Athletics infielder Jed Lowrie will undergo surgery to remove a bunion and repair a ligament in his left foot, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to report (links to Twitter). He is expected to miss the remainder of the season as a result of the procedure.
The veteran infielder has struggled with the problem for some time, and attempts to battle through it failed. He’ll have the work done now in hopes of having plenty of time to recover in advance of Spring Training next year.
Lowrie, 32, had seemed like a viable trade candidate prior to the foot problem and related struggles. He had been hitting at a fairly typical, roughly league-average clip before suffering through a rough month of July. As things stand, Lowrie owns a .263/.314/.322 batting line over 369 plate appearances on the year. Acquired over the winter to help anchor the Oakland infield, Lowrie has also posted below-average defensive ratings.
There’s no question that the foot malady has played a role, as reporters have documented how much of an impact it has had. Hopefully for both player and team, he’ll be able to return to full health in advance of the 2017 campaign. Lowrie is set to earn $6.5MM next year and can be controlled for an additional season with a $6MM club option, which comes with a $1MM buyout.
Loved this kid as he came up through the Red Sox system. It sucks how injury prone he seems.
All the best to Jed. He is a class act.
Not as a result of the Lowrie situation but still related, I think Billy Beane is perhaps the most overrated GM/PoBO as things currently stand. Looking back over the past two-three years, the moves that he’s made have been absolutely staggering. Going for it and trading Russell and McKinney for Samardzija was a necessary evil even if they collapsed down the stretch that year. But to get virtually nothing for Donaldson (Barretos has a chance to be good, but they surely could have had the pick of any number of blue chip prospects with more talent and closer proximity to the majors) while he was cheap and an MVP candidate is blasphemous. The Billy Butler signing too was much maligned at the time and has predictably not paid off. Beane, while he deserves the benefit of the doubt due to his pedigree of performance in a dire market, has struggled to find value in recent signings and I think it’s very fair to questions his decision making as of late. I’m certainly not advocating that he leave his post (nor would he) but not much is made of these recent transgressions that are in some cases egregious in nature.
Beane has struggled with signing guys and sending guys away in trades. The A’s could of had been one of the best teams if Beane new how to trade for rentals and get value, but he sent away a lot of guys who could of done a lot now. He’s overrated
This guy is made of glass.