MESA, Ariz. ¡ª The A¡¯s opened up Spring Training on Wednesday with a new addition to their bullpen, agreeing to a one-year deal with left-handed reliever Scott Alexander. To clear space on the 40-man roster, left-hander Ken Waldichuk was placed on the 60-day injured list with a strained left elbow.

Alexander, 34, spent last season with the Giants, recording a 4.66 ERA and 3.26 FIP over 48 1/3 innings. The left-hander holds a career 3.29 ERA in 283 appearances (13 starts) across nine big league seasons with the Royals, Dodgers and Giants.

With a shortage of left-handed relievers on the current roster -- Hogan Harris, Easton Lucas and Sean Newcomb are the only other southpaws in camp with Major League relief experience -- Alexander immediately becomes one of Oakland¡¯s top lefty bullpen options.

Few pitchers were better than Alexander at keeping the ball on the ground last season. His 65.2 percent ground-ball rate ranked in the 98th percentile of all Major League relievers, while the 57.4 percent ground-ball rate on his sinker was second highest among all qualified relievers in the Majors.

The addition of Alexander continues the A¡¯s focus of bringing in experienced pitchers in hopes of taking a step forward in 2024 after back-to-back 100-loss seasons. He joins a group of veteran newcomers that includes Alex Wood, Ross Stripling and Trevor Gott.

¡°We added some veteran guys that I think we lacked last year on the pitching side,¡± A¡¯s manager Mark Kotsay said. ¡°Gott and Alexander give us two veteran guys in the bullpen that can help from an experience standpoint. I think the moves that we did make from a pitching side are going to help us.¡±