Moll’s arrival gives ’pen a second lefty

After playing for two weeks with one lefthander in their bullpen, the A’s added a second Saturday in a shakeup of relief depth.

The A’s selected the contract of reliever Sam Moll, acquired from the Diamondbacks on Friday for cash considerations, from TripleA Las Vegas prior to their game against Boston. Reliever Domingo Acevedo was optioned to TripleA to clear an active roster spot and reliever Jordan Weems was designated for assignment to create a spot on the 40man roster.

The A’s had carried one lefthander, Jake Diekman, in the bullpen since optioning Jesús Luzardo to TripleA and calling up Acevedo on June 21.

“Sometimes you look at teams’ lineups now and especially with the threebatter minimum there’s matchups now that come up before usually Diekman’s number is called,” manager Bob Melvin said. “So it looked like (Moll’s) numbers were pretty good against lefties in TripleA, but this is our front office making a subtle move ... to enhance our team.”

The A’s have sought effective lefthanded relief outside of Diekman. Luzardo (in relief ), Reymin Guduan, Adam Kolarek and A.J. Puk have combined for a 7.12 ERA over 362⁄3 innings from the A’s bullpen this season.

Moll, 29, pitched in 11 games for the A’s in 2017, posting a 10.80 ERA, in his only majorleague stint. He appeared in 21 games for TripleA Reno this season before the trade, with a 5.82 ERA. Lefthanded hitters were 5for43 (.116) against him with 23 strikeouts.

Acevedo pitched in three games with the A’s. He threw a scoreless inning in his first outing then allowed three runs over two innings in his next two. All three outings were against the Rangers.

Weems, 28, made 14 appearances with the A’s over the past two seasons. The righthander had a 3.21 ERA over 14 innings in 2020. He had pitched in three games with Oakland this season and allowed three runs over 41⁄3 innings. He had a 7.36 ERA in 15 games with Las Vegas.

Canha update: Outfielder Mark Canha has rejoined the A’s after receiving plateletrich plasma injections in both hips. Melvin said Thursday it was “probably a stretch” that Canha would return from a left hip strain before the AllStar break, which begins July 12. However, Melvin said Saturday that Canha could “maybe sneak in a game or two.”

“It’s going to depend on once he starts running and he hasn’t been doing anything here for a little bit,” Melvin said. “We’ll see if potentially (next week at Texas) is an option, but I’m not sure yet.”