The Athletics announced that they have recalled right-hander Elvis Alvarado. Fellow righty Joel Kuhnel has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.
Kuhnel, 31, signed a minor league deal with the A’s in the offseason. He was added to the big league roster a week into April. The early results were really encouraging, as he posted a 2.14 earned run average through 21 innings. He was probably a bit lucky, as his .254 batting average on balls in play and 84.1% strand rate were both to the fortunate side. Regardless, he quickly earned a leverage role with the A’s, racking up four saves and three holds in that span.
Regression came hard in the past week-plus. Kuhnel has allowed seven earned runs in his past 4 2/3 innings. The biggest blow came at Wrigley last night. Kuhnel was sent into the game in the bottom of the ninth with a 6-3 lead. He faced six batters and allowed five hits. He technically recorded two outs but only because Nico Hoerner got caught stealing. He was replaced by Luis Medina with the score 6-5, though Medina allowed a couple of hits as the Cubs walked it off to win 7-6.
Kuhnel was charged with four earned runs in the process, bumping his ERA for the year to 4.21. That’s not a horrendous figure but, as mentioned, the early results were a bit fortunate and the recent results were really rough. Since he’s out of options, he was bumped 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, but they could also put him on waivers sooner than that.
The book on Kuhnel is that he has big velocity and throws strikes but his primary pitch is his sinker, so he gets more grounders than strikeouts. He has logged 119 1/3 innings for various clubs with a 5.51 ERA. His 17.5% strikeout rate is subpar but his 5.8% walk rate and 51.3% ground ball rate are both strong figures. Since he has a previous career outright, he would have the right to elect free agency if he clears outright waivers again.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
