Kuhnel's first save with club caps stellar night for A's 'pen

NEW YORK -- Given that it had been over a year and a half since Joel Kuhnel last made a big league appearance at the time he was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas on Tuesday, Athletics manager Mark Kotsay ideally would have liked to ease the right-hander into action with a couple of low-stress spots.

Of course, baseball does not always go according to plan.

One night after pitching in his first game since 2024 and retiring the lone batter he faced, Kuhnel found himself on the mound again at Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the ninth inning on Wednesday in as high-leverage a situation as imaginable shortly after Brent Rooker’s sacrifice fly in the top half gave the A’s a one-run lead.

It may have been a while since Kuhnel found himself in a scenario like this, but you wouldn’t know it based on his performance. The burly 6-foot-5, 290-pound righty needed just 12 pitches to record a 1-2-3 ninth, punctuating a 3-2 A’s victory over the Yankees with a strikeout of Ryan McMahon to notch just his second career Major League save and first since 2022 with the Reds.

"To come in for that moment there with a one-run lead and get three outs says a lot about the grind that he’s put in to get back here in the big leagues,” Kotsay said. “A great night for him.”

Searching for a path back to the Majors this offseason after splitting the entirety of his 2025 campaign with the Triple-A affiliates of the Phillies and Yankees, Kuhnel signed a Minor League deal with the A’s that included an invite to Spring Training. Though he performed as arguably the club’s top reliever in spring, allowing just two earned runs with 10 strikeouts and two walks in 11 2/3 innings, Kuhnel was optioned to Triple-A over the final days of camp.

That strong impression he left on the big league staff, however, along with a couple of scoreless outings for Las Vegas to begin the season, led to the A’s calling him back to The Show to help a bullpen that has been maligned early in the season for its late-inning deficiencies, entering Wednesday having blown five of its first six save opportunities.

You would think there would have been some typical nerves or butterflies for Kuhnel over these past two days, especially pitching under the bright lights of New York. Asked to describe the emotions, however, the 31-year-old said he felt quite comfortable.

"I’ve been really relaxed, honestly,” Kuhnel said. “It always feels good to be pitching up here, especially in this beautiful ballpark. Spring Training, I loved being with all these guys. So, coming up really felt like I was just at home.

"There was no weird kind of first-day jitters. I was around a bunch of guys I know. I felt really good and relaxed.”

Kuhnel was not necessarily the reliever Kotsay had in mind for a save situation on Wednesday. But with the A’s going closer-by-committee to start the year, any pitcher can be thrust into any situation.

With Justin Sterner and Mark Leiter Jr. unavailable on Wednesday after pitching the previous night, Kuhnel was the next man up and handled the closer role well, utilizing his heavy 95-96 mph sinker and cutter to generate a couple of ground balls prior to the game-ending strikeout.

"That’s just the way it played out, really,” Kotsay said. “With Sterner having thrown two [innings] last night and Leiter going, I thought the matchup was a good one with sinkers down to the bottom against that part of the lineup.”

Kuhnel highlighted a bullpen effort the A’s will need to see more of going forward if they are going to realize their playoff dreams. Following the departure of A’s starter Luis Severino, who limited his former club to two runs on four hits and five walks with seven strikeouts in five innings, there was a feeling that the bullpen was going to have to be perfect the rest of the way to come out on top, and it practically was.

Before Kuhnel, the trio of Scott Barlow, Hogan Harris and Elvis Alvarado combined to hold a potent Yankees offense hitless across three scoreless innings in relief of Severino.

"It’s a really good lineup over there,” Kuhnel said. “We have a really good team, though. As soon as we get our feet going, I think we’re going to be a really good team.”