A’s Designate Scott Barlow For Assignment

The Athletics announced five roster moves, including the previously reported selection of Joey Meneses‘ contract from Triple-A Las Vegas.  The A’s also selected the contract of left-hander Matt Krook, and optioned infielder Alika Williams to Triple-A.  To create 40-man roster space, the Athletics designated Scott Barlow for assignment and moved Luis Severino from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list.

Barlow signed a $2MM free agent deal last winter, as the Athletics were looking to add some experience and durability to their bullpen mix.  While Barlow has tossed 33 1/3 innings over 36 appearances, the quality hasn’t been there, as the veteran has a 6.48 ERA during his brief time in the green and gold.

That inflated ERA comes despite a very favorable .211 BABIP, plus Barlow’s 33.1% whiff rate is one of the best in the league.  The whiffs didn’t translate to many strikeouts, however, as Barlow’s K% sat at only 19 percent.  As has often been the case over Barlow’s career, control was an issue, as per his 13.1% walk rate.

Pitching at Sutter Health Park unsurprisingly hampered Barlow’s production, yet the right-hander has one of the more extreme set of home/away splits you’ll ever see.  Barlow had a whopping 12.64 ERA over 15 2/3 innings in Sacramento, yet only a 1.02 ERA in 17 2/3 innings on the road.

Between these splits and Barlow’s pretty solid track record over nine MLB seasons, it stands to reason that several clubs might be interested in a waiver claim.  The remaining $1MM or so of Barlow’s salary isn’t an onerous sum, and it is easy to imagine his numbers normalizing (if not to the elite extent of a 1.02 ERA) if he is pitching in a less hitter-friendly home ballpark.

Since Barlow has far more than five years of MLB service time, he can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he clears waivers, and still retain the rest of his owed 2026 salary.  Any team that signed Barlow as a free agent would owe him just the prorated portion of the big league minimum salary, which would be subtracted from the roughly $1MM that would still be covered by the A’s.

From the Athletics’ perspective, a waiver claim would clear a bit of money off their books.  While losing Barlow is another hit to a struggling bullpen, Barlow was only going to be so useful to the club if he couldn’t adjust to pitching at home.  The A’s will now turn to another offseason signing in Krook, who inked a minor league pact last November.

Krook has a 16.20 ERA over 8 1/3 career innings in the majors, as he has had cups of coffee with the Yankees, Orioles, and A’s over each of the last three seasons.  Krook’s 5.40 ERA over 3 1/3 IP with the Athletics in 2025 represents the (relative) best performance of his brief time in the Show, and he has a solid 3.72 ERA and 30.9% strikeout rate over 29 innings in the hitter-friendly Las Vegas environment this season.  Those numbers come with the downside of an 11.8% walk rate, as control has also been a recurring problem for Krook over his career.

Severino hit the 15-day IL at the end of May, as the right-hander is dealing with a strain of his shoulder capsule and subscapularis muscle.  An absolute best-case scenario would see Severino re-evaluated at the start of July, so a move to the 60-day IL isn’t surprising since it didn’t seem like Severino would be back before August anyway.