Aaron Bummer Elects Free Agency

The Royals announced that they have recalled Mason Black to Triple-A Omaha. Left-hander Aaron Bummer has been optioned to Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding move. Bummer is a veteran with enough service where he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent, so he has elected free agency.

Bummer, 32, pitched only 1 1/3 innings with Kansas City. He was torched for six runs on six hits and a walk in his lone appearance as a Royal. The veteran lefty opened the season in Atlanta but was released in May and eventually signed a minor league pacts with the Cubs and Royals. (Chicago didn’t give him a look in the big leagues.) He’ll now seek out other opportunities for the season’s final few weeks.

From 2019-24, Bummer was a solid relief arm, piling up 273 2/3 innings of 3.68 ERA ball between the White Sox and Braves. Along the way, he picked up five saves and 78 holds, often working as a setup man. He posted a nice 3.81 ERA in 54 1/3 innings with Atlanta last season, but there were some major red flags under the hood. Bummer’s velocity was down more than three miles per hour from its peak last season, and his strikeout and ground-ball rates trended sharply in the wrong direction.

Those red flags came to the forefront this season, as Bummer was rocked for a 7.63 ERA in 15 1/3 innings with the Braves before being released. His ERA this season ballooned to 10.26 after that brutal Royals appearance. He’s sitting 90.3 mph on his sinker in 2026 — a drop of more than five miles per hour from his 2019-21 peak. Other clubs could take a speculative look and see if they can restore some of that lost velocity in Triple-A, but Bummer will likely have to put in some work this winter to try to regain some of that zip on his sinker if he’s going to make it back to the majors next year.