A’s Move Ross Stripling To Bullpen

The A’s are bumping Ross Stripling into a relief role, manager Mark Kotsay said before tonight’s matchup with the Mets (X link via Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). Oakland recalled right-hander Joe Boyle to start today, so the 6’7″ hurler will presumably stick in the starting five.

Oakland acquired Stripling and Alex Wood in the hope that they’d serve as veteran anchors to a fairly young rotation. The A’s reportedly took on $9.25MM of Stripling’s $12.5MM salary when they acquired him from the Giants in February. They signed Wood for $8.5MM on a one-year free agent deal. Neither acquisition has provided much in terms of on-field value. Wood made nine starts before suffering a shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery. Stripling lost two months to an elbow injury and hasn’t gotten good results when healthy.

Over 14 starts, the veteran right-hander carries a 5.72 earned run average. He’s striking out a career-low 12.5% of opposing hitters. Stripling has continued to attack the strike zone but simply hasn’t missed enough bats to be consistently effective. He has completed six innings in three of his 14 appearances. He allowed six runs in one of those. His only quality starts are a seven-inning, one-run performance against the Red Sox on April 3 and the six scoreless frames he worked against Pittsburgh on May 1.

Oakland welcomed Stripling back from the injured list just before the trade deadline. There presumably wasn’t much interest from other teams. (The A’s did move Paul Blackburn, whom they’ve tagged for seven runs tonight, to the Mets on deadline day.) Stripling has made three starts since returning. He had a nice showing against the Giants on July 31 but was hit hard by the Angels and White Sox in his other appearances.

With Stripling scuffling, the A’s are going with almost entirely unproven arms in their rotation. JP Sears is the most established member of the staff. Rule 5 pick Mitch Spence got a rotation spot in the middle of May and has turned in back-of-the-rotation production. The hard-throwing Boyle joins Joey Estes and Osvaldo Bido at the back end. Stripling assumes the long relief role which the A’s opened by designating Kyle Muller for assignment this afternoon.

Sears is the only member of that group who entered the season with even a year of major league service. They’re all trying to establish themselves as longer-term members of the pitching staff. Stripling, by contrast, seems likely to be a one-year acquisition. He’ll be a free agent next winter. He turned in an excellent 3.01 ERA for the Blue Jays two years back but carries a 5.52 mark over 161 1/3 frames since signing a $25MM contract with San Francisco over the 2022-23 offseason.