Aug. 15: The A’s announced that Muller went unclaimed on waivers. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A Las Vegas and will remain with the organization but no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster.
Aug. 13: The Athletics announced that Joe Boyle has been recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas. He will start tonight’s game against the Mets, per Martín Gallegos of MLB.com on X. In a corresponding move, left-hander Kyle Muller has been designated for assignment.
Muller, 26, was one of five players that the A’s received in December of 2022 in the three-team trade that sent catcher Sean Murphy to Atlanta, William Contreras to the Brewers and various other moving pieces. Muller had been considered one of Atlanta’s best prospects in the years leading up to that deal but had struggled to establish himself at the big league level and had just one option remaining.
The A’s gave him a decent amount of runway to take a major league job last year but Muller wasn’t able to capitalize on the opportunity. Through May 22, he had made 10 starts at the big league level but allowed 42 earned runs in 47 innings, leading to an 8.04 ERA. The A’s then optioned him to the minors, recalling him for one spot start in early July, but otherwise keeping him in Triple-A until mid-August.
The results on the farm weren’t much better, as he had a 7.26 ERA in his 13 Triple-A starts. He was recalled and worked as a swingman for the final few weeks of the big league season, tossing 25 innings with a 7.20 ERA in that time.
That left him out of options coming into 2024 and the A’s have kept in the bullpen for a long relief role. He missed just over a month on the IL due to left shoulder tendinitis but has logged 42 2/3 innings over 18 outings this year with a 4.22 ERA. That’s obviously an improvement over his results from last year and his 5.1% walk rate is quite strong, but there aren’t many positive metrics apart from that. His 19.7% strikeout rate is still subpar and his Statcast page is mostly blue, with not much to inspire confidence in terms of velocity, whiffs, avoiding barrels, etc.
Keeping him on the roster was going to be a long-term issue due to his out-of-options status and he hasn’t shown enough promise for the club’s decision makers to keep him around. With the trade deadline now passed, the A’s will have to put him on waivers in the coming days.
He has not yet qualified for arbitration and has five years of club control beyond this one, so perhaps some club will be intrigued by his past prospect pedigree, but they would be faced with the same roster restrictions that the A’s were. As recently as 2022, he was able to make 23 Triple-A starts with a 3.41 ERA, 29.3% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate and 45.9% ground ball rate, but the results have been far less impressive since then. He does not have a previous career outright nor does he have three years of service time, meaning he would stick with the A’s as non-roster depth if he were to pass through waivers unclaimed.
As for Boyle, it’s unclear if this is just a spot start or if he’s going to get a longer rotation audition. The A’s already had five starters in JP Sears, Ross Stripling, Mitch Spence, Joey Estes and Osvaldo Bido. Perhaps they could run a six-man rotation for a while or send someone down to Triple-A. It’s also possible that they put Stripling on waivers or move him to the bullpen. He’s a 34-year-old impending free agent and the club is out of contention, so they might prefer to give starts to younger guys that are in consideration for roles on next year’s club.
Boyle has a 7.16 ERA in the majors this year and a mark of 5.63 in Triple-A, but his work on the farm has been better of late. Back on June 28, he was demolished in his start against Sacramento, allowing eight earned runs while only recording four outs. Since that pounding, he has thrown 26 2/3 innings with a 2.36 ERA and a massive 51.5% strikeout rate, though a high walk rate of 12.9%.
It just didn’t work for Muller, unfortunately. He didn’t seem comfortable enough on any pitching role given by the A’s.
Another pitcher that was a big part of a trade that didn’t pan out. Think he was part of the Matt Olson trade. So today nothing has panned out of the Matt Olson or Sean Murphy trades with Atlanta. In fact Oakland missed on William
Contreras could have had him but didn’t want him. Whoever is Oakland trade manager as really failed lately; Oakland used to trade stars get good prospects and play good. Not
Lately
Was for Sean Murphy. At this point I’d take langeliers over Murphy anyway but I agree. A’s have gotten absolutely fleeced in these trades with the Braves.
Both Muller/Pache have enormous raw skills that ATL couldn’t wrangle. OAK had to know what they were getting themselves into, just like when they chose Esteury Ruiz with immense upside, rather than William Contreras, who was already a proven-MLer by the time of the trade. OAK FO were taking big swings with some of these prospects and whiffed on nearly all of them. Joey Estes is looking decent and I’m not sure we’ll see much of Ryan Cusick, while Tarnok is injured, and also a lot of upside, but unable to put it altogether.
Murphy is still an upgrade over Langeliers, but haven’t really seen that much with a combo of d’Arnaud being around to take starts from Murphy and some random injuries from Murphy that he never really had in OAK.
Murphy is a backup catcher. Murphy is the third best catcher in the trade and the Braves extended him and gave him more money. I don’t know why Braves fans still defend this horrible trade they clearly lost.
Can’t you get past the – getting onto the other team in the division that I don’t like – thing for a second and just look objectively for once. He’s hitting league average and is a good catcher. This despite his year being interrupted badly with injury. It’s been a tough year. But when, as a catcher, even in your tough year you are still league average offensively, you are pretty solid. Would they rather have Contreras this year-yeah. Would they going forward? Who knows? Regardless you speak so absolutely that they lost the trade after a year and a half. Who cares anyway. If they lost a trade they won ten other deals. Sale? Murphy is part time largely because Darnaud is hitting better and they can’t hit as a team. It’s not like he is losing playing time to James McCann.
He’s not hitting league average . What are talking about? He hasn’t been hurt for months. He’s been benched. Did you really say who knows if they would rather have a younger cheaper better Contreras going forward? I guess that’s the issue. Congrats on Chris Sale. I’m sure you think that is winning ten trades but it is not. Every team has bad trades I don’t know why Brave fans take it so personally with their GMS bad moves.
You don’t think that his line is league average for a catcher? Yes I said they would possibly rather have Murphy long term because catcher is the most important position on the field and he is, by all accounts, a very good catcher. He is better defensively than Darnaud but the two of them are great with pitchers. Some evidence would be the way every pitcher on their team practically is having a great year. Even in a down year, and using only metrics, he has a FAR better pop time and framing, and elite blocks above average. Contreras is well below average in everything defensively. But the big thing is the work with pitchers. They said they did the deal for defense. Who would know better about how Contreras works with pitchers-you or the team that developed him?
People have said Contreras has improved but the metrics at least have him as a pretty well below average catcher. So if he winds up a DH one day is he really worth as much as Murphy? I mean the Braves have 2 players in Ozuna and Soler who are that type of player. Ozuna’s great year aside they aren’t that rare. A good defensive catcher who can hit at least decently with upside to be an elite hitting catcher is clearly more valuable imo.
What are you talking about? The Braves report on him two years ago? The Brewers pitching staff seems to being doing pretty good with him and the Braves have lost trust in Murphy and hardly play him. I would go with the team that know better that made him a starter in the all star games judgement and not yours. And no that is not league line average for hitting.
First-he was an all-star on ATL too. Second that has nothing to do with defense. He had a monstrous OPS at that point. It is league average for a catcher. Surely. The Braves are merely starting Darnaud more because he’s having a nice year. They have 2 legit starting catchers. Same as when Darnaud was starting over Contreras much of the time. He is a good player. They need the offense right now. I agree MIL has pitched well. There is no passive aggressive behavior from Braves fans towards Mets fans. My favorite player is Nimmo. Idk why you feel the need to criticize “Braves fans” in every article. Lumping us all into a big gelatinous mass of supposed ignorance.
You continue to find ways to fault Contreras and put Murphy on a Pedestal. You are the exact example of what I’m talking about. The Braves are a great organization but you are still trying to act like this was a good move. I actually love going to Brave games. Go there more then Citi field to watch Mets/Braves. I get annoyed with the constant worship of your GM when he makes a ton of horrible moves. Most of your superstar Braves where there well before he arrived. And for the record Riley, Harris, and Acuna are all in my personal baseball card collections.
I don’t worship the GM. He needs to stop resigning Charlie Morton. He needs to cut Adam Duvall and admit defeat. But show me 3 GMs who made a better trade than the last year than Chris Sale for Vaughn Grissom. Show me a GM that did something like sign the SP era leader at the AS break for the price of a reliever (Lopez). A guy with 11 straight starts with 2 runs or fewer this year. Also show me a GM that the players actually don’t look at as a suit with a head. Everybody makes bad moves. But not everybody makes great moves. So the Mets (or anyone) could have theoretically had 2 of the best pitchers in the game this year for basically 10m or so combined (Red Sox ate sale money). He had no money to spend and got what amounted so far to two aces. Imagine if he had NYM money.
@Rishi — this is Morton’s hurrah. I can’t stand him by now, but he’s just now (this year) showing his wear. And luckily, he’s going to be a FA, not worth his price tag. He had $0 buyout in the past, making re-signing even more of a value. Considering the need for top-end SP and our unwillingness to pay for it, he really has been great. Now Charlie, go out there (tonight) and throw 4 IP with 6 BB and 4 jacks.
I agree those moves were good and worked out great. Im glad you pointed out the good and the bad. He is obviously a very good GM. I just get annoyed with the over the top cult following that acts like every move he makes is genius. The Braves are obviously a very well ran organization but fans just need to be realistic on both ends of the spectrum.
There were signs of it last year. He pitched astonishingly well in tough spots but was a walk machine and led the league in hit batters. He was what most would say…lucky. I do think there was an element of him bearing down and being in the right mindset at those times tho. He’s a wise pitcher. Many times he threw 75 pitches or more through like 3 innings but managed to go 5 with all kinds of baserunners and no runs. There were so many good options this offseason besides him. He makes 20m. Lorenzen, for instance, makes 4.5m. Jack Flaherty, for instance. Luis Severino. Those two have so much more upside than a 40 y/o and you could even have Lorenzen too and still not spend Charlie’s 20m.
He’s made more bad ones. Rosario signing in 21′ offseason and picking him back up this year. Odorizzi. Lucked out some on Ozuna. Jansen was a waste of money. Morton makes way too much. Duvall. He’s benefitted from the As being either imbecile-like or purposefully tanking the system. Some earlier deals I forget. I quit paying attention for a couple years. But like I said nobody is perfect. I credit the coaches and scouts and analytics department as much as him. But he signed many of them in fairness. I think he’s good at listening to people.
While you are vomiting out your usual horrid Braves takes because you are jealous that the Mets suck, remember a couple of things. First, Contreras could always hit. The issue was that he was a very bad defender for the Braves, and they couldn’t fix him. They had started playing him at DH and LF some already in his all-star season. Brewers are terrific at unlocking defensive ability with catchers. Secondly, Murphy missed two or three months this season. His OPS+ is currently 96, which is slightly below average for most players, is above average for catchers. The Braves were concerned with the new base stealing rules coming and wanted Murphy as an upgrade. Also, the Braves always split catching duties……..newsflash, it’s hot in GA in the summer. Catching wears you out. You wouldn’t know since you only ever walk up the basement stairs to get the bagel bites your mommy made you.
The A’s got the Braves to give up alot of value. The problem is they sent 99% of said value to the Brewers for Esteury Ruiz.
Although the Braves got Murphy when they were better off having kept Contreras
It’s almost like they’re trying to lose on purpose…
The Olson trade was okay but the rest were pretty grim, though it didn’t help that the entire league was aware the manager was being told to immediately dump every tradeable player making more than a couple million dollars.
Exactly…they had no leverage to make a trade. And while none of us knows what’s going on behind the scenes, I highly doubt the A’s have invested in their scouting/analytics departments much lately given they seem to have no intention of winning now or in the foreseeable future. Frankly, because they have no goals of winning, they’re not going to make trades for high-end prospects that they may have to pay down the road. Instead, they went for large quantities of cheap MLB-ready players with low upside.
I think the A’s will win more than the Astros in 2025
A’s are very close to competing.
They’re competing against the Mets tonight at around 7pm EST.
4 hours is pretty close I’d say.
Did you come up with that all by yourself?
And get off my lawn!
I say this as an A’s fan…no they’re not. They have no pitching. Their farm system mostly sucks except for some decent high floor hitters. They’re about to go play in 150 degree weather in a minor league stadium for god knows how many years. They have the worst owner in pro spots. He won’t pay anybody and nobody will want to go there.
Otherwise, it’s all good!
This is why they need taxpayer dollars, they’re too big to fail!
I don’t know about that. They’ll certainly win more then they have and will this year.
FJF and F David Forst!
Langaliers was for Olson. That’s why they then needed to trade for Murphy. Should a just resigned Freddie…
@Baseball Babe — You need to @CaseyClose for it to reach him. ATL had the 2nd-best offer (present day value), if believing reports.
Remember, they still had William Contreras. They still even had d’Arnaud and young-C Drake Baldwin is breaking out in AAA this year…so they viewed Langeliers as expendable, especially if they could land a proven Murphy.
In addition to the solid reasons DMC listed, Langelier signing w/Scott Boras shortly after the Braves drafted and signed him may have also played a role in the Braves willingness to deal him. The Braves were the only team in MLB that didn’t have a Boras represented player on their roster at the start of 2024. They still don’t. AA signs core players to team friendly extensions. Boras doesn’t operate in that manner w/his players.
I mean it was for Matt Olson. I do t think there was any other reason then that.
I agree Nashville. As a Braves fan I hate that they don’t go after the big names most the time. They HAVE to draft and develop well or they would be the A’s. Their payroll has improved significantly but I wonder how long these “long term core” long term signings will work. Hopefully everyone gets on the healthy train like Chris Sale lol. AA is pretty lucky but it’s not worked great this year.
MickeyTheMod..You have no sense of humor!
I was not serious!
Both trades were not that good for the Braves.
Up until about a week ago before Olson got hot for a few games, Shea Langeliers had more homeruns than Olson and Murphy combined!
Estes is pitching well lately, and the A’s just gave Pache away to the Phillies. Now he is with the Orioles. Don’t know why the Orioles needed another outfielder other than injuries. Update, now with Marlins! Alex Anthopolis has made some very questionable trades in the last couple years, especially the Kelenic move that ended up with multiple other trades and taking on around $25-30M in bad contracts! Chill!
@AL — HR?? You obviously overvalue HR yet very dismissive over Olson’s franchise-record 54 HR in ’23. Very odd. All those HR for Langeliers and still just an average OPS+.
Yes, let’s fail to mention the questionable Vaughn Grissom, as well! What was AA thinking giving up a can’t-miss prospect for Sale??
Vaughn Grissom
for Chris Sale
was not a trade!
It was a robbery!
How about sending Murphy back to A’s for Rooker?
Or throw in Elder for Rooker AND Miller!!??
How about sending you off to muteland?
Muted
He seemed to excel at the only metric I could reasonably do well at myself: BB%*
* Because my 60mph meatballs would get slaughtered consistently. I guess we have that in common too.
Maybe the A’s should just be prohibited from making trades with GM Alex Anthopoulus?
He’s fleeced us out of Josh Donaldson, Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, and Sean Murphy.
Those are fire sale trades. They rarely work out for the team doing the fire sale, especially when that organization has gutted its front office down to the studs.
Oakland A’s recent trades of their big stars have turned to mush — they seem to have failed completely in researching who to get.
Kind of feels like it’s purposeful. How can one GM be this bad with so many trades?
Milwaukee made out like Bandits on that deal.
Kept Stripling over Muller… I’m surprised
I know muller out of options were an issue but they couldve also just as easily let go one of their older, impending free agent pitchers. Muller sucks btw but early season did show some ability as a reliever before injury. McFarland and Alexander won’t be here next year anyways
Another feather in the cap of David Forst.
Another pitcher broken by Anthopoulos
– Braves Instagram comments, probably
Shame, kid has the physical gift but must be something mental that he can’t get past. Really his best hope is to sign a minor league deal with the white sox and see if he can find magic there, cause getting DFA’d by the A’s is a pretty low point in ones career.
Also, A’s will never trade with the Braves again… 1, maybe two prospects in all the prospects we have sent over have done anything. Shea and Estes? And even then, like very mediocre at best?
I don’t disagree, but Estes is decent so far at 22 years old. He is actually better than I thought because when the trade first happened the experts didn’t think much of him. Kind of has that Tim Hudson bulldog strike throwing mentality. I dig it.
Shea is frustrating with his swing and miss plus not great blocking/framing. He should be better.
Kyler Murray’s doppleganger.
Muller’s story is a classic example of a prospect not living up to the hype. The A’s gave him plenty of opportunities, but his inability to get hitters out consistently is a big red flag. Maybe it’s time for the A’s to cut their losses and focus on developing other arms with more upside.
Five for one! Five for one!
Why in the heck would we not dump soon to be free agent Stripling and keep Muller? I know he isn’t much but he is young, cheap and still better than Stripling. Ugh. Super dumb
Well Muller sticks for now since he went unclaimed. Moral victory I guess. Lol