Oakland A’s place Andrew Triggs on disabled list, shuffle bullpen

The Oakland A’s placed starting pitcher Andrew Triggs on the 10-day disabled list on Friday, the team announced. They also optioned reliever Ryan Dull to Triple-A Nashville, and called up relievers Emilio Pagan and Josh Lucas to take their spots.

Triggs left his start Thursday night in the 3rd inning after “experiencing numbness in his right thumb and index and middle fingers,” reports Susan Slusser of the S.F. Chronicle. The diagnosis for now is right arm nerve irritation. He flew back to the Bay Area and will see a doctor to learn more about the situation, reports Slusser. For what it’s worth, Triggs also told Slusser that this forearm injury “feels nothing like” his previous experience with Tommy John surgery.

Triggs, 2018: 5.23 ERA, 41⅓ ip, 43 Ks, 18 BB, 7 HR, 4.79 FIP

For the most part Triggs has been strong in his nine starts this season, though a couple stinkers have skewed his overall numbers. Last year he made a career-high 12 starts, and the year before that he set his current career-high of 74⅔ innings. His next turn in the rotation would have been Wednesday, but with an off-day coming up after this current series in Toronto the A’s could push his spot back as late as the following Saturday (May 26). See the depth chart below for a list of his possible replacements.

Meanwhile, Oakland brought in some reinforcements for the bullpen. The relievers combined to throw 6⅔ innings against the Blue Jays on Thursday after Triggs’ early departure and also worked hard in New York and Boston, and now they’ll have two fresh arms to help them through the final three games of the road trip. Pagan opened the season with the A’s and got lit up and demoted, but down in the minors he struck out 11 of the 24 batters he faced over six good innings. He was expected to be a significant contributor this year, and now he’ll get his next chance in the bigs.

Pagan, 2018 MLB: 5.93 ERA, 13⅔ ip, 7 Ks, 4 BB, 4 HR, 7.02 FIP
Pagan, 2018 AAA: 3.00 ERA, 6 ip, 11 Ks, 0 BB, 2 HR, 4.56 FIP

The other addition is Lucas, making his second appearance in Oakland this year. The right-hander was acquired over the offseason in a minor league trade; click that link for a full scouting report, but the short version is sinkers and sliders out of a three-quarters arm slot. He already had one quick stint in the bigs this year in mid-April, and he got into one game for three scoreless innings. He’s No. 24 on our 2018 Community Prospect List.

Lucas, 2018 MLB: 0.00 ERA, 3 ip, 0 Ks, 1 BB, 0 HR, 4.14 FIP
Lucas, 2018 AAA: 2.53 ERA, 10⅔ ip, 7 Ks, 5 BB, 0 HR, 4.26 FIP

Finally, the odd man out of the pen for now is Dull. The right-hander pitched in each of the A’s last two games, throwing 59 total pitches, so he was not available for more work at a time when the staff needs as many arms as possible. He also struggled in those recent games, serving up a three-run homer on Wednesday and then getting himself into another jam on Thursday that Lou Trivino had to help him escape. Despite all that, though, Slusser reports that sheer availability was the reason behind this move.

Dull, 2018 MLB: 6.30 ERA, 10 ip, 11 Ks, 4 BB, 2 HR, 4.74 FIP

Dull was starting to show signs of a return to his previous success as a setup man, so hopefully this is just a bump in the road. He’ll get a breather for now, but surely we can expect to see him again soon as the bullpen constantly shifts and evolves.

Get well soon, Andrew! Welcome back, Emilio and Josh! See you again soon, Ryan!

10-day DL: RHP Andrew Triggs (forearm), LHP Ryan Buchter (shoulder), RHP Liam Hendriks (groin)

60-day DL: RHP Jharel Cotton (TJS), RHP Paul Blackburn (forearm strain)

AAA injuries: LHP A.J. Puk (TJS), RHP Grant Holmes (shoulder), RHP Kyle Finnegan