The A’s announced that right-hander Ross Stripling has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a strained right elbow. Right-hander Brandon Bielak has also been designated for assignment, opening up a 40-man roster spot for Jack O’Loughlin , whose promotion was reported earlier Saturday . In addition to selecting O’Loughlin’s contract from Triple-A, the Athletics also called up righty Tyler Ferguson from Triple-A to take the other 26-man roster spot.
Stripling allowed six runs over 3 2/3 innings in Friday’s 6-3 loss to the Astros. Even if it is fair to assume that the elbow strain impacted Stripling’s performance in some fashion, it was another in a string of tough outings for the veteran, as he has a 5.82 ERA across 55 2/3 innings and 11 starts for Oakland.
His SIERA is a somewhat more palatable 4.66 and Stripling hasn’t enjoyed any batted-ball (.359 BABIP) or strand rate (56.
4%) luck, plus his .328 xwOBA is well below his .364 wOBA.
The righty’s 4.8% walk rate has been excellent, and he has done a very good job of limiting hard contact, but his 13.9% strikeout rate ranks in only the seventh percentile among all pitchers.
Even if the results have been spotting, Stripling has been able to take the ball every fifth day, which is the kind of stability the A’s were hoping to receive when they acquired him in an offseason trade with the Giants. It was widely expected that the Athletics would also be shopping Stripling in advance of the trade deadline, yet .
