Former Arizona Diamondbacks Reliever Lands with Athletics

The Athletics have added some bullpen depth to their farm system, signing veteran right-hander Scott McGough to a minor-league deal late last week. He'd been designated for assignment at the beginning of the month by the Arizona Diamondbacks, then chose free agency.

McGough, 35, racked up a 6.43 ERA (6.50 FIP) across seven innings with Arizona this season, and that was coming off of a 2024 campaign where he held a 7.44 ERA (6.04 FIP) over 32 2/3. His standout year came in 2023, the year the Diamondbacks made the World Series, where he made 63 appearances, saved nine games, and held a 4.73 ERA (4.76 FIP) in 70 1/3 innings of work.

In that standout season, McGough struck out 28.6% of the hitters he faced and walked just ten percent, which is what helped lead him to the results he ended up achieving. Last season those numbers sat at a 16.7% k-rate and 14% walk rate, and in his small sample this season he'd issued more walks (6) than strikeouts (5).

While his overall numbers don't pop out from this season, he'd actually had five scoreless appearances to begin the month of May, then was tagged for two runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and three more against the Washington Nationals before Arizona cut ties with him. Half of the walks he's allowed came in that final appearance.

Yet, overall his pitches seemed to be doing their jobs. His 93 mile per hour four-seamer has a batting average against of .214 (with a .330 expected BAA), while his splitter has a .125 BAA with a .149 xBA. Those two pitches accounted for about 70% of his mix, while the slider, which he gave up two hits on, had a .333 BAA.

That splitter has been effective for McGough each of the past three seasons, regardless of his overall results. The A's may look to get him to focus more on that pitch moving forward, which seemed to be his plan of attack in his first outing with the club on Sunday.

With the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators, McGough recorded a pair of outs, giving up one hit. While it's too soon to declare anything definitively, he ended up throwing three splitters and three sliders, while mixing in a pair of fastballs. The splitter had a whiff rate of 42.9% when he was with the D-Backs this year, while the slider held a 37.5% whiff rate.

His four-seamer didn't get one swing-and-miss.

It's also worth noting that after his struggles last season, McGough got together which Arizona pitching coach Brian Kaplan and changed the grip on both his slider and his splitter, per AZ Central.

McGough was originally selected by the Pirates in the 46th round of the 2008 MLB Draft, but decided to attend the University of Oregon instead. He was then selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 5th round of the 2011 MLB Draft, and traded just over a year later to the Miami Marlins along with Nathan Eovaldi in the Hanley Ramírez/Randy Choate deal.

He stuck with the Marlins for a few years, even making his MLB debut in 2015, but would then bounce around from the Baltimore Orioles to the Colorado Rockies. In 2018 he went to go play in the Mexican Winter League, and then landed a spot on the Yakult Swallows in Japan for four seasons.

In Japan, he was teammates with a number of former big leaguers, including Domingo Santana and former A's prospect A.J. Cole. He signed a minor-league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks in December of 2022, and was a big part of their bullpen the following season.