SAN FRANCISCO — It's only Wednesday, but Will Klein has had every week. Maybe a month.
On Monday, the Royals recalled Klein from Triple-A Omaha.
On Tuesday, the Royals traded Klein, together with right-hander Mason Barnett and outfielder Jared Dickey to the A's in exchange for Lucas Erceg. Klein was on the Royals' team bus en path to Guaranteed Rate Park in Chicago to face the White Sox. His wife, Carson, was taking her bar exam.
On Wednesday, Klein stood within the guest clubhouse at Oracle Park and officially wearing green and gold.
“It was definitely bittersweet,” Klein said Wednesday afternoon. “It's great to start a new journey here and get to know all these guys, but you grow up living with these guys for the last four years. They're your best friends. So it was tough to leave them — some of them had already been traded. … It's sad to say goodbye, but it's also fun to have a fresh start here.”
Klein, 24, made his major league debut with Kansas City earlier this season after playing three seasons within the minors, but didn't get much playing time on account of the Royals' success. In five appearances this season, Klein, a fifth-round pick within the 2020 MLB Draft, allowed 4 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings and had six strikeouts and two walks.
“He's very similar to the player Lucas was last year in terms of where he is in his career,” manager Mark Kotsay said Tuesday. “The Royals brought him up this season, but he never had a full chance to go through that development process because they obviously win a lot of games and have guys coming back to their bullpen that they believed in and trusted.”
“This is an opportunity for Klein to come here and continue his development. We hope we can get him to a point where he can pitch in a similar role to Lucas next season.”
Klein will begin his time in Oakland in a less distinguished role, but with the A's out of the playoffs, he'll likely get more opportunities than he did in Kansas City. For Klein to fill the identical role as Erceg, who served because the team's set-up man for many of this season, he'll must consistently find the strike zone.
In 216 minor league innings, Klein has allowed 161 walks, or 6.7 per nine innings. Klein has struggled particularly this season, walking 27 batters in 37 2/3 innings at Triple-A Omaha. MLB Pipeline, which ranks Klein because the A's fifteenth prospect, rates Klein's control at 45 on a 20-80 rating scale (50 is taken into account average).
“He's been out with the Royals a few times. There haven't been many opportunities to get the hang of things,” Kotsay said Wednesday. “So we're going to try to slowly introduce him to the situations and watch him go out there and perform.”
While the A's are defined by their youth, their bullpen features experienced pitchers equivalent to Austin Adams, TJ McFarland and Scott Alexander, a trio that has appeared in 900 games between them. Klein, who has not yet spent a full month in the most important leagues, expressed his desire to learn from the bullpen's older players.
“If you're playing that long, you're doing something right,” Klein said. “It's hard to get here. It's even harder to stay. Guys who stay 10-plus years are the best of the best. Those guys are the ones you have to learn from, and they learned how to do it from the guys before them. I'm excited to continue to give them the knowledge they need.”
Originally published:
image credit : www.mercurynews.com