A’s Sign Former Houston Astros First-Round Pick to Minor League Deal
Before Friday’s non-tender deadline the A’s announced a series of moves. According the club, they have signed Miguel Andújar and Abraham Toro to one-year deals, which isn’t terribly surprising given that Andújar was claimed off waivers earlier this month and Toro was acquired in a trade earlier this week.
They also announced that they had non-tendered SS/3B Kevin Smith, which, with the addition of Toro to the mix of Nick Allen and Darell Hernaiz at shortstop and Jordan Díaz, Brett Harris, and Toro at third, isn’t too surprising. It felt like the organization wasn’t in on Smith anymore once he didn’t play regularly down the stretch of the 2023 campaign. That said, he’s a new dad and was a wonderful person to talk with in the clubhouse, so hopefully he lands somewhere that works for him and can help him reach his full potential.
Smith had been part of the Matt Chapman trade. Now Gunnar Hoglund is the only piece of that return still in the Oakland organization less than two years later.
The A’s also announced that they had claimed Michael Kelly off waivers from the Cleveland Guardians. With the departure of Smith, who shares a name with a famous actor/director, the team decided to bring in another name that you can find on IMDB.
Kelly will be in his age 31 season and has tossed all of 20 2/3 innings in the big leagues. That said, they have been effective innings from the right side, totaling a 3.48 ERA with a 1.26 WHIP. With the departure of Austin Pruitt, he could slide into that type of role with the A’s in 2024. He has a mid-90’s fastball but mainly relies on his sweeper/slider combo, using those two pitches roughly 70% of the time.
