing then they probably don’t even want to pay him arbitration.
DH cannot be moved to a position unless they are also the starting pitcher.
See the Ohtani Rule
Murphy catcher, Langeliers at 1B, Brown in RF. This sruff ain’t hard. If they trade Murphy, better be for a power hitter. If they trade him for prospects, boycott