Oakland A’s place Santiago Casilla on DL, shuffle bullpen

The Oakland A’s placed relief pitcher Santiago Casilla on the 10-day disabled list on Saturday, the team announced. They also optioned reliever Josh Lucas to Triple-A Nashville. To fill their spots in the bullpen, Carlos Ramirez and Chris Bassitt were called up.

Casilla left Friday’s game with an injury, later diagnosed as a strained shoulder. The 37-year-old right-hander was off to a decent start this season, especially in terms of limiting hits and homers, and he’s helped out with several multi-inning efforts when needed. He’s still in his late-career decline phase, but he was contributing and was at least looking slightly better than he had in 2017.

Casilla, 2018: 3.32 ERA, 21⅔ ip, 14 Ks, 14 BB, 0 HR, 11 hits, 4.03 FIP

This is Casilla’s first time on the disabled list since 2014, and his first time doing so for an arm-related injury since his elbow knocked him down in 2011. The current hope is that he may only have to miss the minimum 10 days this time around, reports Susan Slusser of the S.F. Chronicle. Including Casilla, there are now nine players on the A’s disabled list; click here for a full rundown on the rest of the DL.

Also heading out of Oakland’s roster is Lucas. The 27-year-old right-hander served special duty on Thursday, as the “starter” in a bullpen game. Unfortunately he wasn’t as sharp as he’d been in his previous two long relief outings (2 ip, 2 runs, 1 K, 3 BB, 3 hits), but the A’s won the game anyway. After throwing 52 pitches on Thursday, he was ready for a rest regardless of the results of his start.

Lucas, 2018: 3.12 ERA, 8⅔ ip, 8 Ks, 5 BB, 0 HR, 2.99 FIP

Expect to see Lucas again in Oakland, as he’ll likely ride the taxi between here and Nashville all year as the bullpen constantly shifts and evolves.

Meanwhile, two new pitchers come up to take the spots of Casilla and Lucas. The first is Ramirez, who was claimed off waivers last Sunday. The right-hander had a jaw-dropping 2017 in the Blue Jays system, in which he put the finishing touches on a 50-inning scoreless streak that lasted from High-A ball up through MLB. However, he struggled to begin this season and quickly lost his spot in Toronto. He’s made one sparkling appearance since joining Nashville (2 ip, 0 runs, 3 Ks).

Ramirez, 2017 AA/AAA: 0.00 ERA, 37⅔ ip, 45 Ks, 10 BB, 0 HR, 1.75 FIP
Ramirez, 2017 MLB: 2.70 ERA, 16⅔ ip, 14 Ks, 3 BB, 3 HR, 4.54 FIP

Ramirez, 2018 AAA: 4.35 ERA, 10⅓ ip, 13 Ks, 8 BB, 0 HR, 3.87 FIP
Ramirez, 2018 MLB: 3.86 ERA, 2⅓ ip, 3 Ks, 5 BB, 0 HR, 6.97 FIP

The 27-year-old tops out at 94 mph with his fastball and relies heavily on his slider, which he sometimes throws as much as half the time.

The other addition is Bassitt, who gets his second stint in Oakland this year. He came up briefly in late-April but didn’t get into a game, meaning he hasn’t pitched in MLB since early 2016 before his Tommy John surgery. The 29-year-old spent the last month stretching out to start for Nashville, with mostly disastrous results, but he did finally pitch well his last time out (5 ip, 1 run, 7 Ks, 2 BB).

Bassitt, 2018 AAA: 6.35 ERA, 28⅓ ip, 29 Ks, 11 BB, 2 HR, 36 hits, 4.33 FIP

The A’s no longer had a true long man after DFA’ing Wilmer Font and then trading him away on Friday, so now they’ve replaced that role for the time being at a time when the starting rotation is particularly shaky thanks to multiple injuries.

Also: One more note on the pitching staff, via Slusser: Frankie Montas will come up to start for Oakland on Sunday. He has a 4.39 ERA and 4.87 FIP in nine starts this year for Triple-A Nashville, although with a curiously low strikeout rate considering his 95-97 mph power arsenal.

10-day DL: RHP Andrew Triggs (triceps), LHP Brett Anderson (shoulder), RHP Santiago Casilla (shoulder), RHP Liam Hendriks (groin), LHP Ryan Buchter (shoulder), DH Khris Davis (groin), OF Boog Powell (knee)

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