MLB Trade Rumors dropped the news Tuesday night: Matt Krook has elected free agency. It's the kind of transaction that flies under the radar for most fans, but it caps off an absolutely nonstop few weeks for the 31-year-old lefty reliever, and it's a good reminder of how brutal the middle-relief grind can be even at the highest level.
Matt Krook Elects Free Agency t.co/7gcrPQs5Go
Here's the timeline, and it moves fast. The Athletics designated Krook for assignment in early July. Washington claimed him off waivers on July 4, and he actually got into 3 games for the Nationals, allowing 2 earned runs over 2 2/3 innings. But the Nationals turned around and DFA'd him again on July 12 to clear a 40-man spot for Abimelec Ortiz. Rather than accept an outright assignment back to Triple-A Rochester, Krook exercised his right to elect free agency after clearing waivers.
That right to elect free agency only exists because Krook had already been outrighted earlier in his career, which is exactly the kind of roster-rule nuance that decides where journeyman arms end up. He'd spent most of this season at Triple-A Las Vegas with the Athletics organization, where he posted a solid 3.72 ERA over 29 innings, so there was real reason for a big-league club to take a flier on him. It just didn't stick in Washington.
Krook's path to this point has been a grind. A first-round pick by the Marlins back in 2013 out of high school, he didn't sign and instead went to Oregon, where the Giants popped him again in the 4th round in 2016. Years of development followed before he finally reached the majors with the Yankees in June 2023. Since then he's bounced through Baltimore, Oakland, and now Washington, scraping together a handful of appearances with each stop.
None of this is a huge national story, but it's exactly the kind of roster churn that ramps up every July. With the trade deadline bearing down, teams are picking through waiver wires and minor league depth charts looking for a shutdown lefty or two, and every DFA and elected free agency shuffles that market a little. For a guy like Krook, hitting the open market right now might actually be the best-case scenario — a fresh chance to catch on with a contender looking for bullpen depth down the stretch.
Whether Krook lands with a new organization before the deadline or heads back into the minor league free agent pool for another audition, his summer is a snapshot of life on the roster fringe: designated, claimed, designated again, and now free to pick his next shot. Watch the wire — a reliever with a 3.72 ERA at Triple-A doesn't usually stay unclaimed for long.