Athletics’ Jared Koenig to make MLB debut Wednesday in Atlanta

OAKLAND — Jared Koenig got the word Saturday.

A long and winding road through high school ball in Aptos, college at  Old Dominion, Central Arizona and Cal State Monterey Bay and various independent league teams from 2017 through 2018 will culminate in a lifelong dream Wednesday for the Athletics on the road against the Atlanta Braves.

“Jared Koenig was talked to yesterday,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said Sunday before closing out a 10-game homestand Sunday against the Boston Red Sox. “He’ll be making his major league debut Wednesday.”

Koenig, 28, is 4-2 with a 2.21 earned run average for the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators. He’s 6-foot-5, 235 pounds and has 63 strikeouts in 53 innings, but gets by more on pitching know-how rather than velocity and stuff.

A late-round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox who the club elected not to sign, Koenig, after being involved with three college programs, played for the following teams for two years in various indy ball leagues: the Birmingham-Boomfield Beavers, the Monterey Amberjacks, the Salina Stockade, the San Rafael Pacifics, the Lake Erie Crushers and finally the Aukland Tuatara of the Australian Baseball League.

Spotted by an A’s international scout after a recommendation, Koenig signed his first contract with a major league team in 2020. His ascension was delayed by the pandemic, but Koenig played for Double-A Midland last season and was 7-5 with a 3.26 earned run average.

PUK — SO FAR, SO GOOD

A.J. Puk made it through another inning Saturday against the Boston Red Sox, throwing putting up another zero and reaching 98.1 miles per hour with his best fastball.

Having already been through Tommy John surgery and a shoulder procedure that cost him entire seasons in 2018 and 2020, Puk made it through the last offseason for the first time in a long time without rehabbing an injury and it’s made a difference.

“I’ve had some injuries throughout my career and this past offseason was my first healthy one so I was able to address the things I wanted to address,” Puk said. “So far my body is feeling good.”

Puk is 1-0 in 18 games with a 1.23 earned run average. The A’s have been careful not to overwork him, as he’s pitched on back-to-back games just twice. A prize prospect out of Florida at 6-foot-7, 248 pounds, Puk also benefitted from an attitude adjustment of shorts from Kotsay during spring training.

“From the start of spring training, where A.J. was and where he is now is night and day,” Kotsay said.

The message? Develop more of an attack-mode approach rather than, as Kotsay called it, “spraying the ball around.”

Puk’s last two appearances have been economical and overpowering. He had a 10-pitch inning Saturday against the Red Sox, throwing seven strikes. His previous outing was 15 pitches with 11 strikes.

Although left-handed on the mound, Puk shoots basketballs in the clubhouse mini-basketball set right-handed and writes right-handed. When he batted in highft school, however, Puk batted left-handed and he golfs left-handed.

Kotsay, a lefty, doesn’t try to make sense of it.

“I golf right-handed,” Kotsay said with a shrug. “Left-handers are different people, I think.”