A’s make third round of spring cuts

The Oakland A’s made their latest round of cuts from spring training camp on Sunday, sending nine players back to the minors.

Three of those cuts are members of the 40-man roster and are officially optioned to Triple-A. The other six were non-roster invitees and have been reassigned to minor league camp. All of them remain in the A’s organization, they’ve just been sent down to the minors, and it’s still possible any of them could appear in more spring games.

• LHP Zach Logue optioned
• RHP Miguel Romero optioned
• SS Nick Allen optioned
• LHP Aaron Brown reassigned
• RHP Ryan Castellani reassigned
• RHP Chester Pimentel reassigned
• RHP Austin Pruitt reassigned
• IF Dermis Garcia reassigned
• OF Buddy Reed reassigned

Oakland has only played nine games so far during the 2022 Cactus League, but in this year’s abbreviated spring training that’s half of their entire exhibition schedule. That means the cuts are coming faster than usual, but there still aren’t any huge surprises on this list.

The biggest name is Allen, the team’s top shortstop prospect. He’s expected to arrive in the majors sometime this summer and hopefully take over the position for years to come with his elite defensive skills, and this spring he’s flashed a hot bat too.

• Allen, spring: 6-for-12, HR, 2 triples, 3 BB, 3 Ks

The 23-year-old heads to the minors for now, which makes sense as he’s only played 39 games at the Triple-A level in his career so far, but hopefully he’ll force his way up to the majors before long.

Two other members of the 40-man roster were optioned. Logue is one of the prospects acquired in the Matt Chapman trade, and Romero is a longtime A’s relief prospect still trying to make the jump up to MLB. Neither was a likely bet for the Opening Day roster, and both gave up some runs this spring, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see either one make their way up to Oakland sometime this summer.

Among the non-roster invitees, Castellani was a minor league signing over the offseason and offers rotation depth, and Pruitt was a minor league signing who offers swingman depth to both the rotation and bullpen. Brown was signed the previous winter, as a former outfielder who converted to pitching in 2017. Pimentel pitched in Double-A and Triple-A for the D’Backs last summer.

Reed made his name in A’s camp last spring, and remains on the outfield prospect depth chart. Garcia is yet to play above Double-A.

Analysis: Of these six NRIs, the one who stood out to me the most was Castellani. I liked his tight breaking ball, which he could control in the zone for called strikes, but which still moved enough to miss bats. Seemed like he went after batters, controlled the zone, and had multiple weapons, and those are some promising ingredients for rotation depth. Remember he came from the Rockies and most of his MLB appearances were at Coors Field, so it will be interesting to see what he does in a change of scenery — although Las Vegas isn’t exactly a friendlier destination for pitchers.

Roster update

Here’s the updated spring roster. Players in —italics are non-roster invitees, and players in strikethrough have been cut from major league camp. There are 40 players remaining, including 29 from the 40-man roster, plus 10 NRIs, plus outfielder Ramon Laureano who’s on the Restricted List during his ongoing suspension.