Zach

Neal

Neal was taken off Oakland’s 40-man roster earlier in the week and elected to give free agency a try. The 34-year-old right-hander made his first appearance in the majors since 2018 and posted a 6.67 ERA across 14 appearances with the Athletics this season.

Neal has been jettisoned from Oakland’s 40-man roster after finishing the regular season in the majors. The 34-year-old right-hander, who made 14 appearances (two starts) this season in the big leagues for the Athletics, will most likely wind up electing free agency in the coming days in search of a new opportunity.

The 34-year-old right-hander has been clobbered in 10 appearances for the Athletics this season — posting a 7.66 ERA, 1.75 WHIP and an 18/12 K/BB ratio over 22 1/3 innings. He’ll add a fresh arm to the A’s bullpen for their weekend series against the Tigers.

Neal loses his spot after giving up three runs in one-third of an inning last night to take a loss in relief. He had a 7.66 ERA overall in two starts and eight relief appearances.

The 34-year-old journeyman also struck out six and walked two on the day while posting an 18 percent whiff rate and 28 percent CSW. Neal is a low velocity pitcher (89 mph on his sinker) who relies on command and movement to induce soft contact. It doesn’t often work, but today things came together to allow him to keep Seattle’s offense from putting up a huge number. He still has a 6.55 ERA in 22 innings and doesn’t need to be rostered in fantasy leagues.

Congratulations to Mr. Neal, who went 2-4 as a rookie for Oakland in 2016 but went winless in stints with the A’s in 2017 and the Dodgers in 2018. He spent 2019-21 in Japan, going 19-15 with a 4.49 ERA with the Seibu Lions. He has a 6.88 ERA in one start and seven relief appearances for the A’s this season.

Neal made a pair of relief appearances for Oakland earlier this season and gets the call back to the big leagues to supply the Athletics’ bullpen with a fresh arm ahead of Thursday’s series finale against the Dodgers.

Neal went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week and will presumably stick around with the rebuilding Athletics as organizational relief depth. The 34-year-old journeyman has made a pair of relief appearances this season for Oakland.

The move clears a spot for Lucas Erceg on the 40-man roster. Neal was optioned to Triple-A earlier this week after allowing three runs over 3 1/3 innings during a brief stint in the majors.

The 34-year-old right-hander’s stay with the big league club lasted just four days this time around, but he’ll get bumped with Adrian Martinez returning from the injured list on Monday. Neal posted an 8.10 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and a 3/0 K/BB ratio in 3 1/3 innings with the A’s.