Athletics Sign Matt Sauer To Minor League Contract

The A’s signed Matt Sauer to a minor league deal a few days ago. The team didn’t formally announce it, but the right-hander pitched in his first game for Triple-A Las Vegas on Saturday.  Sauer allowed a run on two hits, a walk and a hit batter over two innings of work in his first bit of North American baseball in 2026.

The 31-year-old Sauer signed a one-year, $950K deal with the KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization last winter and delivered a 4.88 ERA, 15.6% strikeout rate, and 9.9% walk rate over 18 starts and 101 1/3 innings in South Korea this season.  Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported shortly before the trade deadline that Sauer was being cut loose by the Wiz in favor of former Angels righty Davis Daniel, who signed with the KT club for the remainder of the season (and $406K in guaranteed money).

Apart from a drop in strikeouts, Sauer’s numbers in the KBO weren’t too far off the 4.62 ERA, 24.3% strikeout rate, and 9% walk rate he’s produced over his 499 career frames in the minors with the Yankees, Royals, Dodgers, and now the A’s.

A second-round pick for the Yankees in the 2017 draft, Sauer reached the majors for the first time in 2024 when Kansas City selected out of New York’s farm system in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft.  Sauer also saw some limited big league work with Los Angeles in 2025, and the righty has a 6.85 ERA to show for his 24 games and 46 innings of MLB action.

Sauer worked as a reliever for 23 of his 24 games in the Show, though the Dodgers often utilized him as a multi-inning reliever or as a bulk pitcher.  Sauer has been a starter for most of his minor league and KBO career, so the A’s could use him in either capacity as a Triple-A depth option or as a candidate for a spot on the 26-man roster.  Thirty-one different players have pitched for the Athletics this year, so Sauer might well get another opportunity as the A’s continue to look for any kind of help for their struggling staff.