A.J. Puk Gets the Call Up for the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday

Earlier today, it was reported and confirmed that the Oakland Athletics are going to be calling up their their number two prospect, left-hander A.J. Puk. Puk, who is currently 24 years of age, was originally drafted with the 6th pick in the 1st Round of the 2016 MLB Amateur Draft by the Athletics and has always been viewed as someone who would be a highly contributing piece of the starting rotation right around the end of this season or beginning of next.

Now, that it has been made official that A.J. Puk will receive the big league call-up prior to what is going to a crucial series for the Oakland Athletics against the New York Yankees, the biggest question that comes into play is: what will Puk's exact role be and how is he going to contribute down the stretch? After all, the 24-year old left-hander is just 18 months removed from Tommy John surgery and is going to have an innings cap for this season. To this point, Puk has logged 25 and 1/3 innings of work between A Ball and Triple-A with a combined 4.97 ERA, 38 strikeouts, and 10 walks over that period of time.

Given those circumstances, it appears that Puk is going to be headed for the bullpen in the critical left-handed specialist role, which was an area of need for the Oakland Athletics prior to their acquisition of, Jake Diekman, from the Kansas City Royals and will still be a critical component of their bullpen makeup for the remainder of this season. Yes, Puk has always been a starting pitcher and he is in the plans for Oakland's starting rotation heading into the future, but by having him as a left-handed specialist, it is going to be the best way to preserve his workload and will present the team with a nice weapon during those late innings of a ball game.

One of the reasons why he will be such a valuable weapon is because of his ability to miss bats during those critical situations of the game. During the 2017 season, Puk led all minor leaguers in strikeouts-per-9 rate with a cumulative rate of (13.2), which is a true testament to the type of stuff that he has and his ability to trick opposing hitters throughout the strike zone. In an effort to miss bats and get those opposing hitters out, Puk relies on four different types of pitches.

A.J. Puk's primary pitch during his minor league career has been his fastball which tends to sit anywhere between 96-98 MPH with his slider being a close second. During his time as a prospect coming up thorough the Oakland Athletics farm system, many scouts noted that Puk's slider was one of the best ones they ever saw. The slider doesn't come with a lot of heat (averages around 90 MPH), but it is a very effective pitch and one that Puk will likely rely on heavily at the big league level. Beyond those two pitches, Puk will also mix in his curveball and changeup as well. What's fascinating is that his changeup once used to be a fourth pitch that he didn't rely on that much, but his usage on that pitch has gone up over the past few seasons. 

According to the scouting grade system, Puk's curveball has an overall grade of 50/55, while his changeup rates 55/60. It's going to be interesting to see what A.J. Puk's pitch usage charts look like coming off of Tommy John surgery and to see if his approach ends up changing given that he will now be pitching to big league hitters between tomorrow and the end of the season. Typically, the same type of game plan that a pitcher relies on in the minor leagues isn't always the same game plan that works at the big league level and Puk is going to have access to a lot more video and film as well. While many minor league teams have become much more sophisticated over the years in terms of video and technology, nothing compares to the resources available at the big league level especially in an analytically heavy organization like the Oakland Athletics.

Looking ahead to the series coming up against the New York Yankees, not only will A.J. Puk have an opportunity to solidify himself at the big league level against a dangerous team, he will also get an opportunity to strike out some of the Yankees big hitters. For instance, Gary Sanchez OPS is vastly different when he is facing a lefty versus a righty. Against lefties, Sanchez has a (.839) OPS, while against lefties that OPS drops to (.786) so far this year. Furthermore, Brett Gardner has a (.626) OPS against lefties compared to a (.879) OPS against righties.

Those matchup equations are going to be vital, especially come the postseason, assuming that the Oakland Athletics end up getting there in the first place. However, for the sake of this article, assume that the Oakland Athletics end up squaring off against one of the Cleveland Indians or Minnesota Twins in the American League Wild Card game. If Oakland finds a way to win that game and advance to the American League Divisional Series, they would likely go head-to-head with the New York Yankees. As it stands right now, the New York Yankees have the best record in the American League at (83-43) and would occupy the first seed in the American League playoff derby which would put them against the winner of that Wild Card game.

If A.J. Puk is able to gain valuable experience against the New York Yankees now and down the stretch over the remainder of the regular season, then he could be an extremely valuable piece to their bullpen down the stretch to help contribute during that critical American League Divisional Series. The Yankees continue to prove that they rely heavily on hard contact, while the Oakland Athletics bullpen is built around mainly soft throwers. When you mix all of that together with Puk's pitch repertoire and the matchup factor, things could fair quite favorably for the Oakland Athletics moving forward.

Regardless of the role that A.J. Puk ends up playing over the remainder of this season or what critical situations Bob Melvin & Company end up putting him in, one thing is for sure and that's the fact that Puk is a critical component of the Oakland Athletics future plans. Many scouts still anticipate that Puk will be able to reach his full ceiling again and ultimately end up being a number two starting pitcher on the Athletics staff which would be a huge boost for a team that relies heavily on player development and internal guys. Worse comes to worse, if Puk ends up failing to live up to those expectations, the Athletics could always have a mighty fine option for the back of their bullpen and someone who could eventually become their full-time closer, if things fail to come to fruition on the starting pitcher front.