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Athletics Acquire Shawn Kelley

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4:52pm: The Athletics announced that they’ve acquired Kelley for international slot money. To clear room for him, they placed outfielder Jake Smolinski on the 60-day disabled list with a blood clot in his left calf.

4:46pm: The Athletics have acquired reliever Shawn Kelley from the Nationals, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN reports. There’s no word yet on what the Nationals received in exchange, but given that they designated Kelley for assignment earlier this week, it’s likely to be an insubstantial return.

Even though it’s competing for a playoff spot in the National League, Washington elected to move on from Kelley after he admitted he “acted like a baby” in a 25-4 rout over the Mets on Tuesday. Kelley slammed his glove after allowing a home run in that game, which offended general manager Mike Rizzo and others in the Nationals organization.

“If you’re not in, you’re in the way,” Rizzo said (via Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post).

It’s clear Kelley’s actions didn’t turn off Oakland, which is pushing for a playoff berth in the AL. If his results to this point of the campaign are any indication, the 34-year-old Kelley should help the Athletics break their three-year playoff drought. Kelley logged a 3.34 ERA with 8.91 K/9 and 1.39 BB/9 in 32 1/3 innings with the Nats this year, though that came with a 27 percent groundball rate and a 4.56 FIP. He’s in the final season of a three-year, $15MM contract and is making $5.5MM.

AL West Notes: Athletics, Heaney, Moore

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Trevor Cahill is set to return from the disabled list tomorrow after missing one start, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The Athletics will have him displace Kendall Graveman in the rotation, she adds in a separate column. Graveman pitched reasonably well in his one start after a demotion to Triple-A, but the A’s still would like him to continue to round back into form in Nashville following a surprisingly ugly start to the season. As Slusser notes, Oakland could’ve dropped Brett Anderson from the rotation, but doing so would mean designating the lefty for assignment.

Graveman was optioned out to make room on the roster for the return of Stephen Piscotty — who homered in his first at-bat back with the team tonight — from the bereavement list. The Athletics will need to make another roster move to accommodate Cahill’s activation tomorrow, which could mean optioning Jake Smolinski to Nashville as well, per Slusser.

Here’s more from the division…

  • Angels lefty Andrew Heaney dominated the division-rival Astros last night, as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes, in what the pitcher calls “probably the best game I pitched in my career.” Heaney now carries a 3.93 ERA over 34 1/3 innings through six starts. But fielding-independent pitching numbers suggest he has been even better; he’s carrying an appealing combination of 10.2 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. As Fletcher notes, the results have been particularly promising over the last four outings, reflecting a decision by Heaney to abandon an experiment with pitching on the third-base side of the rubber. All said, his performance to date has been enormously encouraging, though the big question remains whether he can stay healthy.
  • Despite a terrible start to the season, left-hander Matt Moore will remain in the Rangers’ rotation for now, writes MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan. The former Rays/Giants southpaw will lug a 7.82 ERA into Saturday’s start against the White Sox, having averaged 6.6 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9 with 1.42 HR/9 and a 38.6 percent ground-ball rate. Moore has no doubt had some poor fortune, with a .388 BABIP and 62.3 percent strand rate, but even fielding-independent metrics peg him well north of 5.00. Sullivan does note that Moore’s spot, however, is in some jeopardy. Manager Jeff Banister stressed that Moore has “got to show some progress” before adding that he’s not considering a switch in the rotation just yet. Right-hander Jesse Chavez has showed well in a long relief role, though Banister suggested that the organization is happy with Chavez in his current role at present.

Athletics, Jake Smolinski Avoid Arbitration

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The A’s have avoided arbitration with outfielder Jake Smolinski, reports MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes (on Twitter). Smolinski will be paid a $775K salary for the 2018 season, which comes in a bit north of the $700K at which he was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.  Smolinski is a client of Sosnick, Cobbe, and Karon.

The 28-year-old Smolinski has spent parts of the past three seasons in Oakland, hitting a combined .236/.297/.371 with a dozen homers in 466 trips to the plate. While he’s struggled immensely against right-handed pitchers over parts of four big league seasons, he’s tattooed lefties at a .299/.371/.507 clip and belted 11 of his 16 career homers against southpaws. Smolinski gives Oakland a right-handed-hitting platoon partner for Matt Joyce in an outfield corner spot as well as an option in center field from time to time, though his usage in 2018 will be somewhat dependent on the remainder of the moves that Oakland makes to address its outfield needs between now and Opening Day.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/15/17

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Today’s minor moves from throughout the game:

  • The Rockies have signed left-hander Steve Ascher to a minor league contract. The 23-year-old was previously with the Rays, who selected him in the 17th round of the 2014 draft. Ascher has spent most of his professional career at the Single-A level, though he did ascend to Double-A last season. In 46 innings, Ascher logged a 4.30 ERA, 7.04 K/9 and 3.52 BB/9.
  • The Athletics have announced that they’ve selected the contract of outfielder Jaff Decker. To clear roster space, they’ve optioned outfielder Mark Canha to Triple-A Nashville and placed outfielder Jake Smolinski (shoulder) on the 60-day DL. Canha was off to a poor .105/.150/.158 start in 2017 after missing much of 2016 to a hip injury, and Decker (who has had prior cups of coffee with the Padres, Pirates and Rays) was batting .387/.472/.452 for Nashville.
  • Astros righty Lupe Chavez has retired, as Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle notes. The Astros acquired the 19-year-old Chavez last August when they traded Scott Feldman to Toronto. Chavez had never pitched above the short-season leagues but had generally been successful, with a 2.19 ERA, 8.4 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 over 107 career innings. The reason for his somewhat surprising decision to retire isn’t known.

Jake Smolinski Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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March 17: The A’s announced today that Smolinski underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair his labrum in addition to a bursectomy procedure. Smolinski will be in a sling for the next four weeks and, presumably, will face a fairly substantial rehab program following that first phase of his recovery.

March 14: Athletics outfielder Jake Smolinski is headed for shoulder surgery, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle is among those to report. It’s not yet known what procedure will be performed, as that’ll have to wait until surgeons take a peek inside.

It’s a tough break for the 28-year-old, who seemed primed to receive a solid opportunity to establish himself in the majors this year. Smolinski has ramped up his MLB action in each of the last three seasons, culminating with 319 plate appearances in 2016.

That’s not to say that Smolinski had fully locked down a role. After all, he slashed just .238/.299/.345 in the majors last year and faced some spring competition. But the organization clearly likes his low-strikeout approach and quality numbers against southpaws, which seemingly made him a favorite to take a platoon assignment with a chance to earn more playing time over the course of the year.

[RELATED: Updated Athletics Depth Chart]

In Smolinski’s stead, it seems likely that the organization will go with another internal option, as Joe Stiglich of CSN California notes on Twitter. Veteran Alejandro De Aza could be the beneficiary of the injury, though he’ll have to hold off players such as fellow non-roster invitees Chris Parmelee, Andrew Lambo, and Jaff Decker.

A’s Claim Jake Smolinski From Rangers

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The A’s have claimed outfielder Jake Smolinski off waivers from the Rangers, according to Texas PR man John Blake (on Twitter). Smolinski was designated for assignment by Texas on Friday.

Smolinski, 26, had hit just .133/.270/.200 in 74 plate appearances at the big league level this year. But he’s had plenty of success in other recent stints. Smolinski has obliterated Triple-A pitching in 2015, putting up a 1.280 OPS in 50 turns at bat, and slashed a strong .349/.391/.512 over 92 trips to the plate in his first run at the majors last year.

Both of those big state lines were fueled by huge BABIP numbers, however, and Smolinski’s history is more of sturdy reliability than significant pop. He has never finished a full campaign in the upper minors with an OPS over the .800 mark.

So far this afternoon, we have seen Smolinski claimed by Oakland, Royals catcher Erik Kratz claimed by the Red Sox, and Dillon Gee outrighted by the Mets.  As the MLBTR DFA Tracker shows, that leaves eight players in DFA limbo: Jhonatan Solano, Phillippe Aumont, Eury De La Rosa, Andy Parrino, Dustin McGowan, Hector Noesi, Jeff Bianchi, and Rickie Weeks.

Rangers Designate Jake Smolinski

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The Rangers have designated outfielder Jake Smolinski for assignment, executive VP of communications John Blake announced on Twitter. His 40-man and active roster spots were needed for the team to activate Ryan Rua from the 60-day DL.

Smolinski, 26, had hit just .133/.270/.200 in 74 plate appearances at the big league level this year. But he’s had plenty of success in other recent stints. Smolinski has obliterated Triple-A pitching in 2015, putting up a 1.280 OPS in 50 turns at bat, and slashed a strong .349/.391/.512 over 92 trips to the plate in his first run at the majors last year.

Both of those big state lines were fueled by huge BABIP numbers, however, and Smolinski’s history is more of sturdy reliability than significant pop. He has never finished a full campaign in the upper minors with an OPS over the .800 mark.

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