Athletics Promote Luis Morales, Recall Bleday and Nuñez

Taking the places of the dearly departed traded guys

What do you do after you ship off three players from your major league team on deadline day? Promote new ones of course! The A’s will be adding a trio of players to the mix, as they’ve promoted right-handed pitcher Luis Morales, outfielder JJ Bleday, and reliever Eduarniel Nuñez from Triple-A:

The big news is the promotion of Morales, the club’s #3 ranked prospect and one of the club’s most promising arms in the system. One of if not the top pitching prospect from the 2023 international class, Morales has quickly climbed the minor league ladder, pitching across six levels in just three seasons. This year he started at Double-A and pitched to a 2.98 ERA in just six starts before a promotion to the final stop of the minors. With the Aviators the 22-year-old Morales has thrown 47 innings and posted a 4.40 ERA, quality production considering his youthful age for the level. He’ll now get to face the best of the best when he makes his big league debut sometime this weekend. His role has yet to be determined but we could see a long man role for him while he gets his feet wet in the majors, with possible starting assignments down the road.

The trade of Miguel Andujar opens up a spot for the return of Bleday, who began the year as the starting center fielder and #3 hitter in the lineup. It’s been a huge fall for the former fourth overall pick. After putting together his first encouraging season in the majors last year he’s failed to build on or even reproduce his production. In 62 games played Bleday has slashed an abysmal .191/.288/.358 while chipping in eight home runs. That’s a far cry from last year when he hit 20 home runs and was roughly 20% above league average. For now he’ll occupy a spot on the bench but the writing is on the wall: his time with the Athletics is likely drawing to a close.

Nuñez unsurprisingly will immediately slot into the bullpen, directly taking Miller’s spot. The power righty should offer some gas out of the ‘pen with Miller gone, and he comes with huge upside and could even be an option to close games the rest of the way. Still, it’s worth remembering he has just four major league games under his belt so let’s not put too high expectations on the young righty.