The Athletics are moving on from Geoff Hartlieb.
The right-hander is being designated for assignment, according to the MLB.com transaction log, with the club needing to clear a 40-man roster spot after acquiring Scott Blewett from the Cardinals in a cash swap last night. The official announcement still has to come, but Hartlieb’s DFA appears to be the move that makes room for Blewett.
Hartlieb, 32, logged 13 1/3 innings for the A’s this season and was hit hard in that stretch. He allowed nine runs for a 6.08 ERA, giving up 17 hits while walking more hitters (nine) than he struck out (six). He also was charged with four wild pitches.
This is still a pitcher with a long enough big league resume to know the grind, even if the results haven’t been there. Hartlieb has appeared in parts of seven major league seasons, but his total workload sits at just 96 innings, and his career ERA is 7.69.
The bigger reason he’s stayed on the radar is what he’s done in the upper minors. A former 29th-round pick, Hartlieb has spent parts of seven seasons in Triple-A and has thrown 316 innings there with a 4.22 ERA, a 25.8% strikeout rate and a 9.3% walk rate. That includes 36 1/3 innings of 3.44 ERA ball this season with the Athletics’ extremely hitter-friendly Summerlin affiliate, where he struck out 29.2% of opposing batters and walked 7.1%.
From here, the A’s have five days to trade Hartlieb, place him on outright waivers or release him. If waivers are the route, that process adds another 48 hours, so the whole thing should be settled within a week. Hartlieb has been outrighted before, which means if he clears waivers he can reject a minor league outright assignment and choose free agency instead.
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