Athletics Return Reliever to Kansas City Royals

According to the MLB.com transactions page, the Athletics have officially returned Rule 5 draftee Noah Murdock to the Kansas City Royals after designating the right-hander for assignment on Friday.

After making the A's Opening Day roster out of camp, the 26-year-old struggled in his first taste of the big leagues, posting a 13.24 ERA across 17 innings of work in 14 appearances. He also held a 2.706 WHIP in that span, nearly loading the bases every inning on average.

When the Athletics took him in the Rule 5 Draft, they knew that he had some command issues, and those were certainly present with the righty issuing 20 walks in his 17 innings, good for 10.6 walks per nine.

In addition to the issue with walks, he also struggled to limit hits against him, something he'd been decent at in the minor leagues. Last year in Triple-A (38.1 innings) he gave up 6.3 hits per nine, but with the A's that rate was up to 13.8 per nine. Coupled with the high walk rate, that was just unsustainable for the A's bullpen.

Murdock still has good stuff and plenty of talent, but he was obviously not going to turn things around immediately. Given his status as a Rule 5 selection, the Athletics didn't have the option to option him to the minor leagues, so they rolled with him for as long as they could.

After Friday's DFA, he went unclaimed on waivers by other clubs and was subsequently offered back to the Royals, who has welcomed him back into their farm system. He has yet to be assigned to a minor-league affiliate.

With Murdock officially off the 40-man roster, the A's now have an interesting opportunity. With left-hander T.J. McFarland suffering an apparent ankle injury on Sunday, the team could use a lefty in the bullpen in addition to Hogan Harris. McFarland has been more of a left-on-left matchup guy for the A's this season.

The only lefty the A's have on the 40-man roster is Jacob Lopez, who is more of a starting pitcher/long relief option. They also have Ben Bowden, Matt Krook, and Angel Perdomo as non-roster options. With the open spot on the 40-man, any of those three could be added to the mix without a subsequent roster move needed.