Athletics 2024 Season In Review: Will Klein
A brand new arm in the bullpen mix
Today we take a look at someone who only just recently joined the organization. While he arrived in the middle of the season he still saw some action with the big league club and should get plenty of innings heading into 2025. That player is right-handed reliever Will Klein.
How was he acquired?
On August 3rd, right before the Trade Deadline, the club shipped out former setup man Lucas Erceg in a trade with the Kansas City Royals. In return the Athletics received three prospects in return: starting pitcher Mason Barnett, outfielder Jared Dickey, and Klein himself. It was a nice return package in exchange for a relief pitcher with five seasons of club control, though the A’s themselves merely bought Erceg’s contract from the Royals a year prior. Good investment.
What were the expectations?
Klein, a former 5th-round draft pick, entered the year as a hard-throwing righty reliever that has control issues. Still, after three seasons rising the ranks of the minors he was at the final stop before The Show. The strikeout stuff is clearly there but he also just can’t avoid the free passes, leading to a 5.16 ERA in his minor league career. The hope was that Klein could put it together, learn how to take command of his arsenal instead of relying on pure talent, and finally make his debut and reinforce a Royals bullpen desperate for help.
2024 Results
The season saw Klein earn that major league debut very quickly. An early-season injury to a fellow reliever saw Kansas City dip into the minors and give Klein his first shot, promoting him to the majors on April 25th. He would make his debut three days later and it went as well as you could hope. In his first taste of the highest level of baseball Klein pitched a perfect frame against the Detroit Tigers, racking up his first two strikeouts as well. He would get optioned back to Triple-A for more seasoning immediately afterwards but he could take that success and continue building on it down in Triple-A where there is less pressure to be perfect immediately.
Klein spent roughly a month down in Omaha before getting recalled. His second appearance did not go as well as he allowed four hits and a pair of runs, but again striking out two batters. The righty-throwing Klein stuck around for a bit longer this time, making three more appearances before again returning to Triple-A. While we would see him in the major leagues again this season, it wasn’t going to be with the Royals.
As mentioned above, Klein would find himself as apart of a midseason trade with the Athletics. While fellow minor league pitcher Mason Barnett was considered the centerpiece of the return package, Klein was still a strong prospect in his own right, slotting in at #16 among Royals prospects at the time of the trade. The A’s elected to not wait around, opening a present early and bringing Klein straight to the majors after the trade.
His first two appearances with the club went smoothly enough, tossing 1 1⁄3 scoreless innings with a walk and a strikeout, both firsts but not lasts he’ll pitch for the A’s. The third outing however can only be called a disaster. Facing a New York Mets team loaded with star power, Klein allowed five runs to cross home plate while recording just one out. We saw his wild side as he allowed just two hits but also walked three batters, and no strikeouts this time. It was a close game until that and that meltdown saw the team elect to send him to Triple-A Las Vegas. Klein would stay there the rest of the year, pitching just four more games and not looking great in those outings either. Was the hard-throwing Klein wearing down a bit?
2025 Outlook
Next season looks like it could be a big one for Klein, one way or the other. As of right now Klein is expected to compete for a reliever role come spring training, and unless the A’s get busy and add a bunch more arms Klein could have a decent chance to crack the Opening Day roster if he has a big spring. He is still after all among the A’s top prospects (#16, again) and is still young at only 25-years old but really needs to show better command if he’s going to find any kind of major league success. No one doubts Klein’s saw talent and if he can reign in that wildness even a little bit, he could grow into a younger, more controllable version of Lucas Erceg. Time will tell.