New Oakland Pitcher Will Klein to Join A's in San Francisco

Jason Burke | Jul 31, 2024

Jun 9, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas City Royals relief pitcher Will Klein (36) pitches during the seventh inning against the Seattle Mariners at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports / Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Yesterday the Oakland A's made two trades. One sent Paul Blackburn to the New York Mets, and the other sent Lucas Erceg to the Kansas City Royals. Part of the return for Erceg was a hard-throwing bullpen arm by the name of Will Klein, who will reportedly join the A's in San Francisco on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old 6-foot-5 righty made his big-league debut earlier this year on April 28, tossing a scoreless inning while striking out two. He was optioned back to Triple-A the next day. His next call-up came on May 31, and he made four appearances before being optioned again on June 10. In those five total appearances spanning 5 2/3 innings, Klein holds a 6.35 ERA with six strikeouts, two walks and ten hits allowed. While his ERA is a bit high in the small sample, his FIP sits at just 2.10.

One concern with Klein will be his ability to command the ball. In the minors this season, his walk rate sits at 16.3%, and the only time it has been below double digits in his pro career was in that short stint in the big leagues this season.

His fastball velo ranks in the 97th percentile at 97.3 miles per hour, and his ground ball rate has been great in the Majors, but in order to have sustained success, he's going to have to be able to locate his slider/cutter to keep hitters off his fastball. Of the 12 sliders he's thrown in the bigs, just three of them have landed in the strike zone. When he's not locating with the slider, then batters are able to gear up for velocity and sit on the heater.

Reducing that walk rate is going to be key for him reaching his ceiling as a high leverage reliever. A's manager Mark Kotsay will likely deploy him in some low leverage spots to get a feel for what he can do before the organization figures out next steps for the righty.

Klein has been ranked in the mid-to-late teens on prospect sites, with MLB Pipeline having him the highest at No. 15 in the A's system. Their list doesn't include some of Oakland's newest draftees, however, so he will likely fall a couple of spots once they get Nick Kurtz and Tommy White in there.

Still, he's a high octane arm that seems to be a similar project to Erceg when he landed in Oakland last year. The new Royals righty walked 14.3% of the hitters he faced last season with the A's, and had also never had a walk rate below 10%. This season it dropped to 8.3%. Klein's Stuff+ (113) and Location+ (105) are both solid, and also in line with Erceg's 111 and 102. The difference here is that Klein is not quite as polished as Erceg at the moment, but he certainly has the chance to be a key piece in the bullpen beginning next year.

Can the A's coaches work their magic once again?