The Athletics announced that right-hander Tyler Ferguson has been designated for assignment. That opens a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Brooks Kriske, who had his contract selected earlier today.
Ferguson, 32, has been on the club’s 40-man roster for almost exactly two years. The A’s selected his contract on May 7th of 2024. He took an unusual path to the big leagues. He was drafted by the Rangers in 2015 but never climbed higher than High-A with that club before getting released in 2019. He then bounced around, spending some time in Indy Ball and in the minors with various clubs.
He finally made it to the show with the A’s and has been shuffled between Triple-A Las Vegas and the majors since then. He has logged 110 2/3 big league innings in that time, allowing 4.47 earned runs per nine. His 25.4% strikeout rate is fairly strong but he has also walked 12.6% of batters faced.
Despite the lack of control, he did earn some leverage work, racking up four saves and 22 holds. However, he’s gotten out to a poor start this season. His one major league outing resulted in four earned runs allowed in an inning and a third. In the minors, he has a 6.17 ERA in 11 2/3 Triple-A innings.
He now heads into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the A’s could take five days to explore trade interest, though they could also put him on waivers sooner. He can still be optioned for the rest of this year, so perhaps he could garner interest from clubs looking for extra depth arms. He has a five-pitch mix, with his four-seamer and sinker averaging around 95 miles per hour. His most-used secondary pitch is a sweeper. He also throws a changeup and a cutter.
Photo courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images
Did they option and then immediately DFA him?
When the A’s needed spots on the 40-man during the off-season, they kept arms like Ferguson, Elvis Alvarado, and Michael Kelly over Susac and Bleday.