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Austin Pruitt

A’s Designate Jeurys Familia, Domingo Acevedo For Assignment

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The Athletics are shaking up their bullpen, designating right-handers Jeurys Familia and Domingo Acevedo for assignment, per a team announcement. Righty Adam Oller was also optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. In a set of corresponding moves, righties Spencer Patton, Austin Pruitt and Rico Garcia have all had their contracts selected from Triple-A.

Familia, 33, returned to the A’s for a second stint late in spring training, after the D-backs cut him loose late in spring training. The former Mets closer had enjoyed a strong showing in camp with Arizona and landed a big league deal with Oakland, but things haven’t gone well in his return to the Coliseum. Through 12 2/3 innings, Familia has been tagged for a 6.39 ERA, due in no small part to a sky-high 20.3% walk rate.

It’s been a tough two years for Familia, who was sharp with the Mets from 2020-21 but was roughed up for a 6.09 ERA in 44 1/3 frames between the Phillies and Red Sox in 2022. Familia’s fastball, which once averaged better than 97 mph, sat at what was then a career-low 95.6 mph between those two teams last year. This season, he’s averaged 94.8 mph on the pitch.

As for the 29-year-old Acevedo, his bottom-line run prevention numbers are even more jarring. In 9 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, he’s been clobbered for 11 runs on 16 hits (two homers), a pair of walks and a hit batter with seven punchouts. The resulting 10.61 ERA is more than triple the strong 3.33 mark he posted in 67 2/3 innings for the A’s during the 2022 season.

Acevedo’s velocity hasn’t changed — his 93.2 mph average heater is an exact match with his 2022 velocity — nor has he made any radical alterations to his pitch selection/usage. However, he’s seen his swinging-strike rate plummet from 15.6% to 8.8%, while his opponents’ chase rate has fallen from 35.6% to 29%. While he’s undoubtedly had some poor fortune in terms of batted balls (.400 BABIP), Acevedo also just isn’t missing many bats and is getting chases off the plate at a below-average rate after excelling in both those areas a year ago.

Pruitt returns to the A’s for a second season after spending the bulk of the 2022 campaign in their bullpen and pitching to a 4.23 ERA in 55 1/3 innings. The A’s removed him from the 40-man roster but re-signed him to a minor league deal this past offseason, and he’s begun the year with a 2.30 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate in 15 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball. Pruitt has only fanned 17.4% of his Major League opponents, so he’s not likely to keep missing bats at this level, but he also boasts a very strong 5.3% walk rate in his MLB career.

The 35-year-old Patton has had the most MLB experience in recent seasons. Patton, who starred for NPB’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars for several years before returning to MLB with the Rangers in 2021, pitched to a 3.83 ERA in 49 1/3 innings with Texas in 2021-22. He had a very strong ’21 season, fanning 27.9% of his opponents against an 8.7% walk rate, but Patton’s velocity dipped by more than a mile per hour in 2022 as his walk and strikeout rates spiked in the wrong directions. Through 8 1/3 innings with Las Vegas this season, he’s allowed four runs on 11 hits and four walks with 10 strikeouts.

Garcia, 29, has appeared in three big league seasons, splitting a total of 24 innings between the Rockies, Giants and Orioles. He has a grisly 6.38 ERA in that time and has issued more walks than strikeouts. However, he’s sitting on a 2.03 ERA in 13 1/3 innings so far in Las Vegas, with a hefty 32.8% strikeout rate and 18% swinging-strike rate against a more troublesome 15.5% walk rate.

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 will presumably receive an invitation to major league Spring Training with the club.

Pruitt, 33, was originally drafted by the Rays and first cracked the big leagues with that club. He had a solid three-year run over the 2017-2019 campaigns, working as both a starter and a reliever. He logged 199 2/3 innings over that time with a 4.87 ERA, though advanced metrics liked his work better, such as a 4.17 FIP. He only struck out 17.2% of batters faced but kept his walks down to a 5.8% rate and got grounders on 48.9% of balls in play.

The past few years have been a bit more tumultuous for Pruitt, however. He was traded to the Astros in early 2020 but wound up missing that entire season due to an elbow injury that lingered and eventually required surgery. He returned in July of 2021 but only made two appearances as an Astro before getting designated for assignment. He went to the Marlins in the Yimi Garcia trade but that club also designated him for assignment shortly thereafter.

He joined the A’s on a minor league deal last year and ended up having two stints with the big league club. He was selected in May, designated for assignment in August, but was quickly selected again. By the end of the year, he had tossed 55 1/3 big league innings over 39 appearances. He posted a 4.23 ERA with a 17% strikeout rate, 4% walk rate and 45.5% ground ball rate.

Since the A’s have been aggressively rebuilding, their pitching staff mainly consists of inexperienced youngsters. Trevor May is the only pitcher on the 40-man with more than four years of MLB service time and none of the guys likely to be in the bullpen have more than three. If Pruitt can earn his way back onto the roster, he’ll be able to fill a veteran role for the club, eating some innings and perhaps mentoring some of the younger arms. He could also be retained for 2024 via arbitration, if the A’s are so inclined.

A’s Claim Yonny Hernandez From Diamondbacks

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The Athletics announced that they have claimed infielder Yonny Hernandez off waivers from the Diamondbacks. Additionally, the club has outrighted infielder Nate Mondou, left-hander Sam Selman and righties Austin Pruitt, Norge Ruiz, and Collin Wiles. The Diamondbacks also announced the claim of Hernandez, while relaying that infielder Jake Hager and right-hander Keynan Middleton cleared waivers and elected free agency.

This is one of the times on the baseball calendar when roster turnover is high, for a couple of reasons. First, there is no injured list between the World Series and Spring Training, meaning that players on the 60-day IL will soon be retaking their spots. Secondly, the deadline to add prospects to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from being selected in the Rule 5 draft is November 15. Those two factors both combine to squeeze certain players off rosters and onto waivers.

Hernandez, 25 in May, had spent all of his career in the Rangers organization until being traded to the D-Backs in April. He got into 12 MLB games this year, spending much more time in the minors. He hit .241/.349/.324 in 71 Triple-A games this year, wRC+ of 78. That’s not an especially impressive showing, but Hernandez fared much better in previous seasons and has always had good plate discipline. Despite the rough year, he still walked in 11.7% of his plate appearances and struck out in just 15.8% of them, with both of those numbers being much better than average. He’s never hit for much power though, having only hit five home runs in a minor league career that dates back to 2015. He still has options, meaning the A’s can keep him in the minors next year and try to see if they can draw something extra out of him.

Mondou, 28 in March, was just selected to the roster in October. He made his MLB debut by getting into one game where he made three hitless plate appearances, walking once and striking out once. In 108 Triple-A games, he hit .283/.374/.431 for a wRC+ of 105. Given his seven years of minor league experience, he will be eligible to elect free agency five days after the World Series.

Selman, 32 this month, has thrown 73 MLB innings over the past four seasons. He has a 4.81 ERA in that time with a 22.5% strikeout rate, 10.3% walk rate and 29.6% ground ball rate. He cut his walk rate to 6.7% in 2022 but also gave up four home runs in just 18 1/3 innings, leading to a 4.91 ERA. He’s eligible to elect free agency by virtue of having been previously outrighted in his career.

Pruitt, 33, signed a minor league deal with the A’s for 2022 and was twice selected to the roster with one DFA in between. He got into 55 1/3 innings on the season and registered a 4.23 ERA. His 17% strikeout rate was below average but he limited walks to a 4% rate and also got grounders on 45.5% of balls in play. He’s eligible to elect free agency both on account of his previous outrights and more than three years of service time.

Ruiz, 29 in March, was once a high-profile signing out of Cuba but saw his stock fade in recent years. A switch from starting to relieving in 2019 seemed to give him a boost, leading to him getting to make his MLB debut in 2022. He tossed 19 innings with a 7.11 ERA, though a .413 batting average on balls in play could indicate there’s some bad luck in there. He had a much nicer 3.73 ERA in 41 Triple-A innings. He should stick with the A’s as depth but without taking up a roster spot.

Wiles, 29 in May, got the call to the big leagues for the first time in September. He was able to log 9 2/3 MLB innings while putting up a 4.66 ERA in that small sample. He worked as a starter in the minors, logging 143 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 5.40 ERA. He limited walks to a 4.3% rate but was undone by 27 long balls in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Hager, 30 in March, appeared in 28 big league games for Arizona this year, hitting .240/.345/.280 in that time for a wRC+ of 84. He had fairly similar results in 72 Triple-A games, adding a bit more pop but walking less. He’s eligible to elect free agency based on the fact that he’s been previously outrighted in his career.

Middleton, 29, has appeared in each of the past six seasons, spending time with the Angels and Mariners before suiting up with the Diamondbacks in 2022. He tossed 17 innings in the majors and another 17 in Triple-A this year, with better results in the minors. He had a 5.29 ERA in the bigs along with a 2.12 ERA for Reno. He is eligible to elect free agency both because of he has more than three years of MLB service time and a previous career outright.

A’s Place Dany Jimenez On 60-Day Injured List, Select Austin Pruitt

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Dany Jimenez’s season is over due to a right shoulder strain, as the Athletics have placed the right-hander on the 60-day injured list.  Austin Pruitt’s contract was selected from Triple-A in the corresponding move.

In an overall rough season for the A’s, Jimenez has been a bright spot, posting a 3.41 ERA over 34 1/3 innings and earning a team-high 11 saves.  A .231 BABIP helped Jimenez overcome some dicey advanced metrics like a 12.4% walk rate, but Jimenez’s ERA was also somewhat inflated by a three particularly poor outings out of 34 total appearances.  (In those three bad games, Jimenez allowed 10 earned runs in 1 2/3 innings, and only six runs over his other 32 2/3 frames of work during the season.)  With Lou Trivino struggling in the closer’s role, Jimenez ended up taking over the bulk of save chances.

Unfortunately, Jimenez’s bothersome right shoulder has now ended this solid rookie season.  It is the second time Jimenez has been sent to the IL with a shoulder strain, as a similar injury put him on the shelf for over six weeks, from mid-June to the start of August.

This was Jimenez’s first extended stint in the majors, as his only previous MLB experience was 1 1/3 innings with the Giants in 2020.  Jimenez is a two-time Rule 5 Draft selection, but in both cases was returned to the Blue Jays when neither the Giants (in 2020) or the A’s (in 2021) kept him on their active roster for the entire season.  Jimenez elected free agency this past winter and rejoined Oakland on a minor league deal.

Pruitt will make a quick return to the active roster after being designated for assignment and then outrighted off the 40-man earlier this week.  The right-hander has a 4.78 ERA over 37 2/3 innings out of Oakland’s bullpen, as Pruitt’s excellent control hasn’t overcome his below-average 17.2% strikeout rate.

Athletics Designate Austin Pruitt For Assignment

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The A’s have announced that they have designated right-hander Austin Pruitt for assignment. The move opens a spot on the active roster for fellow righty Joel Payamps, who was claimed off waivers from the Royals on Saturday.

Pruitt, 32, has been in the majors since 2017, spending the first three seasons with the Rays. He showed enough promise that the Astros acquired him prior to the 2020 campaign, though Pruitt ended up missing that entire season due to a hairline fracture in his right elbow. He returned to the mound in July of 2021, making two appearances for Houston before they traded him to the Marlins. He was later outrighted by the Marlins twice, making just four appearances for them in between.

After reaching free agency, he signed with the A’s on a minor league deal in March. He got selected to the big league club in May and has been with them since. In 37 2/3 innings over 27 appearances, he has a 4.78 ERA, 17.2% strikeout rate, 5.1% walk rate and 41.3% ground ball rate.

Oakland currently has a record of 45-77, the worst in the American League. At this point in the season, they are focused on evaluating younger players to see if they fit into the club’s future plans. As such, it seems that the veteran Pruitt has been nudged out of the picture. With the trade deadline now passed, the club will have to place him on outright or release waivers in the coming days. Players who have previously been outrighted in their careers or who have over three years of MLB service time can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Pruitt qualifies on both counts.

Athletics Designate Justin Grimm, Select Austin Pruitt

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The Athletics announced that right-hander Justin Grimm has been designated for assignment.  Right-hander Austin Pruitt’s contract has been selected from Triple-A, and Pruitt will replace Grimm on the active roster.

After signing a minor league contract with the A’s during the winter, Grimm made the Opening Day roster and posted a 4.11 ERA, 15.5% strikeout rate, and 9.9% walk rate over 15 1/3 innings out of Oakland’s bullpen.  While an unspectacular stat line, it did represent a big step up for Grimm after he posted a 7.33 ERA over 77 1/3 innings from 2017-2020.  Grimm didn’t pitch in the majors at all in 2019 or 2021, and in between tossed only 4 2/3 MLB innings with the Brewers in 2020.

Should Grimm clear DFA waivers, he could opt to accept an outright assignment to Triple-A and remain in the Athletics organization.  If not, the 33-year-old will hit the open market once more and look for another landing spot in his ninth Major League season.  Grimm spent parts of five of those seasons pitching with the Cubs, at times providing some very solid relief out of Chicago’s bullpen, and he was part of the 2016 World Series championship team.

Pruitt was another minor league signing, and he’ll now get another opportunity in the Show after tossing 7 1/3 combined innings with the Astros and Marlins in 2021.  A fractured elbow sidelined Pruitt for the entire 2020 season and half of the 2021 season, but he has performed well with Triple-A Las Vegas this year, with a 3.27 ERA and a 20-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 22 frames of relief work.

The A’s might simply see more upside in Pruitt than in Grimm going forward, plus Pruitt also brings some length as a swingman, long reliever, or piggyback starter.  Pruitt made 10 starts over his 67 appearances with the Rays from 2017-19.

Athletics Sign Austin Pruitt To Minors Deal

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The A’s have announced the signing of right-hander Austin Pruitt to a minor league deal.  Pruitt will receive an invitation to Oakland’s Major League spring camp.

Pruitt was twice outrighted off the Marlins’ 40-man roster last season, thus giving him the right to test free agency following the season.  Miami acquired Pruitt at the trade deadline, landing the righty and outfielder Bryan De La Cruz in exchange for sending Yimi Garcia to the Astros.

The 32-year-old will now head back to the AL West in search of a new opportunity in Oakland, and get his career back on track after elbow problems derailed Pruitt for much of the last two seasons.  He didn’t pitch at all in 2020 due to what ended up being a hairline fracture in his throwing elbow, and the subsequent surgery kept him from returning to the mound until June 2021 with the Astros’ A-ball affiliate.  Overall, Pruitt tossed 19 2/3 innings of minor league ball and 7 1/3 innings in the Show.

Prior to his injury, durability was one of Pruitt’s calling cards as a swingman and long reliever with the Rays from 2017-19.  While Pruitt had a modest 4.87 ERA over his 199 2/3 innings in Tampa Bay, his ability to adjust between many pitching roles made him a valuable member of the versatile Rays staff.  If healthy and back in his old form, Pruitt could be tabbed for swingman duty with the A’s, given how Oakland’s bullpen is lacking in experience.  Conceivably, Pruitt might even get some looks in the rotation, especially if the Athletics continue to trade current members of their starting staff.

Players Recently Electing Free Agency

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With the regular season over, a series of players are closing in on free agency. The highest-profile will be available as major league free agents, those with six-plus years of MLB service time not under contract with a team. But there will be dozens of players in the coming weeks who qualify for minor league free agency and more quietly reach the open market as well.

Players can qualify for minor league free agency in a few ways. The most notable of these include: players with 3+ years of MLB service time who have been outrighted off their teams’ 40-man rosters this season, players who have been outrighted off a 40-man roster multiple times in their careers, and unsigned players not on a 40-man roster who have spent parts of at least seven seasons on a minor league roster or injured list.

Many of these players won’t officially reach free agency until the start of the offseason, but some were let go by their teams a few weeks early once the regular season concluded. Each of the following players has elected minor league free agency within the past week, according to the MLB.com and Triple-A transactions trackers:

Marlins Outright Austin Pruitt

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Marlins right-hander Austin Pruitt went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. He was designated for assignment Friday. It’s the second time since acquiring Pruitt prior to the trade deadline that Miami has passed him through waivers.

Pruitt, 32, has the service time to reject the assignment in favor of free agency. However, with the regular-season calendar winding down and a $617,500 salary that checks in a bit north of the league minimum — he’d forfeit the remainder of his guarantee by electing free agency — Pruitt may simply ride out the season with the Marlins’ top minor league affiliate or hope to be added back to the 40-man roster. If he’s not on the 40-man roster at the end of the season, he’ll have the opportunity to elect free agency then, as an outrighted player with three-plus years of MLB service time.

The Marlins acquired Pruitt alongside outfielder Bryan De La Cruz in the trade that sent Yimi Garcia to the Astros, but De La Cruz was the team’s primary target in that deal. Pruitt has pitched well in a limited sample with the Fish, holding opponents to one run on four hits and no walks with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 big league frames. He’s been sharp in Triple-A, too, with just four runs and a 10-to-1 K/BB ratio through 11 innings of work.

Pruitt has spent most of the 2021 season on the 60-day injured list as he recovered from Sept. 2020 surgery to repair a fracture in his elbow. That elbow trouble last year kept him off the mound for the entirety of the shortened 2020 campaign. In 207 Major League innings, most of which came with the Rays from 2017-19, Pruitt has a 4.83 ERA with a below-average 17.2 percent strikeout rate, an excellent 5.7 percent walk rate and an above-average 48.5 percent ground-ball rate.

Marlins Designate Austin Pruitt For Assignment

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The Marlins have designated right-hander Austin Pruitt for assignment, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald was among those to relay. The move opens space on the active and 40-man rosters for reliever Paul Campbell, who has been activated from the COVID-19 injured list.

It’s the second time this season the Fish have designated Pruitt, whom they acquired alongside Bryan de la Cruz from the Astros in the Yimi García trade shortly before the deadline. Pruitt cleared waivers the first time and was selected back to the big league roster not too long after. He has made four relief appearances for Miami, tossing 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts and no walks.

Pruitt will now find himself back on the waiver wire, where the league’s 29 other teams will again have the opportunity to pick him up. The 32-year-old signed a $617.5K contract to avoid arbitration last winter, so he’s making just slightly more than the league minimum. Any claiming team would owe Pruitt the remainder of that salary (approximately $109K) for the season’s final month. If he were to pass through unclaimed, he’d have the right to elect free agency in lieu of an outright assignment.

In addition to swapping out Pruitt for Campbell, the Marlins will also add Zach Thompson to the bullpen. The 27-year-old has started all thirteen of his big league appearances but is moving to the relief corps for the stretch run, manager Don Mattingly informed reporters (including Daniel Álvarez Montes of ElExtraBase). That’s the role Thompson filled with Triple-A Jacksonville before his early-June promotion. All eight of his outings with the Jumbo Shrimp came in relief.

Miami will move forward with a starting group of Trevor Rogers (who returned from the restricted list yesterday), Sandy Alcantara, Jesús Luzardo, Elieser Hernández and top prospect Edward Cabrera. That’s an extremely exciting and talented group that figures to be the backbone of future Marlins’ clubs that should be more competitive than they’ve been this season. And that’s not even counting Sixto Sánchez and Max Meyer, who haven’t pitched in the majors this year (Sánchez due to injury, Meyer because it’s his first pro season) but have immense promise themselves.

Thompson isn’t as well-regarded as that group of high-octane arms, but he looks to be a great find himself. Signed to a minor league deal last offseason after spending seven seasons in the White Sox organization, Thompson has pitched well in his first big league look. The right-hander has worked 62 2/3 innings of 3.16 ERA ball. He has been the beneficiary of some batted ball luck and only has a 20.2% strikeout rate, but Thompson has also thrown a fair amount of strikes and generated whiffs at a decent 11.6% clip.

With that performance, Thompson should have solidified his spot on the 40-man roster over the upcoming offseason. He looks like a solid back-of-the-rotation option who could again be called upon as a starter in the event of injuries or underperformance next year. For now, the bullpen transition will help to keep his workload in check. Thompson’s 77 2/3 innings between Triple-A and the big leagues this year is his highest single-season total since he worked 93 1/3 frames in High-A back in 2017.

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