Athletics Select Kyle McCann

The Athletics announced a series of Opening Day roster moves today. They selected the contract of catcher Kyle McCann and placed left-hander Sean Newcomb and infielder Aledmys Diaz on the 60-day injured list. Those two IL placements open spots for McCann and for lefty T.J. McFarland, who was acquired from the Dodgers earlier this week. Pitchers Scott Alexander, Luis Medina and Freddy Tarnok were place 15-day IL while outfielder Miguel Andújar was placed on the 10-day IL.

McCann, 26, cracks a big league roster for the first time. A fourth-round pick from the 2019 draft, he was considered one of the club’s top 30 prospects in 2020 and 2021 but fell off after he struggled mightily in first taste of Double-A. He played 93 games there in 2021 but hit just .166/.283/.275, striking out in 37.1% of his plate appearances.

Since then, the strikeout problems have lingered but things have gone a bit better when he does put the bat on the ball. He split 2022 between Double-A and Triple-A, hitting 20 home runs that year while slashing .234/.338/.444. He struck out at 33.4% clip but also drew walks 12.2% of the time and his overall performance translated to a 100 wRC+, exactly average.

Last year, he struck out in 32.2% of his appearances, all at Triple-A, but hit 17 homers and slashed .270/.351/.474 for a wRC+ of 97. In this year’s Spring Training, he was punched out in 40.6% of his 32 plate appearances but also drew walks 15.6% of the time and hit two dingers for a .231/.375/.500 batting line.

Prior to this move, the A’s only had two catchers on their 40-man roster in Shea Langeliers and Tyler Soderstrom. The latter was optioned to Triple-A a couple of weeks ago, with the club seemingly preferring for him to have regular playing time as opposed to sitting on the bench as the backup to Langeliers. McCann will get to join the big league club and will be making his debut as soon as he gets into a game.

Newcomb has been battling soreness in his surgically-repaired left knee and it seemed the A’s don’t expect him to be able to return between now and late May. The same goes for Díaz, who has dealt with both a groin strain and a calf strain this spring.