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James Kaprielian

Blue Jays, James Kaprielian Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent righty James Kaprielian, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo.

Once one of the top pitching prospects in the Yankees organization, Kaprielian was traded from New York to Oakland in the 2017 deadline deal that shipped Sonny Gray to the Bronx. The former No. 16 overall draft pick spent the next six and a half years in the A’s organization, making his big league debut in the shortened 2020 season. He’d appear in four straight seasons with the A’s but do so intermittently while battling a slate of shoulder injuries that necessitated a pair of surgeries.

For Kaprielian, injuries have been all too common. The former UCLA standout required Tommy John surgery early in the 2017 season and wound up missing the entire 2018 campaign as well. During his time with the A’s, he underwent surgery in Dec. 2022 to repair the AC joint in his right shoulder and again to repair damage to his right shoulder’s labrum in Aug. 2023. Kaprielian missed time in each of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons due to shoulder troubles.

In 2021, Kaprielian offered a glimpse of what he could provide in a healthy season. He appeared in 24 games for Oakland (21 of them starts) and pitched to a 4.07 earned run average over the life of 119 1/3 innings. He fanned a strong 24.5% of his opponents against a similarly encouraging 8.2% walk rate. Home runs were an issue for the 6’3″, 225-pound righty (1.43 HR/9), but he offered an intriguing strikeout-to-walk profile, sat 93.3 mph with his heater and recorded a promising 10.9% swinging-strike rate.

The 2022 season was a bit of a step back in terms of results but a step forward in terms of both workload and velocity. Kaprielian tossed 134 innings — his career-high in a big league season — and turned in a 4.23 ERA while seeing his average fastball tick up to 94 mph. His 17% strikeout rate and 10.2% walk rate both represented steps in the wrong direction, but Kaprielian also trimmed that HR/9 mark to 1.07. Overall, he looked like a solid fourth starter from 2021-22 with the A’s: 253 1/3 innings, 4.16 ERA, 20.5% strikeout rate, 9.3% walk rate, 36.5% grounder rate, 1.24 HR/9.

Kaprielian, however, never seemed to bounce back from that surgery to tend to his AC joint in the 2022-23 offseason. He was shelled for 45 runs in 61 innings (6.34 ERA) that season. His fastball dropped to a 92.5 mph average. He walked a career-worst 11.1% of hitters. The A’s passed him through outright waivers in October, and he qualified for minor league free agency following the season.

Now nearly 11 months removed from last August’s shoulder surgery, Kaprielian will head to the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate and provide some needed rotation depth. The Jays recently lost Alek Manoah to season-ending UCL surgery, and their rotation depth was already thin in the first place. They’re lacking an established option behind the quartet of Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi, with rookie Yariel Rodriguez likely to step into the fray once he’s cleared to return from a back injury (likely later this week). Twenty-eight-year-old Bowden Francis has been hit hard in eight appearances (three starts). Top prospect Ricky Tiedemann has spent most of the season on the injured list and only just went on a Rookie-level rehab assignment.

If Kaprielian can prove healthy and look anything like his 2021-22 form, he’ll emerge as a legitimate option for the Jays in the season’s second half. And given that he entered the season with just 2.167 years of big league service time, there’s potential for him to be controlled for three more years beyond the current season. Obviously there’s a long way to go before that’s even an option worth pondering, but the generally thin nature of Toronto’s rotation depth makes it a more distinct possibility than if he’d signed with a more pitching-rich organization.

Athletics Outright James Kaprielian, Sam Long, Carlos Pérez

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The Athletics outrighted three players, according to the transaction tracker at MiLB.com. Right-hander James Kaprielian, left-hander Sam Long and catcher Carlos Pérez have all been sent outright to Triple-A Las Vegas. It wasn’t previously reported that these players were removed from the roster, so this opens up three spots on the Oakland 40-man.

Kaprielian, 29, had a frustrating season in 2023. He was able to toss 253 1/3 innings over 2021 and 2022 with a solid 4.16 earned run average but required shoulder surgery in December and never really got on track after that. The early results were poor and he wound up being used as a frequently-optioned depth arm throughout the first half. He then landed on the injured list in June due to a shoulder strain and required yet another surgery in August. He finished the year with a 6.34 earned run average in 61 innings.

The righty is just shy of three years of major league service time but was set to qualify for arbitration as a Super Two player this winter. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a salary of $1.5MM but it seems the A’s weren’t planning to tender him a contract. Any of the 29 other teams could have stepped up and claimed him off waivers but it seems they all passed, based on this outright. This is his first career outright and he is just shy of three years of major league service time, meaning he technically can’t reject this outright assignment immediately. But he will qualify for minor league free agency on the fifth day after the World Series, as a player with parts of seven seasons in the minors.

Long, 28, was acquired from the Giants in a cash deal in April. He tossed 45 innings for the A’s this year with a 5.60 ERA, 16.1% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate and 42.7% ground ball rate. This is his first career outright and he has less than three years of service time, meaning he doesn’t have the right to reject this assignment right now. But like Kaprielian, he’ll qualify for minor league free agency in a few weeks.

Pérez, 33 this month, signed a minor league deal with the A’s in March and quickly cracked the roster. He got into 68 games this year, his first major league action since 2018, hitting .226/.293/.357 with subpar defensive metrics. He was eligible for arbitration with a projected $1.2MM salary but the A’s and the other clubs in the league passed on the chance to tender him a contract. He has over three years of service time, which gives him the right to elect free agency right away if he so wishes.

A’s Select Spencer Patton, Option Tyler Soderstrom

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The Athletics announced a handful of roster moves before this evening’s matchup with the Royals. Oakland selected reliever Spencer Patton onto the MLB roster. Starter Luis Medina landed on the 15-day injured list with a blister on the index finger of his throwing hand. The A’s also reinstated first baseman Ryan Noda from the 10-day IL while optioning rookie catcher/first baseman Tyler Soderstrom to Triple-A Las Vegas. To create space for Patton on the 40-man roster, righty James Kaprielian was transferred from the 15-day to the 60-day IL after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery.

Patton returns to the big leagues a little over three months since being outrighted off the roster. The 35-year-old hurler signed a minor league pact with Oakland in April. He was called up a few weeks later and pitched four times, allowing four runs in 5 1/3 innings of work. Patton returned to Las Vegas after clearing waivers and has had an alright showing there in an extremely hitter-friendly setting.

Over 40 outings, he owns a 4.68 ERA through 42 1/3 frames. He has struck out an above-average 24.3% of opposing hitters against a slightly elevated 10.1% walk rate. Including his early-season stint in the Bay Area, Patton has appeared in parts of six big league campaigns for a trio of teams. He has a 5.19 ERA in 109 1/3 MLB innings. Patton is out of minor league options, so the A’s will have to keep him in the big league bullpen or again put him on waivers.

Medina, acquired from the Yankees in the Frankie Montas trade, has had a tough debut campaign. The 24-year-old has started 13 of 18 appearances this year, allowing a 5.44 ERA through 86 frames. His 21.5% strikeout rate and 43.8% grounder percentage aren’t far off the big league averages, but he’s walking 11% of opponents. He’s looking to stake a claim to a rotation spot going into next season but will need at least two weeks off because of the blister issue.

Noda, yet another first-year player, has been one of the A’s best players this year. Selected out of the Dodgers’ system with the second pick in last winter’s Rule 5 draft, he’s reaching base at an excellent .375 clip through his first 90 games. Noda has been very prone to strikeouts, but he has collected 11 homers and is walking in nearly 18% of his plate appearances. He missed around a month with a fractured jaw.

His return pushes Soderstrom off the big league roster. The former first-round pick has been regarded as one of the better offensive talents in the minor leagues. He secured his first big league call during the All-Star Break and has gotten into 27 games. Soderstrom didn’t find initial success, however, mustering only a .165/.237/.247 line while striking out 29 times over 93 trips to the dish. He’s still just 21 years old, so it’s hardly surprising he didn’t hit the ground running at the MLB level. He’ll return to Las Vegas, where he’d hit .254/.303/.536 over 304 plate appearances.

The demotion isn’t likely to have an effect on Soderstrom’s time to arbitration or free agency. He wouldn’t have gotten a full service year in 2023 and was unlikely to accrue enough service time to have a path to Super Two eligibility. However, it could have an impact on his rookie status heading into 2024. Position players retain rookie eligibility if they’ve tallied fewer than 130 at-bats and spent 45 or fewer days on an MLB active roster.

Soderstrom has spent 38 days in the big leagues. If he spends the rest of the year in Las Vegas, he’d remain a rookie heading into next offseason. Assuming he’s still regarded by prospect evaluators as a top 100 caliber talent, which seems likely, the Prospect Promotion Incentive could come into play next spring. Teams that carry a top prospect on the MLB roster for a full service year can receive a draft choice if that player wins Rookie of the Year or finishes top three in MVP voting during their pre-arbitration seasons. There’s been a slew of top prospect promotions over the past few days; Masyn Winn, Noelvi Marté and Kyle Harrison have all gotten their first call once things got deep enough into the summer that they couldn’t exhaust their rookie eligibility this year.

Paradoxically, the promotion incentive could work against Soderstrom getting another MLB look later in the season. That’s not to say it’s the sole or even primary motivation for the A’s sending him down — he has unquestionably struggled in his first five weeks at the MLB level, and Noda’s return would cut into the first base/DH reps available — but could be a factor down the stretch.

James Kaprielian Undergoes Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery

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Athletics right-hander James Kaprielian underwent successful right shoulder arthroscopic surgery today with Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles to repair his posterior labrum, per a club announcement relayed by Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. There’s no timetable for a return but Kaprielian will miss the remainder of the season.

It’s yet another injury setback Kaprielian, 29, who has had more than his share. A first round pick of the Yankees back in the 2015 draft, he required Tommy John surgery in 2017. He was flipped to the A’s a few months later but didn’t make his debut in the Athletics’ system until 2019. He seemed to finally be on a good track in recent years, as he tossed 253 1/3 major league innings over 2021 and 2022. He still made a few trips to the IL but took on a decent workload and posted a 4.16 ERA in that time.

But he’s dealt with a series of setbacks since then. He required shoulder surgery in December of last year and then was rocked for 23 earned runs in 16 innings through his first six outings in 2023. He’s since been optioned and recalled a few times with slightly better results, though he landed on the IL at the end of June due to a shoulder strain. He’ll now miss the remainder of the season, with updates likely to come on his future status. He’ll be transferred to the 60-day IL whenever the club needs his roster spot.

He came into this season with his service time clock at 2.004. He spent enough time on optional assignment that he’ll come up just shy of the three-year mark but will still be eligible for arbitration this winter as a Super Two player, though the A’s are probably not guaranteed to tender him a contract. Although he’s a former first-round pick and one of the most seasoned pitchers on the roster, his constant health issues will likely give them pause. They will have the next few months to assess his progress before making that decision in the offseason.

A’s Announce Series Of Roster Moves

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The A’s made a number of transactions before tonight’s series opener with the White Sox. Oakland activated reliever Kirby Snead from the 60-day injured list while recalling Rico Garcia and Jordan Diaz from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Right-handers James Kaprielian and Yacksel Ríos are headed to the 15-day IL, while infielder Jonah Bride was optioned to Vegas. To clear space on the 40-man roster for Snead’s return, the A’s transferred Mason Miller from the 15-day to the 60-day IL.

Snead is back in Mark Kotsay’s bullpen for the first time this year. He strained his throwing shoulder in Spring Training. One of four players acquired from the Blue Jays in the Matt Chapman deal, Snead tossed 44 2/3 innings of 5.84 ERA ball during his first season in Oakland. He has allowed four runs in five innings in Triple-A on a rehab stint.

Kaprielian has a shoulder strain of his own, Kotsay told reporters (including Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). Ríos is battling Raynaud’s syndrome, a condition in which blood flow to a person’s hand can be diminished, thereby leading to numbness. The return timetable on both pitchers is unclear.

Miller has already missed just under two months with a sprain of the UCL in his throwing elbow. That makes his transfer a formality, though his long-term prognosis is still up in the air. Kotsay said Miller will soon go for follow-up examination (via Gallegos). The hard-throwing rookie has been throwing off flat ground for a few weeks and will continue his throwing program pending that evaluation.

In other injury news, catcher Manny Piña has reported to Low-A Stockton for a rehab stint, according to his transaction log at MLB.com. Acquired from the Braves to offset salary in the Sean Murphy deal, Piña has missed the entire season with a left wrist issue. He underwent surgery on the same wrist last May and hasn’t played an MLB game in 14 months.

A’s Place Drew Rucinski On 15-Day Injured List

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Drew Rucinski has landed on the 15-day IL (retroactive to May 17) with a stomach illness, the A’s announced. In his place, the team has recalled right hander James Kaprielian, who is scheduled to start tomorrow’s match.

Rucinski, 34, returned to the US on a one-year, $3MM deal with a $5MM club option for next season after a successful time in Korea. It hasn’t been an enjoyable return though, as the veteran has made just four starts for Oakland, working to a 9.00 ERA. He’s struck out just 6.3% of batters and walked 14.7%, while giving up five home runs in 18 innings. It’s a disappointing return for a player who worked to a 3.05 ERA over 121 starts in four seasons in Korea.

While 15 days out seems like quite a bit for a stomach illness, it’ll at least give the A’s and Rucinski some time to work on any issues he’s been experiencing that’s led to this poor start in Oakland. He’ll be eligible to return to the team in early June.

Kaprielian’s put up similarly disappointing numbers, working to a 10.17 ERA in 23 big league innings this year. The 29-year-old former top-100 prospect has performed a lot better in a limited sample at Triple-A, giving up just a single earned run in 8 1/3 innings at the highest level of the minors.

Athletics Select Garrett Acton, Activate Aledmys Diaz

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The A’s have announced a series of roster moves this morning, as the club selected the contract of right-hander Garrett Acton and activated infielder Aledmys Diaz from the 10-day injured list. To clear room for the pair on the active roster, right-hander James Kaprielian and infielder Kevin Smith have been optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Acton, 25, joined the A’s organization in 2021 and has a career 4.37 ERA in 148 1/3 minor league innings. His first appearance with the A’s this season will be his major league debut. Acton joins the roster alongside the return of Diaz, who joined the A’s on a two-year, $14MM deal this offseason. Diaz struggled badly to open the season with Oakland, slashing just .153/.226/.212 in 93 plate appearances before heading to the IL. While Diaz’s struggles with the bat were pronounced, he did show off his trademark versatility, appearing at all four infield spots prior to his IL stint.

Making room for the duo on the roster are Smith, 26, and Kaprielian, 29. Smith provides a similar versatility to Diaz, with experience at both outfield corners and all four infield spots throughout his career to this point. Since coming over to the A’s as part of the Matt Chapman trade, Smith has slashed just .181/.212/.307 in 233 plate appearances with the club. Kaprielian, meanwhile, was a first round pick by the Yankees in the 2015 draft, and made his debut for Oakland in 2020. Despite his draft pedigree, Kaprielian has struggled mightily in the big leagues during parts of four seasons with the A’s, posting a 4.69 ERA (84 ERA+) in 280 innings of work. That figure includes a ghastly 10.17 ERA in 23 innings this season.

Athletics Designate Spencer Patton For Assignment

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The Athletics have recalled James Kaprielian from Triple-A, the team announced. To make room, they designated relief pitcher Spencer Patton for assignment.

Patton, 35, pitched just 5 1/3 innings for Oakland this year, working to a 6.75 ERA and striking out just a single batter. He’s gone slightly better in Triple-A, where he owns a 4.32 ERA over 8 1/3 innings with 10 strikeouts.

A 24th round pick all the way back in 2011, Patton debuted in 2014 for the Rangers and showed a bit of promise, giving up just a single earned run in 9 1/3 relief innings. It wasn’t to last though, and over the next couple of seasons Patton would struggle to a 7.35 ERA with the Rangers and Cubs.

Patton went to Japan in 2017, and spent the next four years with Yokohama, working to a 3.68 ERA over 205 2/3 innings of relief in Nippon baseball. That was enough for the Rangers to bring him back to the US for another crack at the majors, and Patton delivered in his first year back, providing 42 1/3 innings of solid 3.83 ERA relief in 2021. Once again though, it didn’t last and Patton’s 2022 season would bring about a decline in velocity and a drop in strikeouts, and the Rangers released him in August 2022.

Athletics Promote Luis Medina, Option James Kaprielian

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The Athletics announced that they have recalled pitching prospect Luis Medina, and optioned right-hander James Kaprielian in a corresponding move. Martin Gallegos of MLB.com reported on Medina’s promotion before the official announcement, noting that Medina is expected to make his major league debut tomorrow.

Medina, 24 next month, was signed by the Yankees as an international amateur in 2015 and quickly got himself onto the radar of prospect evaluators. By the start of 2018, he was considered the #7 prospect in that club’s system by Baseball America. As he worked his way up towards the majors, he stayed roughly in that range, bouncing between the #7 and #11 spots.

After the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020, Medina split 2021 between High-A and Double-A, posting a 3.39 ERA in 106 1/3 innings. His 13.3% walk rate was certainly on the high side, but he paired that with a 29.5% strikeout rate. He returned to Double-A in 2022, registering a 3.38 ERA in 17 starts with similar peripherals.

He then came to the Athletics, one of four young players who came over in the deadline deal that sent Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the Yankees. His first stint with his new club didn’t go so well, as he had an 11.76 ERA in seven starts after the trade last year. But he seems back on track here in 2023 as he’s made three Triple-A starts with a 3.86 ERA, though the control continues to be an issue as he walked 20% of batters faced.

Despite the lack of command, Medina continues to be touted on account of his high octane stuff. BA ranked him #13 in the A’s system coming into this year. They note that he routinely touches triple digits with his fastball, in addition to having a curveball and a changeup. The Yankees added him to their 40-man roster way back in November of 2019, to protect him from that year’s Rule 5 draft, but the A’s were given a fourth option year that allowed them to send him to Triple-A this year.

He’ll now get a crack to test his stuff against big league hitters. The A’s have very little cemented in their rotation, having traded away their established players in recent years. On top of that, players like Paul Blackburn, Drew Rucinski and Freddy Tarnok have yet to appear this season due to injuries. Shintaro Fujinami struggled enough that he’s being moved to the bullpen now. Medina will jump up to join a rotation that currently consists of JP Sears, Mason Miller, Ken Waldichuk and Kyle Muller, though Rucinski is on a rehab assignment and could be in the mix soon.

Kaprielian seemed like a potential mainstay of the rotation not too long ago, making 21 starts for the A’s in 2021 and 26 more last year, posting ERAs just north of 4.00 in each of those campaigns. However, he underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason and has been lit up for a 12.94 ERA through three starts and three relief outings in the early going this year. He’ll head to Triple-A and try to get back on track.

Latest On A’s Rotation

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The A’s entered camp with a host of pitchers competing for what appeared to be two rotation spots. Another opened during Spring Training, as righty Paul Blackburn tore a fingernail and will start the year on the injured list. That left Drew Rucinski and Shintaro Fujinami as the apparent top two. For different reasons, there are questions about the workload both hurlers can shoulder.

Rucinski won’t make his next scheduled Spring Training start because of left hamstring tightness, manager Mark Kotsay said this afternoon (relayed by Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). His availability for Opening Day is now uncertain. Signed to a $3MM free agent deal after four seasons with the NC Dinos in the Korea Baseball Organization, Rucinski has pitched three times this spring. The right-hander has allowed eight runs with a 7:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 10 1/3 innings.

Fujinami isn’t dealing with any health concerns. The A’s are planning to be cautious with his workload as he makes the jump from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, however. Starters in Japan typically only throw once per week, so a five-day rotation presents an adjustment for hurlers coming over from NPB. Kotsay indicated this week that Oakland would limit Fujinami to starts every sixth or seventh day early in the season to avoid overworking him (link via Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle).

“We feel strongly about keeping him in that routine,” Kotsay told reporters. “There is a lot of change going on already for Fuji, so we want to try to at least keep something as consistent as possible and that’s his routines.” The 6’6″ right-hander signed for $3.25MM this offseason, with the A’s rolling the dice on a high-octane arsenal despite an inconsistent strike-throwing track record in Japan.

Control woes kept Fujinami from holding a permanent rotation spot with the Hanshin Tigers over the past few seasons. He’d bounced between the Tigers and their minor league affiliate and between the starting staff and the bullpen. Altogether, Fujinami tallied 107 1/3 innings last season. That was the first time he’d topped the century mark since 2018, so it’s not surprising the A’s want to keep an eye on his workload.

Oakland has maintained they’re committed to Fujinami as a starting pitcher. It’s an upside play that could make him an intriguing trade candidate if he establishes himself closer to the summer deadline. Fujinami has been erratic this spring, striking out 17 but issuing 13 walks in 12 2/3 frames over three outings.

With only one pitcher now locked into the season-opening rotation and coming with workload concerns of his own, Oakland will obviously have to plug a number of vacancies. As Kawahara writes in a separate piece, righty James Kaprielian seems on track to grab a rotation job. While he’d been delayed in camp recovering fromDecember shoulder surgery, he built up to five innings in today’s exhibition start against the Cubs. The former Yankee first-rounder started 26 games and threw 134 innings last year, working to a 4.23 ERA despite below-average strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates.

A number of recent trade acquisitions are among those battling for rotation spots alongside Fujinami, Kaprielian and hopefully Rucinski. Ken Waldichuk and JP Sears, both acquired from the Yankees in last summer’s Frankie Montas deal, could have the inside track on jobs after debuting last season. Lefty Kyle Muller, brought in from Atlanta this winter in the Sean Murphy package, remains in camp.

So does righty Adam Oller, who came over from the Mets in the Chris Bassitt trade a year ago. Oller started 14 of 19 MLB appearances as a rookie but was hit hard, surrendering more than six earned runs per nine innings. Kawahara suggests the righty could be ticketed for long relief instead of the rotation. The 28-year-old told reporters he was open to whatever role the club preferred. “I knew going into this year (a swing role) was going to be a possibility,” Oller said (via Kawahara). “I spoke to Kotsay … and I told him straight up, ‘I don’t care.’ Obviously, everybody wants to be a starter, but at the end of the day, I just want to be on the team and do what I can to help the team win.“

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