Roster moves: Jared Koenig called up, Adrian Martinez optioned

Pitching staff shuffle

The Oakland A’s made a tweak to their pitching staff Tuesday afternoon, so let’s catch up with a quick look.

The A’s called up left-hander Jared Koenig, and to make room they optioned right-hander Adrian Martinez down to Triple-A.

This is Koenig’s second stint in the majors this year. He made four starts for the A’s in June, with two of them resulting in Oakland victories.

• Koenig, OAK: 6.38 ERA, 18⅓ ip, 10 Ks, 11 BB, 3 HR, 6.43 FIP

While those overall numbers don’t look like much, for what it’s worth he was often sharp the first time through the opposing lineup (.572 OPS) but then struggled mightily in the second go-around (1.217 OPS).

For now, Koenig heads to the bullpen, but there’s a chance he could make a start over the weekend, reports Matt Kawahara of the S.F. Chronicle. One factor in that decision could be whether Frankie Montas is able to return to action this week, which is a possibility but not a certainty as he recovers from shoulder inflammation.

Meanwhile, Martinez was in his second MLB stint of the year for Oakland, and this time around he made three starts. He won one of them with five solid innings against the Blue Jays, but the other two were disastrous with more runs than innings. Overall he’s made four starts this year.

• Martinez, OAK: 6.52 ERA, 19⅓ ip, 14 Ks, 6 BB, 5 HR, 6.26 FIP

Manager Mark Kotsay shared the following thoughts about Martinez, via insider Martin Gallegos:

“Continue to work on mechanics and stay on a line. We feel like that attributed to the lack of command. When we see him back, we’d like to see improvement in that direction. .. We believe in him and still confident in his abilities to pitch here.”

Here’s the updated roster: