The Athletics added one right-handed reliever with power stuff and sent another off the 40-man roster, claiming Hunter Bigge from the Rays and designating Taylor Rashi for assignment.
Bigge arrives after a winding path that started when the Cubs took him in the 12th round in 2019. He later went to Tampa Bay in the return for Isaac Paredes, a deal the Rays would likely prefer to revisit.
Bigge and righty Ty Johnson were secondary pieces behind Christopher Morel in that swap, and neither Bigge nor Morel remains in the organization after both were non-tendered last winter. Johnson, who entered the year ranked 16th among Rays farmhands by Baseball America, has put together a solid season between the rotation and bullpen in Triple-A and debuted in the majors a few days ago.
Paredes, meanwhile, moved on to the Astros in the Kyle Tucker deal a few months after landing with the Cubs and has hit .257/.356/.439 with 39 homers, 40 doubles and two triples in a little more than 1000 plate appearances with Houston.
For Oakland, Bigge is a bet on raw arm strength and the possibility that a change of scenery can clean up the rest. The 28-year-old has worked 51 2/3 major league innings, all of them in relief, with a career 4.18 ERA.
This season has been much rougher: he owns a 6.98 ERA in 19 1/3 innings, has walked as many hitters as he’s struck out - 14 apiece - and has seen his average fastball dip by a mile, even though it’s still sitting at 96.5 mph. His minor league numbers haven’t offered much comfort, either.
In 29 1/3 innings with Durham, he posted a 6.14 ERA with a 27.4% strikeout rate, a 14.8% walk rate and seven home runs allowed.
The rest of the profile comes with plenty of warning signs. Bigge has been hit hard, with opponents averaging 90.8 mph off the bat against him and producing a 46.2% hard-hit rate.
His slider has been punished this year, and he still doesn’t have a true third pitch. He’s toyed with a curveball and a splitter, but in his big league career he’s thrown only 41 curves and 18 splitters.
He also missed most of last season with a lat strain, which makes the velocity drop and shaky command this year even more troubling.
Still, the A’s are in a different position than the Rays. Tampa Bay, with a crowded 40-man roster, can’t afford to stash too many reclamation projects.
Oakland can. The A’s have bullpen uncertainty and room to take chances on arms like Bigge, who has one minor league option left beyond this season and can be controlled through 2031 if he sticks.
Rashi’s time with the A’s ends after a little more than a month on the 40-man roster. Oakland claimed him from the Twins shortly after the trade deadline, and Minnesota had only picked him up from the D-backs for cash a couple months earlier. The Twins never gave him a major league call, and while he pitched well for their Triple-A club, all of his big league work has come with Arizona or Oakland.
In total, Rashi has thrown 22 major league innings - 20 for the Diamondbacks and two for the A’s - and carries a 5.32 ERA in that work. At Triple-A, though, he has been much steadier, posting a 3.35 ERA across 123 2/3 innings. Even with that track record, the 30-year-old UC-Irvine product has never really gotten a sustained look in the majors, and his 90 mph four-seamer has likely worked against him in an era when front offices keep leaning harder toward velocity.
If Rashi clears waivers, he would head to Las Vegas for the rest of the season. He has not been outrighted before, but he does have enough service to become a minor league free agent after the season if he isn’t on a 40-man roster by then.
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