A's Option Luis Morales to Triple-A Aviators

Luis Morales entered 2026 as the cornerstone of Oakland's young rotation. Two starts in, the Athletics had seen enough.

The A's optioned the 23-year-old right-hander to Triple-A Las Vegas on Monday, eight games into the season and after Morales issued eight walks and surrendered 10 runs across his two outings. The move came on an off day before Oakland opens a series in the Bronx. Reliever Joel Kuhnel is set to be selected to the roster Tuesday as the corresponding move.

Morales took the loss against the Blue Jays on Sunday, allowing five runs on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts over 4.1 innings. He threw just 41 of 71 pitches for strikes and was undone by home runs in the first, third, and fourth innings. The command problems were not a one-game aberration. Morales had struggled to find the strike zone this spring, issuing 14 walks across 19 frames.

The underlying pitch data tells a grimmer story than the box score alone. His fastball value dropped from -0.7 last year to -4.9 in 2026, while his slider, which graded at +1.5 in 2025, slid to -2.3. His changeup fell from +1.8 to -0.3. Every weapon in his arsenal regressed simultaneously, a pattern that almost certainly reflects mechanical disruption rather than random variance.

That makes the demotion a corrective measure, not a demotion in the traditional sense. Morales posted a 3.14 ERA, a 1.15 WHIP, and a 43:18 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 48.2 innings in 2025 after being called up August 1. That body of work is why he broke camp in Oakland's starting five. Las Vegas gives him room to rebuild mechanics and rediscover the command that made him one of the more exciting young arms in the American League last fall.

Kuhnel, 31, worked 11 2/3 innings of two-run ball with 10 strikeouts as a non-roster invitee this spring, then carried that form into the minors by striking out six of 10 batters faced over three hitless innings with Las Vegas. He is primarily a sinker-slider pitcher and adds a power arm to manager Mark Kotsay's middle relief group.

Kuhnel's addition to the 40-man roster presents a complication, as it is currently at capacity with Gunnar Hoglund, who has a lumbar spine strain, as the team's only player on the injured list. The A's will need to either transfer Hoglund to the 60-day IL or designate someone for assignment ahead of the Bronx series opener.

Morales has the stuff to work back quickly. The question is whether Las Vegas, where he posted a 4.40 ERA in 47 innings last season before earning his August callup, can sharpen the focus that the early weeks of his sophomore campaign have badly obscured.