The Oakland A’s recalled pitcher Paul Blackburn from their alternate training camp on Wednesday, the team announced. To make room on the active roster, fellow pitcher James Kaprielian was optioned down to alt camp.
This is Blackburn’s first call to the bigs since last September. He’s appeared in parts of the last three seasons, serving mostly as a starter, but struggled in four outings last summer (10.64 ERA, 6.67 FIP) and spent most of the year in Triple-A. The right-hander pitches to contact to an extreme extent, resulting in a low strikeout rate and 53.3% grounder rate.
- Blackburn, MLB career: 5.