A's Call Up Prospect Tommy White, DFA Civale in Roster Shakeup

Heading into the second half of the season, the Athletics, at 41-55, have dug themselves a hole. They are eight games back in the AL West, and 6.5 back for the final AL Wild Card spot, making any climb towards the postseason a difficult one.

To begin that climb, the A's have made some roster moves. The biggest one is that the club has designated Aaron Civale for assignment, a move we floated yesterday as a possibility in our trade candidates piece. The club has also optioned right-hander Mason Barnett, catcher Brian Serven, and first baseman Joey Meneses. 

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The A's have only announced three corresponding roster moves, to go with those four departures. The fourth player will be No. 7 prospect Tommy White. 

The three that are definitely headed to Sacramento are left-hander Brady Basso, right-hander Yunior Tur, and infielder Donovan Walton, whom they claimed off waivers a couple of days ago. 

This is a similar move to the one the team made in May of last season, when they optioned JJ Bleday, called up Denzel Clarke and Willie MacIver, and DFA'd Seth Brown, among other moves. 

So how does the new roster fit together?

Changing Roster Means Changing Roles

One piece we were planning to write (and still may) during the break is that Jacob Lopez needs to be added back into the starting rotation. He was called up on July 7 and immediately threw 63 pitches against the Detroit Tigers in the game J.T. Ginn left early due to illness. 

Just three days later, Lopez was back on the mound to serve as the opener ahead of Civale, and he went 1 ⅔ innings without giving up a hit. A's manager Mark Kotsay was impressed with that performance, really emphasizing that he thought Lopez's outing was "great." 

The fact that Lopez and Civale both pitched in the same game means they're lined up for the same schedule at this point, so replacing Civale with Lopez would be the easiest route to fill that spot in the rotation.

When Barnett came up and carved out a bullpen role for himself in Las Vegas back in June, he was firing on all cylinders, posting a 1.35 ERA across 13 ⅓ innings that month. The league has figured him out a bit more recently, as the righty has posted a 13.50 ERA across six July innings with a 2.33 WHIP. 

In three of his four outings this month, Barnett has allowed multiple runs. In that same span, he's given up nine hits — four home runs — and walked five while striking out just two. This option will serve as a refresh for Barnett. 

Yunior Tur will be making his MLB debut when he takes the mound for the A's. The 26-year-old holds a 4.41 ERA across 51 innings (27 appearances, five starts) with a 1.31 WHIP. He's also allowed just four home runs. 

Tommy White's Debut

The A's offense has been struggling just as badly as the pitching staff of late, and with both Nick Kurtz and Zack Gelof on the IL, along with DH Brent Rooker out for the season, bringing up White is the quickest way to infuse some energy into this group. 

Nicknamed "Tommy Tanks," White was rumored to be the other piece coming up, though it hadn't been confirmed until Jeff Passan reported the news.

With the other A's moves, in particular optioning Serven and Meneses, the White move was expected. 

Serven had been in the big leagues to serve as the club's third catcher, with Shea Langeliers and Jonah Heim finding themselves in the same lineup a bit due to the injuries to Rooker and Kurtz. 

White can also serve as the club's DH while providing a glove at both first and third base. 

This season he has hit .303 with a .353 OBP and an .818 OPS between both Double-A Midland and Triple-A Las Vegas. He's added 10 home runs between the two stops, with nine of those coming in Vegas.

Even with those stats, he has been a roughly league average bat in the minors this season, holding a combined 104 wRC+ (100 is league average) that included a 94 wRC+ with Vegas. This is actually what led us to suggest, just last week, that perhaps he wasn't quite ready. 

We'll get our first look at him in the big leagues on Friday night in Sacramento, when the A's take on the Washington Nationals — their season hanging in the balance. 

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