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Miguel Andujar Undergoes Season-Ending Core Surgery

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A’s left fielder Miguel Andujar is undergoing surgery to address a core injury, manager Mark Kotsay announced this afternoon (X link via Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). Oakland placed him on the 10-day injured list when they recalled infielder Nick Allen today; the A’s can move Andujar to the 60-day IL whenever they need a 40-man roster spot.

Oakland brought in Andujar via waivers from the Pirates last offseason. They agreed to a $1.7MM salary to avoid arbitration. A meniscus repair cost him the first six weeks of the regular season. Andujar returned in late May and went on to have an alright season. He played in 70 games and hit .285/.320/.377. That’s essentially league average offensive production. His 319 plate appearances represented his highest total since his 2018 rookie campaign, when he popped 27 homers as the Yankees’ everyday third baseman to earn a runner-up finish in Rookie of the Year voting.

The righty-hitting Andujar had huge platoon splits. He mashed left-handed pitching at a .411/.459/.536 clip in 61 trips. His .256/.287/.341 showing versus righties was far less impressive. Andujar certainly won’t maintain that kind of production against southpaws over a big sample, yet he kept his strikeout rate to a meager 9.8% clip in those situations. That could be enough to get him another shot as a short side platoon bat going into next season.

Andujar surpassed five years of major league service. He’d be due a modest raise if the A’s want to keep him around for his last year of arbitration. The A’s don’t have a single guaranteed contract on the books for next season. Brent Rooker will be their only arbitration-eligible player of note, and he’s going through the process for the first time. Even by A’s standards, there’s ample payroll flexibility to retain Andujar if they feel he has any untapped upside at the plate.

Athletics Outright Abraham Toro

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Aug. 28: Toro went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Las Vegas, the A’s announced.

Aug. 27: The Athletics announced that they have reinstated infielder Jacob Wilson from the 10-day injured list and recalled infielder Armando Alvarez. They had optioned infielder Darell Hernaiz after last night’s game, opening one roster spot. They opened another by designating infielder Abraham Toro for assignment.

Toro, 27, was acquire from the Brewers in November, just prior to the non-tender deadline. Presumably, the Brewers were considering cutting him loose but the A’s were willing to give him a shot and sent minor league pitcher Chad Patrick the other way.

For a while, it looked like a shrewd pickup for Oakland. Toro and the A’s agreed to a salary of $1.275MM for this year, not far above the $740K league minimum, and he came with two extra years of potential club control as well. Through the end of May, he was hitting .288/.332/.429 for a wRC+ of 118 while bouncing around to all the non-shortstop infield positions as well as the outfield corners.

But things have fallen off dramatically since then, as Toro is hitting .160/.228/.216 since the start of June. Perhaps the A’s had some hope of flipping him in a deadline trade, but that was complicated by the fact that he was on the injured list from June 22 to July 21 due to a strained left hamstring and wasn’t hitting much around that IL stint.

The A’s will give Toro’s playing time to younger players who are looking to get acclimated to the major leagues. Since Toro is out of options, the club couldn’t easily send him down to the minors, which has led to this DFA.

With the deadline now passed, the A’s will have to place Toro on waivers. Perhaps some club will be interested based on his early season results. The numbers have fallen off but the injury perhaps explains some of that. He also has a tiny .188 batting average on balls in play in that rough patch starting at the beginning of June, compared to a .333 BABIP he carried through the end of May. If any club likes him enough to put in a claim, he can be controlled through 2026.

If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he will likely stick with the A’s as non-roster depth. Since he has more than three years of service time, he has the right to elect free agency. But since he has fewer than five years of service, he would have to forfeit his remaining salary to do so. If he ends up sticking with the A’s in a non-roster capacity, he would become a free agent at season’s end, like all outrighted players with at least three years of service.

Athletics Claim Tristan Gray

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The Athletics announced that they have claimed infielder Tristan Gray off waivers from the Marlins and assigned him to Triple-A Las Vegas. Miami had designated him for assignment in recent days. The A’s had an open 40-man spot after designating infielder Abraham Toro for assignment earlier today.

Gray, 28, got a bit of prospect attention earlier due to some interesting offensive numbers in the lower levels of the minors. However, he has struggled to bring that up to higher levels. From 2017 to 2019, he got into 293 minor league games from Low-A to Double-A. He hit a combined .239/.319/.428 in those for a 116 wRC+.

The pandemic wiped out the minors in 2020 and Gray has been playing Triple-A ball since then, getting into 431 contests. He’s hit 88 home runs in that time but also been struck out at a 30.2% clip while walking 8% of the time. All that leads to a .236/.305/.470 batting line and 95 wRC+. He also has 12 major league plate appearances between the Rays last year and the Marlins this year, hitting .167/.167/.417 in those.

Gray has played all four infield positions throughout his career and has continued to do so here in 2024. He can provide the A’s with depth all over the diamond, perhaps for a long time. He has a full slate of options for now. He is burning one here in 2024 but will still have two left beyond this season. He also has just a few days of service time, meaning he’s nowhere close to qualifying for arbitration or free agency.

Athletics Sign Austin Pruitt To Minor League Deal

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The Athletics have signed right-hander Austin Pruitt to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas and will provide the A’s with some non-roster depth.

The A’s are plenty familiar with Pruitt, as he spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons with them. He tossed 103 2/3 innings for Oakland over those two campaigns, allowing 3.65 earned runs per nine. His 16.2% strikeout rate in that time was subpar but he demonstrated good control by limiting walks to a 5% clip and his 41.2% ground ball rate was close to league average.

That’s generally been the recipe over Pruitt’s career overall. He’s also spent some time with the Rays, Astros, Marlins and Rangers, with 315 major league innings, a 4.54 ERA, 16.6% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate and 45.7% ground ball rate.

At the end of last year, he was outrighted off Oakland’s roster and signed a minor league deal with Texas in the offseason. He was selected to the roster in mid-April but made just four appearances before landing on the injured list with a right knee medial meniscus injury. He began a rehab assignment at the end of June but the Rangers released him at the end of July rather than add him back onto the roster.

After about three weeks on the open market, he’s landed in a familiar spot by signing with the A’s. Oakland has a few veterans on the injured list, with Austin Adams, Scott Alexander, Alex Wood and Trevor Gott all on the shelf. Of the pitchers currently on the active roster, Ross Stripling and T.J. McFarland are the only ones with more than three years of major league service time. If the A’s need a fresh arm at some point, Pruitt could be called upon as someone with experience.

Athletics Select J.T. Ginn

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The Athletics announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander J.T. Ginn. He will take the active roster spot of left-hander Scott Alexander, who has been placed on the 15-day injured list with left rotator cuff tendonitis, retroactive to August 18. The A’s already had a vacant 40-man roster spot and don’t need to make a corresponding move in that regard.

Ginn, 25, gets added to a major league roster for the first time, though he’s been a known name in baseball circles for a while. The Dodgers selected him with their first-round pick back in 2018, 30th overall, but Ginn didn’t sign and instead went to Mississippi State. For not signing Ginn, the Dodgers received a compensation pick, the 31st overall selection in the 2019 draft. They used that pick to draft Michael Busch.

While with Mississippi State, Ginn underwent Tommy John surgery in March of 2020. Though he was slated for a lengthy rehab, the Mets nonetheless took him in the second round of that year’s draft, the 52nd overall pick.

He was able to make his professional debut in 2021, making his first official appearance in June of that year. He eventually made 18 starts in 2021 between Single-A and High-A. He tossed 92 innings with a 3.03 earned run average, 21.9% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate.

The Mets then sent him to the A’s, alongside Adam Oller, in the March 2022 trade that sent Chris Bassitt to Queens. But Ginn has had plenty of challenges since switching organizations. In 2022, he missed time with a forearm injury and posted a 6.11 ERA in his 35 1/3 Double-A innings on the year. Those forearm issues lingered into 2023, when he tossed 22 1/3 innings at Double-A with an ERA of 8.06.

Here in 2024, the good news is that he’s been healthy enough to pitch. He’s thrown 102 2/3 innings over his 21 outings between Double-A and Triple-A. However, the results haven’t been outstanding. He has a combined 5.26 ERA on the year, with his 21.2% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate both fairly pedestrian. He’s getting grounders on more than half the balls put in play against him but has also allowed 13 home runs on the year.

Perhaps some rust is to be expected after he’s hit so many speed bumps in his professional career and the prospecting community seems to still have some faith in his future. Baseball America currently lists him as the #25 prospect in the organization, saying that he could carve out a role as a “back-of-the-rotation sinkerballer” if his health permits. He has the #17 spot in the system at FanGraphs, with that outlet also suggesting Ginn could be a viable back-end starter.

Perhaps Ginn will get his first taste of the major leagues as a reliever, or perhaps a few starts will be on the table. Veteran Ross Stripling was recently moved to a long relief role so that the club could give starts to younger pitchers like JP Sears, Joey Estes, Mitch Spence, Osvaldo Bido and Joe Boyle. Perhaps Ginn can push his way into that group or simply give the club an extra bullpen arm for the stretch run.

Ginn was going to be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter and was likely going to get a roster spot soon anyway, so Alexander’s IL placement will get him on there a bit ahead of schedule. He won’t be able to get a full year of service this year, so the A’s will be able to control him for at least six seasons beyond this one. He also has a full slate of options and the amount of time he spends in the minors in the next few years could impact his timeline to arbitration and free agency.

A’s Select Grant Holman

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The Athletics announced a quartet of roster moves, including the news that right-hander Grant Holman’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Las Vegas.  Star slugger Brent Rooker is also back from the paternity list, and right-hander Will Klein and infielder Armando Alvarez were both optioned to Triple-A to create the two needed opening on the 26-man roster.

Holman will be making his Major League debut whenever he makes his first official appearance for the A’s.  A sixth-round pick in the 2021 draft, Holman has worked exclusively as a reliever since he was promoted to Double-A in 2023, and his results this season have been spectacular.  The righty has a tiny 0.55 ERA over 48 2/3 combined innings at Double-A (19 1/3 IP) and Triple-A (29 1/3 IP), along with a strong 29% strikeout rate and a more modest 11.83% walk rate.  It should be noted that Holman has received a lot of batted-ball luck in the form of a .174 BABIP against Triple-A competition, but allowing just one homers in 29 1/3 frames of Pacific Coast League action is quite impressive.

MLB Pipeline rates Holman as the 21st-best prospect in Oakland’s farm system, and he received a 60-grade on his 95mph fastball.  Beyond that top offering, Holman also has a decent slider and a rather lightly-used splitter.  It makes for a pretty solid arsenal for a reliever, and Pipeline’s scouting report observes that “much of Holman’s step forward this season has come simply as a result of being healthy and getting regular reps,” following two seasons of elbow and shoulder problems.

There’s plenty of intrigue in Holman’s arsenal, and the 24-year-old should get opportunities for an Athletics team that continues to evaluate young talent as part of its rebuild.  Mason Miller has deservedly drawn most of the headlines, but Oakland’s bullpen has been pretty decent as a whole this season, and Holman will become the latest rookie arm to try and earn higher-leverage work.

Athletics Outright Kyle Muller

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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%.

A’s Move Ross Stripling To Bullpen

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The A’s are bumping Ross Stripling into a relief role, manager Mark Kotsay said before tonight’s matchup with the Mets (X link via Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). Oakland recalled right-hander Joe Boyle to start today, so the 6’7″ hurler will presumably stick in the starting five.

Oakland acquired Stripling and Alex Wood in the hope that they’d serve as veteran anchors to a fairly young rotation. The A’s reportedly took on $9.25MM of Stripling’s $12.5MM salary when they acquired him from the Giants in February. They signed Wood for $8.5MM on a one-year free agent deal. Neither acquisition has provided much in terms of on-field value. Wood made nine starts before suffering a shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery. Stripling lost two months to an elbow injury and hasn’t gotten good results when healthy.

Over 14 starts, the veteran right-hander carries a 5.72 earned run average. He’s striking out a career-low 12.5% of opposing hitters. Stripling has continued to attack the strike zone but simply hasn’t missed enough bats to be consistently effective. He has completed six innings in three of his 14 appearances. He allowed six runs in one of those. His only quality starts are a seven-inning, one-run performance against the Red Sox on April 3 and the six scoreless frames he worked against Pittsburgh on May 1.

Oakland welcomed Stripling back from the injured list just before the trade deadline. There presumably wasn’t much interest from other teams. (The A’s did move Paul Blackburn, whom they’ve tagged for seven runs tonight, to the Mets on deadline day.) Stripling has made three starts since returning. He had a nice showing against the Giants on July 31 but was hit hard by the Angels and White Sox in his other appearances.

With Stripling scuffling, the A’s are going with almost entirely unproven arms in their rotation. JP Sears is the most established member of the staff. Rule 5 pick Mitch Spence got a rotation spot in the middle of May and has turned in back-of-the-rotation production. The hard-throwing Boyle joins Joey Estes and Osvaldo Bido at the back end. Stripling assumes the long relief role which the A’s opened by designating Kyle Muller for assignment this afternoon.

Sears is the only member of that group who entered the season with even a year of major league service. They’re all trying to establish themselves as longer-term members of the pitching staff. Stripling, by contrast, seems likely to be a one-year acquisition. He’ll be a free agent next winter. He turned in an excellent 3.01 ERA for the Blue Jays two years back but carries a 5.52 mark over 161 1/3 frames since signing a $25MM contract with San Francisco over the 2022-23 offseason.

Athletics Outright Gerardo Reyes

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Aug. 9: The A’s announced that Reyes went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Las Vegas. He’s been outrighted in the past and thus has the option to reject the assignment in favor of free agency.

Aug. 7: The Athletics announced that they have reinstated right-hander Mason Miller from the 15-day injured list and recalled infielder Armando Alvarez from Triple-A Las Vegas. In corresponding moves, they placed outfielder/first baseman Seth Brown on the paternity list and designated righty Gerardo Reyes for assignment.

Miller has been one of the best relievers on the planet this year with a 2.21 earned run average in 40 2/3 innings. He has struck out a massive 45.8% of batters faced while keeping his walks to a reasonable 9.2% level and also getting grounders on 40.6% of balls in play. He has secured 15 saves in 17 opportunities on the year.

He’s been on the IL for a couple of weeks now due to a fractured pinkie finger in his left hand. There was some initial confusion about how the injury came about, but manager Mark Kotsay confirmed that Miller had struck a padded table in frustration, in video relayed on X by A’s on NBCS. Though it’s disappointing when injuries come about in such fashion, Miller has thankfully returned after a minimal absence. Since the injury was to his non-throwing hand, he initially wasn’t able to squeeze his glove but was able to throw while on the shelf.

While Miller was out of action, the club traded Lucas Erceg to the Royals and selected Reyes to take his spot on the roster. Reyes has since tossed four innings for the A’s, only allowing two earned runs despite issuing three walks and only punching out two opponents. It seems he wasn’t part of the club’s long-term plans and has been nudged off the 40-man roster since he’s out of options.

Since the trade deadline has passed, the A’s will place him on waivers in the coming days. He now has a 7.13 ERA in 41 2/3 major league innings but has generally been better in the minors. That includes 33 Triple-A innings prior to his call-up this year with a 3.82 ERA. His 12.1% walk rate in that time was high but he punched out 36.4% of batters faced. If any club puts in a claim, Reyes has less than a year of service time and can therefore be cheaply retained beyond the current campaign.

Several Veterans Who Could Be Available On Waivers This Month

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Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, it's harder for contending clubs to upgrade their respective rosters. There are still a few ways to do so, as MLBTR's Steve Adams recently laid out, but most of those methods involve adding guys not currently rostered who are naturally depth pieces at best.

To add a solid, usable big leaguer, the best remaining path is waivers. The old August waiver trade system ended in 2019, but many veteran players found themselves on waivers last August anyway, which started with the Angels.

The Halos fell out of contention in August and their priority shifted from winning to ducking under the competitive balance tax. Since trades were no longer possible, they put a whole bunch of guys on waivers and just hoped that other clubs would take them, the baseball equivalent of putting a "for free" box by the curb. Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Randal Grichuk, Matt Moore, Hunter Renfroe, Dominic Leone and Tyler Anderson were put on waivers and then other clubs followed suit, though to a less significant degree. The Yankees had no hope of avoiding the CBT but were slipping in the standings and had no use for an impending free agent like Harrison Bader. It was a similar situation with the Mets and Carlos Carrasco. The Tigers and White Sox weren't going to be CBT payors but made José Cisnero and Mike Clevinger available, simply hoping to cut costs.

Because the waiver priority order goes in reverse order of standings, the clubs best positioned to benefit were those just on the fringes of contention. The teams buried in the standings would have no motivation to grab such players and take on salary while the teams at the top of the standings would get last dibs in the waiver process. The Guardians claimed Giolito, López and Moore while the Reds grabbed Bader and Renfroe.

It doesn't seem like this trend will stop here in 2024. This year, Kevin Kiermaier, Ty France and Josh Bell have already been on waivers at some point. All three players cleared and were ultimately traded prior to the deadline, with some money changing hands in each of those deals. Others will surely follow them in the weeks to come, but clubs won't be able to work out trades involving cash considerations. The claiming club will have to take on all that's left of the contract from the waiving club.

Logically, these players will be available on waivers before the end of August. Players acquired after that time are not postseason eligible, which limits the attraction, though it could still happen. After the Guards fell from contention, they put Moore back on waivers just a few weeks after claiming him, and the Marlins nabbed him at that time. He made four scoreless appearances for Miami, helping them squeak into the playoffs, but wasn't eligible to join the club in the postseason.

So who could be available this time around? The most likely players are those making a notable salary on a club that could fall back in the playoff race, particularly one with CBT concerns. But an underwater contract won't be terribly appealing, so the player should still have some utility that makes it at least vaguely justifiable for the claiming club to take on some money. Many of these will require the team to really perform poorly in the next few weeks, making them long-shot possibilities, but let's take a look at some of the most interesting guys who could plausibly fit the bill.

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