The Athletics have designated left-hander José Suarez for assignment, per a team announcement. His spots on the active and 40-man rosters will go to righty Geoff Hartlieb, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A.
Suarez landed in West Sacramento by way of a cash swap with the division-rival Mariners earlier this summer. He’s pitched for three teams this year — A’s, Mariners, Braves — and previously had a six-year run pitching for another AL West club, the Angels.
In 43 innings with the A’s, Suarez was tagged for an unsightly 5.65 ERA. That mark is skewed by a brutal showing in his past four trips to the bump, in which he’s combined for just three innings while being rocked for 10 runs. Prior to that awful quartet of relief outings, Suarez was sporting a tidy 3.83 ERA with solid strikeout (21.5%), walk (6.1%) and ground-ball (39.9%) rates — looking much like he did during his best days with the Halos earlier in his big league career.
Suarez struggled in Atlanta, however, and only had a brief two inning stop in Seattle between his Braves and Athletics tenures. After looking like a quality fourth starter with the Angels in 2021-22, he’s stumbled with a 5.94 ERA across 166 2/3 major league frames.
Suarez reached five years of major league service earlier this season and thus couldn’t be optioned to Triple-A. He’s making $900K this season. Any team that claims him would take on the remainder of that guaranteed salary and would have to plug him right onto the big league roster. He can technically be controlled one more year in arbitration, but given his struggles over the past four seasons, it’s much likelier that he’ll clear waivers than it is that he’ll be claimed and retained by a new team via arbitration.
Hartlieb, 32, was with the A’s earlier this year. He pitched 13 1/3 innings and gave up nine runs with more walks than strikeouts during that brief stint. The journeyman right-hander has pitched for seven teams across parts of seven major league seasons but only totaled 96 frames. He’s shown good fastball/sinker velocity and picked up plenty of grounders but has a 7.69 ERA with a below-average 18.9% strikeout rate and a sky-high 14.8% walk rate during his time as a big leaguer.
Hartlieb will give the A’s a fresh arm after a bullpen game that saw them use five relievers (including the now-designated-for-assignment Suarez). The four relievers who remain on the roster after pitching yesterday each tossed between 21 and 40 pitches, while righty Chris Roycroft tossed 37 a day prior. Given that recent workload, the A’s understandably felt it necessary to bring in a more rested bullpen option who can cover multiple innings. Hartlieb, who has 48 1/3 innings in 27 minor league appearances this year, fits the bill. It could be a relatively short stay on the roster if he pitches multiple innings in the next day or two and the A’s decide they need another fresh arm.
