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Following Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners, the Oakland Athletics sent pitcher Dan Straily back to Triple-A Sacramento.
The right-hander started Saturday night’s game and was ineffective, being removed in the fourth inning. The A’s took advantage of their upcoming schedule by optioning Straily back to the River Cats.
Because Oakland has three off-days this week (today, on Thursday and next Monday), they wouldn’t need a fifth starter until July 6 in Kansas City – meaning that Straily’s spot on the 25-man roster is expendable for the next two weeks or so.
With that said, the team didn’t announce a corresponding move to replace Straily yet, fueling speculation that the eventual move could be for Sacramento starter Sonny Gray or either Hiroyuki Nakajima, Jemile Weeks, or Grant Green, three infielders currently trying to earn a call-up in Sacramento.
The team could also look to call up catching options Stephen Vogt or Luke Montz. At present, however, there isn’t room on the roster for a third catcher as the team already has Derek Norris and John Jaso filling that role right now.
I assume the A’s will make an announcement regarding the corresponding roster move before Tuesday night’s game in Oakland against the Cincinnati Reds.
As for Straily, A’s writer Susan Slusser noted that he was a bit surprised and disappointed to hear that he was going back to the River Cats. He plans to use that disappointment as fuel to continue to impress at that level and earn another trip back into the A’s starting rotation, where he has a 4-2 record and a 5.00 ERA thus far in 2013.
Adrian Garro is an Oakland Athletics writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter and/or add him to your network on Google.