Will

Klein

Klein came over from the Royals a couple weeks ago at the trade deadline and has been hit pretty hard in three relief outings for Oakland. The 24-year-old will head back to the minors to make room for relief prospect Grant Holman to get the call to the big leagues.

Dickey was an 11th-round pick in last year’s draft and is already in High-A slashing .269/.360/.424 with nine home runs and eight steals in 81 games. He has a sub-20 percent strikeout rate and a 10 percent walk rate, so he brings a decent plate approach from the left side of the plate. He’s still a ways from the majors, so it’s unclear what his long-term upside is.

Barnett is a 23-year-old righty who is the 4th-ranked prospect in Kansas City’s system, according to MLB Pipeline. He has a 4.91 ERA and 3.76 FIP in 91 2/3 innings across 18 starts at Double-A this season. His best pitch is a hard slider which can get up to 12 inches of glove-side break and he also has a mid-90s four-seam fastball with above-average ride. He has been pitching better of late with a 1.64 ERA across four starts in July. A 2022 third-round pick, Barnett could develop into a back-end of the rotation arm for the Athletics.

The 24-year-old Klein made his MLB debut this season, posting a 6.35 ERA in 5 2/3 innings out of the Royals’ bullpen. He did have a 3.58 ERA and a 38:27 K:BB ratio in 37 2/3 innings at Triple-A and had posted strikeout rates of at least 28 percent at two minor league stops last season, so perhaps the Athletics can get some consistent production out of him in the bullpen.

Klein gave up four runs in 4 2/3 innings during his first two stints with the Royals this season. This could be another brief stint, since the Royals will be adding Michael Lorenzen to the roster soon.

Klein’s latest stint with the Royals saw him allow four runs in 4 2/3 innings over four appearances. He’ll be back later on.

Klein has appeared in one game for the Royals this year. At Triple-A, he had a 1.93 ERA in 21 appearances with a SO:BB of 23:14. The 24-year-old right-hander gives Kansas City another option in the bullpen.

Klein was called up late in the week after Alec Marsh was put on the injured list in order to give the Royals another bullpen arm. With Marsh’s spot in the rotation now coming up, the Royals will send Klein back down in order to call up Jonathan Bowlan for the start. Klein made one appearance with the Royals, throwing a shutout inning while striking out two. He should be back up at some point this season.

The move was reported yesterday but is official now. Bowlan has a 2.57 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 21 innings across four minor league starts this season. He leans heavily on a four-seam fastball which doesn’t get a lot of vertical movement and could be a pitch that struggles to translate to the MLB level. If he does stick in the rotation for a short stretch, he’ll have two starts this week; however, he might be best left on the wire for now. Will Klein was optioned to Omaha in a corresponding move.

The 24-year-old has made nine appearances at the Triple-A level where he’s collected three saves and hasn’t allowed a run in his 11 innings pitched. He’s shown major improvement compared to last season when he posted a 5.66 ERA, 1.86 WHIP across 35 innings with Omaha.