Athletics designate Joel Kuhnel for assignment after rough stretch

The Athletics announced the designation for assignment of right-hander Joel Kuhnel, recalling fellow righty Elvis Alvarado in a corresponding move. The club's 40-man roster sits at 39 following the transaction.

What happened

Per the club's announcement, Kuhnel joined the organization on a minor-league deal in the offseason and was added to the big-league roster a week into April. He has now been designated for assignment after a sharp reversal in his recent performance. MLB Trade Rumors reported that Kuhnel allowed seven earned runs across his last 4 2/3 innings, a stretch that stands in stark contrast to the encouraging run that preceded it.

The most recent and most visible moment came at Wrigley, where Kuhnel entered the bottom of the ninth inning with a 6-3 lead, faced six batters, allowed five hits, and technically recorded two outs. The lead, and the outing, did not survive the encounter in the way the Athletics had hoped.

Under general league rules, a player who has been designated for assignment must be traded, released, or placed on waivers within seven days. Outright waivers run 48 hours. What happens next for Kuhnel has not been reported.

Why it matters

The arc of Kuhnel's 2026 season with the Athletics is a tidy, if uncomfortable, parable about the gap between results and process. MLB Trade Rumors noted that his early numbers — a 2.14 ERA through 21 innings — were genuinely impressive, but also flagged that a .254 batting average on balls in play and an 84.1% strand rate were both running to the fortunate side of expectation. The underlying profile suggested regression was a matter of when, not whether.

That regression arrived in concentrated form. Seven earned runs in 4 2/3 innings is the kind of stretch that compresses a lot of bad sequencing into a very short window. The Athletics, who signed Kuhnel to a minor-league deal and watched him earn a leverage role with four saves and three holds during his strong stretch, have now seen the full cycle play out in a single season.

The recall of Elvis Alvarado is the operational response. What Alvarado brings to that leverage role, and how the bullpen hierarchy reshuffles around him, is the practical question the club now faces.

The numbers

Kuhnel's season tells the story in two distinct chapters. Through 21 innings, he carried a 2.14 ERA and had accumulated four saves and three holds, per MLB Trade Rumors — numbers that earned him genuine high-leverage trust in the Athletics' bullpen. The .254 BABIP and 84.1% strand rate that accompanied those results were flagged as unsustainably favorable.

The recent chapter: seven earned runs allowed in 4 2/3 innings. The arithmetic on that stretch is not kind, and the Wrigley outing — five hits allowed to six batters faced in a ninth inning the Athletics entered with a three-run lead — was the punctuation mark.

Where the club stands

The Athletics carry a 64-98 record, placing them fourth in the AL West, 17 games back in the division. They have been eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race, and enter this stretch on a two-game losing streak. Their Wild Card ranking sits at 11th, 20.0 relative to the cut line.

The schedule ahead offers no particular relief. The Athletics travel to Houston for a three-game series at Daikin Park, with Jack Perkins lined up against Peter Lambert on Friday, Kade Morris opposing Tatsuya Imai on Saturday, and Gage Jump facing Mike Burrows on Sunday.

For a club in this position in the standings, bullpen decisions carry a different kind of weight than they would in a pennant race. The question is less about October and more about which arms are worth developing, which are worth carrying on the 40-man roster, and which have run their course for this particular season. Kuhnel's designation is, in that context, a roster management decision as much as a performance one — though the performance certainly made it easier.

What we don't know yet

### What happens to Kuhnel next?

The club has not announced whether Kuhnel will be traded, released, or placed on waivers. Under general league rules, the organization has seven days to make that determination. Whether another club claims him on waivers, whether he clears and accepts an outright assignment, or whether he is released entirely has not been reported.

It is also worth noting that Kuhnel's path to the Athletics began with a minor-league deal — the kind of arrangement that does not place a player on the 40-man roster at signing and often carries its own provisions. The specifics of what his contract situation looks like from here have not been detailed in the reporting.

What Alvarado brings to the role Kuhnel vacated is similarly unresolved. The recall is per the club's announcement; the role is not yet defined in any reporting.

What to watch

The immediate question is how the Athletics configure their bullpen for the Houston series. With Kuhnel removed from the equation and Alvarado recalled, the leverage assignments for the weekend games at Daikin Park will offer the first read on how the club views Alvarado's role going forward.

The seven-day clock on the designation is also worth tracking. If Kuhnel clears waivers, the question of whether he accepts an outright assignment or elects free agency becomes relevant — particularly for a pitcher who, as recently as a few weeks ago, was posting a 2.14 ERA and earning saves in a major-league bullpen. There will likely be interest somewhere. Whether that interest materializes into a transaction is, for now, unreported.

More broadly, the Athletics' bullpen construction in the second half of a lost season is one of the more instructive things to watch. Minor-league deals, recalls, and designations are the vocabulary of a roster in transition, and Kuhnel's cycle — from offseason signing to leverage arm to designated for assignment in the span of a few months — is a compressed version of the evaluation process every rebuilding club runs continuously. The desk will be watching the waiver wire.