A's Place Former Kansas City Royals Prospect on Waivers

After Wednesday's loss to the Seattle Mariners, it looked as though the writing was on the wall for former Athletics right-hander Noah Murdock. When manager Mark Kotsay was asked about the Rule 5 pick after the game, it seemed as though Murdock wouldn't be on the roster after the off-day on Thursday.

On Friday, the Athletics announced that they had designated Murdock for assignment. The way this works with a Rule 5 pick is that he is now on waivers, and any team will have an opportunity to claim the young righty. If he goes unclaimed on the waiver wire, then he will be offered back to the Kansas City Royals, where he can be sent to the minor leagues.

The Royals would not need to carry him on their 26-or-40-man rosters in order to take him back, since the reason he was available in the first place is that he was left off of Kansas City's 40-man roster last winter.

In his time with the A's. Murdock posted a 1-1 record with a 13.24 ERA and a 2.71 WHIP. In his last seven games, he posted a 22.95 ERA across 6.2 innings of work, giving up 17 earned runs on 18 hits and nine walks.

Kotsay said of the team's move, "For Noah, he obviously made this team out of spring training. He pitched well enough to be on this roster and be given this opportunity to be a big leaguer and pitch out of our bullpen. As the season progresses, you continue to re-evaluate, you continue to look at the roster, and you continue to try to improve the roster.

"Unfortunately, with Noah as a Rule 5 guy, you don't get the luxury of just optioning him."

With the open roster spot, the A's have called up Elvis Alvarado, a 6-foot-4 right-hander that has yet to make his MLB debut. He was claimed off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates at the end of January, and is a similar type of relief arm that the A's have been targeting in recent years, which is a guy with good stuff that has iffy command.

They had success with Michel Otañez last season, who had a similar profile when he arrived in Oakland, including having not made his MLB debut at that point. He was brought up around mid-June in 2024 and held a 3.44 ERA across 34 innings of work and is now seen as a potential late-inning option as he works his way back from injury.

We'll see if Alvarado can follow a similar path. This season in Triple-A, Alvarado has a 3.45 ERA across 15.2 innings of work with a 35.5% strikeout rate an a highly reduced 6.5% walk rate. Last season he walked 17.9% of the batters he faced.