Athletics acquire veteran reliever

The A’s announced Sunday morning that they’ve acquired right-hander Austin Adams from the Mets in exchange for cash considerations. 

Adams, who had been in camp with the Mets as a non-roster invitee, has been selected to Oakland’s 40-man roster. 

In a corresponding move, right-hander Trevor Gott was placed on the 60-day injured list. Gott’s placement on the shelf is hardly a surprise, as it was announced last week that the righty is set to undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the 2024 season.

Adams, 32, was an eighth-round pick in the 2012 draft by the Angels but didn’t make his MLB debut until the 2017 season when he was a member of the Nationals. 

He entered the 2023 season with 108 big-league games under his belt between his time in Washington, Seattle and San Diego, having pitched to a 3.90 ERA with a 3.81 FIP and a 34.2 percent strikeout rate during that time. 

Despite those solid numbers, forearm and shoulder issues had limited his ability to stay on the field and capture a regular role with any of the clubs he had pitched for, leading him to sign a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks before the 2023 season.

His performance in Arizona was something of a mixed bag. While the right-hander yielded an unsightly 5.71 ERA in 17 1/3 innings of work with the club before a season-ending ankle injury last August, Adams’ peripheral numbers suggest he may have pitched better than those results would indicate. 

After all, the 32-year-old hurler struck out a solid 27.2 percent of batters faced while walking 9.9 percent. That left Adams with a 3.55 xERA and a 3.72 FIP, both far more palatable numbers that are more in line with his career marks. 

The discrepancy can be explained by both an unusually low 61.6 percent strand rate and an elevated .333 BABIP, leaving Adams with far more traffic on the basepaths than expected and those runners scoring more often than usual.

Those positive peripheral signs may have played a role in the Mets' decision to sign Adams to a major league deal back in November after he elected free agency in response to being removed from Arizona’s 40-man roster. 

That seemingly left Adams in a position to be a key piece of the bullpen mix in Queens this season, but the club scuttled those plans by signing more proven relievers such as Adam Ottavino and Jorge Lopez later that winter. 

That left Adams to be outrighted off the club’s roster just before spring training began, though he remained in camp with the club as a non-roster invitee.

Now, Adams once again appears poised to get an Opening Day job after being dealt to Oakland. With the A’s, he figures to slot into the middle of a bullpen that heavily features young arms such as Mason Miller, Kyle Muller, and Mitch Spence. 

If Adams pitches well early in the season, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him take on late-inning duties alongside the likes of Miller and Lucas Erceg in the Oakland bullpen.