A’s roster moves: Estes optioned, Alexander recalled

The first major move of the year

The Athletics on Monday afternoon announced that the club has optioned right-handed pitcher Joey Estes to Triple-A Las Vegas:

Taking his spot on the active roster is fellow right-hander Jason Alexander, who will provide reinforcements to the bullpen for now after the club used Spence for multiple innings last night.

Estes parlayed a decent spring showing into a rotation job, surprising everyone when he beat out Mitch Spence for the fifth and final starters role. The 23-year old has struggled in his two starts this season, allowing 12 runs in just 7 innings of work. The club was likely ready to allow him to work through some struggles but the results were just too rough to ignore. He’ll now head down to Vegas to try to right the ship and find his groove again. He still has plenty of time to figure things out but he clearly wasn’t prepared to start the season with the big league club. We’ll be seeing more of Estes at some point this year.

For now the club will replace Estes on the active roster with Alexander. The longtime starter has some major league experience under his belt with 18 appearances with Milwaukee back 2022, 11 of which were starts. The 32-year old joined the A’s organization this off-season on a minor league deal to serve as pitching depth. He’s made one start this season for the Aviators, allowing one run in 3 ¹⁄₃ innings of work.

While the team hasn’t announced how they’ll proceed with the fifth starter’s spot, all signs point to Spence getting the first crack at the job, with Alexander taking Spence’s place as the bullpen’s long man. Spence was a solid innings eater last season in his first taste of the big leagues in spite of not possessing overpowering stuff. He looked fantastic last night in relief of Estes, pitching five full innings and into a sixth before getting pulled. Keep an eye out for an update to the starting staff.

To make room on the 40-man roster the club transferred left-hander Brady Basso to the 60-day IL. The lefty went down during spring with a throwing shoulder strain and wasn’t making as much progress during his recovery as hoped. He’ll now be on the shelf for a while longer as he tries to rehab his shoulder.