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Jul 23, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; General view of Cincinnati Reds hat during the game against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-Imagn Images Brad Mills-Imagn Images

Former Cincinnati Reds Bullpen Piece Lands with A's

Originally posted on Oakland Athletics on SI
By Jason Burke | Last updated Feb 6, 2026 5:13 PM ET

The Athletics bullpen is slowly starting to come together. After trading Mason MIller at last year's trade deadline, the club ended up posting a 2.99 bullpen ERA in August and September, ranking them second in baseball behind the Cleveland Guardians.

The A's used a smattering of arms in different roles in those final two months, with Hogan Harris posting a 1.16 ERA (3.01 FIP) and earning a team-leading four saves in that span. The club has also signed Mark Leiter Jr. this winter as their only big-league pitcher signing up until Friday.

According to Robert Murray of FanSided, the A's have made another bullpen addition, signing former Cincinnati Reds reliever Scott Barlow to a one-year, $2 million deal that includes $1.3 million in performance bonuses.

Background on Barlow

The 33-year-old right-hander was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the sixth round of the 2011 MLB Draft out of Golden Valley High School in California. He ended up signing with the Kansas City Royals as a minor-league free agent in 2017, and has been in the big leagues every year since 2018.

Over the past five seasons—split between the Royals, San Diego Padres, Cleveland Guardians and Cincinnati Reds—he has ended up averaging an impressive 68 innings per year while posting a 3.41 ERA over the span.

This past season with the Reds he held a 4.21 (4.70 FIP) across 68 1/3 innings of work, striking out 24.8% of the batters he faced, while walking a career-high 14.9%. For his career, that walk rate number has been closer to 10.8%, so last season was a bit of an outlier, though his walk rate has gone up in each of the past four seasons.

What Barlow brings to A's bullpen

Frank Bowen IV/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

From 2021 through 2023, Barlow recorded double-digit saves in each season, notching 16, then 24, and wrapping it up with 13 in 2023. Since then he has recorded a total of three saves with the Guardians and Reds.

His best feature is that he ranked in the 99th percentile in hard-hit rate (30.5%), while also being above league average in ground ball rate (44.1%). He also stood out for his average exit velocity against of just 86.2 miles per hour, which ranked in the 96th percentile, and in whiff rate, which sat in the 87th.

The main drawback for Barlow was that he ranked in the 1st percentile with that 14.9% walk rate, which put more guys on base for when those hits did land. That's the bit of optimistic news when it comes to Barlow—he should be able to control the walk rate a little better in 2026.

The pessimistic side here is that his BABIP was already pretty low, sitting at .249 last year, while the league average BABIP was .291. Even if he doesn't get all the way back to league average, there is a high likelihood that it'll go up from where it was last season, which means more baserunners.

Barlow is a very intriguing signing, and is now the guy in the A's bullpen with the most ninth inning experience. Whether that means he'll be the closer or not remains to be seen.

This article first appeared on Oakland Athletics on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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