Ryan Cook struggled somewhat down the stretch last season and allowed 13 runs in five spring training appearances, so the A’s have demoted the former All-Star reliever to Triple-A.
Cook has a 2.77 ERA and 204 strikeouts in 198 career innings and has even served as Oakland’s closer on occasion, but he simply hasn’t looked right in camp and the A’s would rather he attempt to get back on track in the minors.
Here’s what manager Bob Melvin told Joe Stiglich of CSNBayArea.com:
We’ll try to get him down there and get these things worked out, because Cookie has been an instrumental piece to our success. We just felt he needed a break from this, go down and work on things. Sometimes something like that can rejuvenate you. Certainly it wasn’t fun for anybody, especially him. He was shocked, and I don’t blame him. But we expect him to be back here, we really do.
Oakland will also begin the season without injured closer Sean Doolittle, so offseason pickup Tyler Clippard will play a key role early on.
