JUPITER, Fla. — The Washington Nationals announced Wednesday that they acquired left-hander Ian Krol from the Oakland Athletics as the player to be named in the Michael Morse trade.
Morse, who was traded to the Mariners in a three-way deal in January, had already brought the Nationals back top prospect A.J. Cole, a right-hander sent to Oakland a year earlier in the Gio Gonzalez deal, as well as big right-hander Blake Treinen from the A’s.
Oakland received catcher John Jaso from the Mariners in the deal.
Krol is a 21-year-old left-hander who has toggled between starting and relieving in the minor leagues for the A’s. He has not pitched above Double-A, where he had a 5.06 ERA in eight appearances in 2012.
He was the A’s 2010 minor league Pitcher of the Year, however, after he went 10-4 with a 2.80 ERA in 28 games (27 starts) across low Single-A and high Single-A.
The A’s seventh-round pick in the 2009 draft, Krol was also suspended for more than two months in 2011 after he sent out a tweet that included a homophobic slur.
During spring training last year, Susan Slusser from the San Francisco Chronicle spoke with Krol, who said he’d matured since that incident.
“I screwed up,” Krol told The Chronicle. “But I’ve matured greatly. I feel like going through all of this helped me. It was difficult, it was harsh, but I learned my lesson and it’s all in the past.”
