Athletics Calling up No. 2 Prospect AJ Puk for Series Against Yankees
By Parker White
One of the hotter teams in baseball right now are the Oakland Athletics, and on Monday they added a huge weapon to their pitching staff, calling up top pitching prospect A.J. Puk.
He'll be joining the team in time for the start of their three-game series against the New York Yankees.
Source: A’s are calling up No. 2 prospect A.J. Puk. The left-hander will join the club in time for Tuesday’s series opener against the Yankees in Oakland.
— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) August 19, 2019
Puk, 24, has all the tools to be a frontline starter, but he'll make his MLB debut in the A's bullpen. The power left-handed out of Florida underwent Tommy John surgery in April of 2018, so as you can imagine, Oakland is taking it slow with him.
In 18 appearances (four starts) between three minor league levels, Puk owns a 4.97 ERA, but has 38 strikeouts over 25.1 innings while holding opponents to a .226 batting average.
A.J. Puk: Moving up to big leagues #RootedInOakland - https://t.co/fM4VMMElHU
— RotoWire⚾ (@RotoWireMLB) August 19, 2019
Outside of All-Star closer Liam Hendriks, Oakland lacks power arms out in their bullpen. Puk provides them a southpaw who can go multiple innings and rush his fastball up there in the upper-90's.