Tampa Bay Rays Add Former A's Top Prospect

While the overall statistics haven't been great, there is a terrific pitcher in there somewhere. For starters, he has been out with injury since the end of the 2023 season, initially going the rest and rehab route, before deciding upon Tommy John surgery in May of 2024, which kept him out for roughly 13 months.

In his time in the big leagues in 2022-23, Waldichuk has compiled a 6-11 record with the A's while posting a 5.28 ERA (5.10 FIP). The last time he was on a big-league mound, he was also looking like he'd taken a huge step forward.

From July 25, 2023 through the end of that season, he held a 3.54 ERA (4.47 FIP) in 61 innings, and looked like a breakout candidate heading into 2024, until his injury became public knowledge. He hasn't been in the big leagues since.

Waldichuk, 28, made 16 appearances (15 starts) for the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators in 2025 on his road to recovery, going 2-6 with an 8.65 ERA across 51 innings of work. While his strikeout rate was good, at 25.3%, his walk rate was entirely too high, especially for a starting pitcher, at 16.6%.

On top of that, his velocity never quite got back to where it had been back in 2023 when he was averaging 93.5 miles per hour. In his final appearance, he averaged 92.3 mph on the four-seamer and reached as high as 94, but he threw 45 pitches in two innings of work.

In his second-to-last outing, in which he lasted a little longer, he averaged 91.1 with the heater, down a little over two full ticks. As the season went along, he was able to sustain his velocity a little better than earlier in the summer, but he still wasn't touching the highs that he'd previous reached, which led to a number of inefficient innings from the lefty.

As we mentioned when Waldichuk landed with Atlanta just a few days ago (on his birthday no less), Ken was one of the nicest people in the clubhouse. When he first came up he was fairly shy and would provide shorter answers after his starts, but as the 2023 campaign rolled along, he started to chat a little more, and you could see him making the effort to go outside of his comfort zone.

Hopefully the Rays and their fans will be able to enjoy him as much as the fans in Oakland did.

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