Athletics announced today that they had acquired the left -hander Sean Newcomb Red Sox. This last club, which designated the left -hander for assignment a few days ago, receive cash considerations. A also announced that they had selected the aerobatic contract Drew Avans. First goal Nick Kurtz Was placed on the 10 -day injured list with a tense left hip flexor. Left -handed Matt Krook and right -handed Ryan Cusick have been appointed to open places for 40 men for Newcomb and Avans. Regarding the active list, Avans takes the place of Kurtz, while the club will have to open a place for Newcomb once it will bring the team.
Newcomb, 32 next month, returns to the A. He spent parts of the 2023 and 2024 seasons in Oakland, although knee problems have limited his workload. He launched only 25 rounds for the A during these two seasons, spending a lot of time on the IL due to problems in both knees. He was released in July 2024 and signed a minor league agreement with the Red Sox in 2025.
This year went well for the left -hander. He list the opening day of Boston and launched 41 rounds in a swing role, displaying a 3.95 MPM. Its withdrawal rate of 21.6%, its walking rate of 8.9% and its level of ball on the ground of 42.9% this year were all quite close to the average of the league.
Unfortunately, it was eliminated from the list, perhaps due to circumstances independent of his will. The Sox and Orioles rained Thursday. Then Friday, started Brayan Bello only lasted four rounds. The club had to use five readers to pass the rest of this game, although one of them was a position player Abraham Toro. For the double-head of Saturday, Hunter Dobbins started the first game and also lasted only four rounds. Six readers, including Newcomb, picked up the rest of the slack in a match that finally went to ten rounds. With the fairly taxed staff, Newcomb was appointed for assignment, making room for a new arm for the second double-head match.
For A, they have been on a rough slide in recent times, going 3-15 in their last 18 games. Most of their launchers have very little experience and are always acclimatized to the big leagues. Newcomb will give them an experienced left-handed arm that could assume various roles, perhaps as a long lift or a starter.
On the side of the position player, we do not know how long Kurtz will not be in service. He was recently the first first goal player of the club. Before his promotion, Tyler soderstrom had this place, but he moved to the left field so that the two could be aligned. Now that Kurtz is absent, it is possible that Soderstrom can come back first, or maybe they will keep them on the left so that he can continue to get used to playing the outside field. Logan Davidson Started first yesterday.
Avans receives his first big league call just before his 29th birthday, which is next month. A choice of 33rd round of the Dodgers in 2018, he played for the first time at the Triple-A level in 2021. At the end of the 2024 season, he had still not been selected on the list of 40 men and was able to elect the free agency of minor league, which led him to sign with the A.
Its offensive production has generally been close to the average, in the context of the Pacific Coast League adapted to strikers. From 2021 to 2024, he entered the plate 2,004 times at the Triple-A level. It had a walking rate of 13%, a withdrawal rate of 23.8%, .270 / .369 / .404 and 101 WRC +. This year, he had better results, thanks to a great drop in punctuates. He still walks at a 13.5% clip, but only withdrew 14% of his 222 plaque appearances this year. This helped him produce a line .328 / .414 / .444 and 117 WRC +.
Avans is able to play the three outdoor places and is good for around 20 to 40 interceptions per year. This means that it could be a deep outfit usable even without an elite offensive production, supporting Soderstrom, Lawrence Butler And Denzel Clarke.
To add Newcomb and Avans, they are likely to lose two depth arms. Krook, 30, signed a minor league agreement with the A during the offseason. It was selected on the alignment of the big league just over a week ago, making three appearances before getting back to minors.
He now has 8 1/3 experienced experiences in the major league, also launched for the Yankees 2023 and the Orioles 2024. He had interesting minor league numbers since his move to the enclosure of the Lights. Previously, he has been working in relief for the past two years. Since the beginning of 2023, it has launched 91 2/3 rounds at the Triple-A level with an MPM of 2.85 and a withdrawal rate of 33.3%, although its walking rate of 16.7% was terribly high. For what it is worth, it has improved in this department. It had a walking rate of 18.4% among minors in 2023, but dropped to 16.7% last year and 12.7% this year.
Cusick, 25, has still not made his debut in the major league. Atlanta selected it with the 24th choice in total in 2021, but returned it to A as part of the Matt Olson make March 2022. The A added to their list of 40 men in November 2024 to keep it outside the rule 5 project.
He couldn’t do much with his minor league opportunities. He had recorded 178 1/3 rounds on the farm from 2023 to the present day with an ERA of 5.00. Its 21.3% withdrawal rate is close to SU, but it has traveled 15.1% of strikers. He works exclusively in relief this year with horrible yields so far. It has an MPM of 6.75, a withdrawal rate of 16.4% and a walking rate of 19.4% in 14 2/3 rounds.
Krook and Cusick are now heading in DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The renunciation process lasts 48 hours, so A could take up to five days to discuss the professions with other clubs. Cusick is clearly a project at this stage, but is delivered with a past prospect pedigree, while the figures of the Krook minor league have been somewhat intriguing in recent times. The two players can always be optionized and could therefore be hidden by minors by any acquisition club.
Matt Marton’s graceful photo, Imagn Images
