We continue our Season in Review series today with a quick look at a pitcher that we barely got to know. It feels like we barely got to know you, Matt Krook.
How was he acquired?
A former 4th-round draft pick by the Giants, Krook had spent six years (plus one canceled pandemic season) climbing through the minor leagues on his way to The Show. Originally coming up as a starter, Krook switched full-time to relief pitching in 2023, the same year he’d make his big league debut with the Yankees. His brief four-game stint went
about as bad as possible as he allowed 11 runs in just four innings of work. He’d only make one big league appearance the next season with the Orioles which was a disaster, though he’d been doing decently well in he minors.
The A’s signed the left-hander to a minor league contract early on during last offseason, inking the then-30-year-old to a deal on November 15th.
What were the expectations?
Bringing aboard Krook was mostly about adding left-handed relief depth. With the state of the Athletics’ bullpen at the time there was plenty of room for Krook to possibly work his way back up to the big leagues with a strong showing in Las Vegas, and you can never have too much left-handed relief depth. It was a low-risk move to bring him aboard and with as volatile as relievers can be maybe the A’s were about to strike it rich on Krook.
2025 Results
The then-30-year-old made it into just 12 games for the Aviators, pitching 14 frames and allowing just five earned runs (three of which came in one disaster outing). That was enough for the A’s to give the left-hander a crack in the big leagues. He only made it into three games for the Athletics though, with two scoreless appearances before he allowed two runs to score in his third outing. The A’s would later DFA the left-hander when the club acquired another lefty in Sean Newcomb. Hoping to sneak him through waivers, the club instead lost the lefty when the Cleveland Guardians claimed him on waivers, and he’d stick with their Triple-A affiliate the rest of the season.
2026 Outlook
Krook is now a free agent for the first time in his career, meaning he’s free to seek out the best opportunity for himself to crack a team’s bullpen. Now 31, Krook has always had big swing-and-miss stuff and gets groundballs at a good rate, but his lack of control has just been too big of a problem for him to have any consistent success in the majors. The A’s only have three left-handed relievers on the 40-man roster as of now (Brady Basso, Ben Bowden, and Hogan Harris) so the A’s could be a possible destination for him this offseason if he feels he can work his way past them up the pecking order. He signed early last offseason so it’s fair to expect an early decision from him.
