A pair of Oakland Athletics pitchers elect free agency

Two pitchers, left-hander Hideki Okajima and right-hander Chris Resop have elected free agency from the Athletics, according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America.

Okajima, 37, appeared in just five games for Oakland, spending most of the season in Triple-A. In his five appearances, he did not post a record, allowing one earned run in four innings of work.

However, in the not-so-recent past, the left-hander was a bullpen force for the Boston Red Sox, finishing sixth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2007, going 3-2 with a 2.22 earned run average in 66 appearances. He followed that up with another stellar campaign in 2008, going 3-2 with a 2.61 ERA in 64 appearances, but has failed to regain that dominance since that point.

Resop, who turns 31 in November, was a teammate of Okajima’s with the Oakland Triple-A affiliate, struggling with a 6.81 earned run average in 26 appearances. His WHIP of 1.710 and average of over a dozen hits allowed per nine innings pitched were also points of concern for the front office.

He broke onto the big league scene in 2005 at 22 years old as a member of the Florida Marlins. In 2012, his best professional season by most accounts, he went 1-3 with a 3.91 ERA in 61 games in the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen.