The Athletics have signed left-hander Matt Krook to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas for now but will presumably receive an invite to major league camp.
Krook, 31, also signed a minor league pact with the A’s around this time last year. He was added to the 40-man roster in the middle of May but designated for assignment just over a week later. He was claimed by the Guardians but they kept him on optional assignment for the rest of the year, so he never pitched for that club at the big league level. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster at season’s end. Since he had a previous outright in his career, he had the right to elect free agency and did so, which allowed the A’s to circle back to him on this deal.
The southpaw’s major league track record technically includes three separate big league seasons but is still quite limited and unimpressive. He appeared in four games for the 2023 Yankees, one contest with the Orioles last year and three with the A’s this year. In those eight games, he has allowed 15 earned runs in 8 1/3 innings, giving him a 16.20 earned run average in his big league career.
Naturally, his minor league track record is greater in terms of both quantity and quality. Going back to 2023, his first year as a primary reliever, he has thrown 125 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 2.94 ERA. His 16.7% walk rate in that time is way too high but he also punched out 32% of batters faced. That includes 48 innings in 2025 with a 3.19 ERA, 29.8% strikeout rate, 15.6% walk rate and 65.1% ground ball rate. His velocity doesn’t even really touch 90 miles per hour but he has good movement on his pitches, allowing him to miss bats and barrels.
The A’s currently have Hogan Harris and Brady Basso as lefty relievers on their 40-man roster. Jared Shuster was outrighted earlier this month and gives the A’s a non-roster option. Krook now joins Shuster in that category. If Krook eventually gets a roster spot, he is out of options but he’s also cheap and controllable since he has less than a year of big league service time.
Photo courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images
Krook and Robbers in back to back articles, and Kopp a few days ago
By Hook or Krook, a deal was getting done.
What a steal!
Haven’t seen a heist like this in years!
After the past two articles you cant tell me baseball players don’t have the most entertaining names out there lol