Jesús Luzardo was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas, the club announced Monday -- the latest bump in the road for Oakland’s young über-talented left-hander.

“We talked about what the expectation is and obviously, he’s pretty disappointed, but he understood,” said manager Bob Melvin. “He wants to get things ironed out, too."

It’s been a tumultuous year for the 23-year-old, who was expected to finally showcase the full breadth of his talents over a full season.

Before an outing on May 1, Luzardo hit his hand on a table while playing video games at his home prior to arriving at the ballpark for a start. Luzardo felt fine and pitched as scheduled, allowing six runs (three earned) in three innings, but X-rays following the game revealed a hairline fracture in his left pinky, causing him to miss several weeks on the injured list.

Luzardo returned on May 30 in a bullpen role, but after looking dominant in his first two relief appearances, the results have been disappointing. The southpaw has allowed at least one home run in each of his last five relief appearances and has been dinged for 11 runs in six innings. In his last outing against the Yankees, Luzardo faced four batters and only recorded one out, allowing a home run and two walks.

As Luzardo returns to Las Vegas, his ERA sits at 6.87 across 38 total innings. The underlying metrics don’t paint a better picture as he ranks towards the bottom of the league in xERA (25th percentile), xwOBA (25th), xSLG (16th) and barrel percentage (13th). That’s far from what both Luzardo and Oakland expected from the team’s former top prospect, who came into the season as the A’s No. 2 starter.

The demotion isn’t inherently bad for Luzardo. With Las Vegas, Luzardo will have an opportunity to work on his game in a more low-pressure environment. He'll also get the opportunity to start for Las Vegas, a nice change of pace after being limited to one or two innings as a reliever. Whether Luzardo comes back as a starter or reliever has yet to be determined.

“For a guy that the game came pretty easy to last year, there were some times where he had some struggles," Melvin said. "Certainly, the home run ball is something he needs to figure out a little bit. Better command of his fastball, less predictability.

“It also becomes a mind game, too, in that you start to see some things that you’re not used to seeing. With him, it’s the home run ball. So, it’s just as much confidence as anything else, and he just needs to get a few good games under his belt and start thinking confidently again.”

Taking Luzardo’s spot will be right-handed pitcher Domingo Acevedo, who received his first big league callup.

Acevado’s promotion was certainly well deserved, given his recent stretch of dominance. In the high-octane offensive environment of Triple-A West, formerly known as the Pacific Coast League, Acevado had a 2.76 ERA across 16 1/3 innings with 27 strikeouts and three walks. Before being called up, Acevado strung together six consecutive scoreless outings.

“I know he throws hard, and he’s got some downhill plane for being a tall pitcher,” Melvin said. “You look at his numbers there, he wasn’t walking many people, he was striking guys out. In a league that seemed like everybody has an eight ERA, he didn’t. It can be pretty tough to pitch there, and he performed well, so he deserves a shot here.”