April 7th: The A’s officially announced today that they have selected Kuhnel and optioned Morales, while Hoglund was transferred to the 60-day IL. That means Hoglund won’t be eligible for reinstatement until late May.
April 6th: The Athletics optioned rookie righty Luis Morales to Triple-A Las Vegas this evening, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The A’s are off tonight and haven’t officially announced the transaction.
Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reports that reliever Joel Kuhnel will be selected onto the big league roster tomorrow as the corresponding move. That will require a spot on the 40-man roster. That’s at capacity and Gunnar Hoglund (lumbar spine strain) is their only player on the injured list. They’ll either transfer Hoglund to the 60-day IL or designate someone for assignment before their series opener in the Bronx.
Morales broke camp in the starting five. The Cuban-born hurler made a solid first impression last season, working to a 3.14 earned run average through 48 2/3 innings. He has had a brutal time the first two turns through the rotation this year. Morales allowed five runs in both appearances without completing five innings either time. His start against the Astros on Saturday was particularly poor, as he walked six batters and allowed eight hits without recording a strikeout.
The 23-year-old will spend at least a couple weeks in Triple-A in an attempt to get on track. Morales had also struggled to find the strike zone this spring, when he issued 14 walks across 19 frames. He was one of the A’s top pitching prospects throughout his time in the minors. Morales sits in the 96-97 mph range and has a power four-pitch mix that the A’s hope will lead to a future as a mid-rotation starter.
The A’s will need to call up a starter this weekend unless they plan to move J.T. Ginn from long relief back to the rotation. They’ve already announced it’ll be Aaron Civale, Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs for their three-game set against the Yankees. Tonight’s off day means they could theoretically bring Jacob Lopez back on regular rest on Friday for their series opener against the Mets. However, they’d need a fifth starter by Saturday at the latest and are kicking off a run of 16 straight game days.
They’ll probably prefer to give Lopez the extra day and bring up someone else to step into what would’ve been Morales’ turn on Friday. Mason Barnett, Joey Estes and prospect Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang are on the 40-man roster and working out of the rotation in Vegas. Zhuang is scheduled to start tomorrow and probably not under consideration for an MLB call.
Jack Perkins, who started four MLB games late last season, is also on the 40-man and has worked 2-3 inning stints out of the bullpen in the minors. Top prospect Gage Jump is not yet on the roster but opened the season in the Triple-A rotation. He has been inefficient in his first two starts but has managed a combined six innings of three-run ball with eight strikeouts. He threw 74 pitches yesterday and would be on regular rest if the A’s wanted to bring him up on Friday.
They’ll carry a ninth reliever in the interim. Kuhnel, 31, gets back to the big leagues for the first time since 2024. The 6’5″ righty worked 11 2/3 innings of two-run ball with 10 strikeouts as a non-roster invitee this spring. He carried that into the minor leagues, striking out six of 10 batters faced over three hitless innings with Las Vegas.
Kuhnel adds a power arm to Mark Kotsay’s middle relief group. He’s primarily a sinker-slider pitcher whose fastball checks in around 96 mph on average. Kuhnel owns a 5.86 ERA with a middling 19% strikeout rate and stronger 52% grounder percentage over 93 2/3 career innings. He’s out of options and needs to stick on the MLB roster or be designated for assignment.
With Scott Emerson as Pitching Coach and Mark Kotsay as Manager I am not sure if it matters who they bring up. Neither has a clue how to manage. Pitching staff or develop pitchers.
Or put together a sensible lineup. I will probably never understand the logic of batting Kurtz and Langeliers 1 and 2. Practically destroys your run production.
Kurtz leads the team in OBP. He led last year by almost 30 points over Wilson. It’s not his fault the other hitters suck.
The common thought is to give your best hitters the most at bats possible. Then giving their other hitters opportunities for run production. In the past your best hitters hit third. This dropped to batting 2nd the past 10 years. The A’s are being innovators… Soon their best hitter will only do batting practice. Hoping to scare the opposing team into forfeiture.
Yeah I understand the logic and it’s flawed because it ignores the fact that most teams 8 and 9 hitters are their worst hitters. You give your best hitters more opportunities overall yes but at the cost of having less chances to knock in runs. Bad trade-off IMHO.
Go back to last Sunday bottom of the 9th in a tie game. With 1 out Kurtz is batting with runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Yes he strikes out, but had he been batting 3rd or 4th he isnt batting in the bottom of the 9th with a chance to win the game.
You want your best hitters batting with runners on base.This gives you the best chance to score runs. So I agree. Any individual game may have a lesser hitter bat in a crucial spot, but over the long season, it works better.
Stefanic should be at 2B after a great spring, Bolte is pushing for starts in lieu of Denzel Clarke. McNeil becomes a super utility player across the IF/OF.
The Miller trade is going to play this season. Could see Nett, Baez and Nunez on the big club this summer.
I like Ginn and Perkins in the bullpen, Ginn has been shaky but I think he finds his way as a reliever and becomes an effective high leverage arm, Perkins too.