A's Snag Interesting Relief Pitcher After Time with New York Yankees

The A's have added yet another former New York Yankees pitcher to their depth chart

Aug 22, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Joel Kuhnel (67) delivers a pitch against the Oakland Athletics during the seventh inning at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

The Athletics haven't been making too many moves this winter, but they have added a couple of arms to the bullpen mix in the past week. The first, and bigger move, was the club's signing of free agent Mark Leiter Jr. to a one-year deal.

Earlier this week, the club also brought in Joel Kuhnel, a 30-year-old that ended the 2025 campaign in the New York Yankees system with the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The veteran began the year in the Philadelphia Phillies system, after signing with them right before Christmas in 2024. The A's have signed him to a minor-league deal for 2026.

He spent the entire year in Triple-A between the Yankees and Phillies' systems, breaking a three year streak of spending a little time in the big leagues dating back to 2022. In 2025, he racked up a solid 3.53 ERA in 63 2/3 innings of work, to go along with a 1.18 WHIP.

In that time, he also struck out a solid 21.6% of the hitters he faced, but his real calling card was his walk rate, which sat at 4.2%. Only 15 big-league pitchers that racked up at least 30 innings pitched held a walk rate of 4.2% or lower this past season. Half of them had strikeout rates above 20%. That's the kind of rare combo we're looking at here.

At the same time, those numbers were put up in Triple-A, not in The Show, so they're not exactly a 1-to-1 comparison. Over his 93 2/3 career innings spread across five seasons, Kuhnel has held a strikeout rate of 18.7% and a walk rate of 5.9%, so not quite as dominant, but still impressive to a degree.

At the end of this past season with the Yankees, he was tweaking his pitch mix in an interesting way, and it will be something to keep an eye on heading into 2026.

When he was last in the Majors in 2024, he was going heavy on the slider in his time with the Tampa Bay Rays, using it 41.1% of the time, followed closely by his mid-90s four-seamer, which he used 29% of the time.

He seemed to be favoring his sinker a bit more down the stretch this season, though it would depend on the batters he was facing. If the part of the lineup was more left-handed, he relied more on his four-seamer in those instances, and his four-seamer has has a tendency to get hit a bit more than his other offerings. He also seemed to have cut the curveball from his arsenal this past season.

In 2024, he ranked in the 93rd percentile in extension, which should mean that his mid-90's stuff will play up a bit. He's also had a knack for keeping the ball on the ground a fair amount throughout his career, which is another factor that could lead to success in Sacramento. Make no mistake, Kuhnel is a depth option heading into 2026, but he brings some intrigue along with him.