The Oakland A’s recalled pitcher Zach Neal from Triple-A Nashville on Sunday, the team announced. To make room on the roster, starter Jesse Hahn was optioned back to the minors.
Neal has appeared in five games for the A’s this year as a long reliever, and he got utterly shelled in two of them. That leaves him with a gross 8.56 ERA for now, but at his core he’s still what he was last year — an extreme pitch-to-contact right-hander who is capable of eating mediocre innings when firing on all cylinders. The 28-year-old is a warm body on a last-place team filling space in a young pitching staff that’s in a constant state of flux.