March 17: Cotton is set to undergo Tommy John surgery, Jane Lee of MLB.com reports via Twitter.
March 16: Slusser tweets that Cotton is getting his second opinion today. The right-hander adds that he currently has full strength in his elbow and isn’t experiencing much in the way of pain.
March 15: The Athletics received some unwelcome news today. As Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to report (Twitter links), righty Jharel Cotton has been diagnosed with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament and strained flexor muscle.
Clearly, the UCL is the major concern here. The diagnosis indicates that there is some amount of tearing to that key elbow ligament. It’s not yet known what treatment Cotton will undergo, though he’s slated to receive a second opinion before deciding.
Any kind of surgical outcome would surely mean an extensive absence. Even a “primary repair” procedure, rather than full-blown Tommy John surgery, would likely put Cotton’s 2018 season in doubt. Of course, an increasing number of pitchers are able to pursue rest-and-rehab programs, often supplemented by stem cell and/or platelet-rich plasma treatment, as an alternative to going under the knife.
Cotton had been expected to play an important role in the Oakland staff after making 24 MLB starts last year (though he struggled to a 5.58 ERA). Now, it seems likely he’ll be sidelined for quite some time, even if he pursues a non-surgical approach to dealing with the injury.
Alex Cobb come on down…
Yes, please
Looks like you spelled Scott Feldman wrong
Maybe they should try and get Jason Vargas on a cheap one year deal. If he performs well, he can be traded at the deadline for some young players that could be of use later on. .
I didn’t realize you could sign players who aren’t free agents… Pay attention lol
He signed with the mets a month ago.
Damn, I completely forgot. Oops.
Im not sure but i dont think the Mets wanna pay him to play for Oakland
I think there are some veteran pitchers they can get for cheap maybe give John lackey a 1yr deal and trade him at the trade deadline.
Not an A’s fan alive that wants John Lackey… I’d rather have hellickson
Hellickson is at the Nats.
I would rather have a AAA starter than lackey. lackey is done he was terrible last year.
Trade him for what,a bag of corn nuts.
You couldn’t get any kind of nuts for him!
Can’t trade a nut for more nuts.
Wow, tough luck if it comes to TJ surgery. Really like this guy, despite his numbers. If they do look externally for a replacement, I have a feeling the A’s go for John Lackey.
I will never attend another A’s game so long as Lackey is on the roster. That guy is trash
Personally, I think R.A. Dickey would be a really good fit. He’s a durable innings eater being a knuckler and I think he’s a good fit for the coliseum. Plus, he would come cheap on a one year deal.
Dickey only wants to pitch near his Kentucky home.
Tennessee. You’re in the right area, little off though.
Dickey lives in Nashville, TN
Not to mention, a valuable veteran for this young rotation.
The Braves can trade them Kazmir
That’s actually not a bad idea. The Braves would have to eat quite a bit of money, but why wouldn’t the A’s at least take a shot? They got good results from him once already, they may as well take another low risk shot.
Agreed. That’s a pretty good idea for both sides. Assuming Kazmir is healthy, which I believe he is.
Braves would certainly have to eat some cash, but they have 7 starters as of now. Also, Kazmir is familiar with Oakland
How ’bout we eat some cash and y’all pitch a prospect in instead?
This. A’s can take all of Kaz’s salary and the Braves sweeten it with a low level lotto ticket
Why would the braves give up a prospect to get rid of a pitcher they don’t have to get rid of?
Salary savings I’m guessing, but they are only at $116 million right now, so sort of doubt they give up any sort of prospect to get much below that.
Braves pay the money. A’s send a semi decent prospect.
Not too big of a fan of this, but at the same time, there were questions about whether he would even be able to start when we got him in the Kemp deal, so I guess any additional value we get out of him is just gravy, even if it’s just a minimal prospect. Still, would rather him play in the regular season for a few games first before trading him to possibly enhance his value.
One year, incentive laden deal for Alex Cobb. He can build up his value in the vast confines of the Coliseum.
Or just give him 3/45 because their payroll is absurdly low.
2/30 with a third option for 12.
Cotton’s season is probably over, since they’re already iffy with their starters. It’s Murphy’s Law! Do we think the A’s will get up off their wallet now to secure another DECENT starter…finally? Pinchy tight,, or is it just plain squeaky cheap, A’s!? Same diff… Is this the first year you can think of that they haven’t at least hired one new starter? Exasperating!
Cob will be a nice addition but there is plenty on A’s AAA not to mention A.J. Puk is ready for the big jump…
Our pitching wave is actually just now reaching Triple A, so I doubt the A’s want to bring them up too early. That said, by halfway through the season we’ll have Puk, Holmes and Shore for depth.
Please, The A’s have two All Stars most people are overlooking. AJ Puk is ready to pitch at MLB level and James Kaprelian is throwing hard now. They only need a 4 man rotation for a month to get these two guys in the rotation, then go to a 6 man rotation to rest their arms.
All stars?
Right lol
Lol A’s all stars who haven’t thrown a major league pitch. The hype train is out In full force.
Kaprielian is still rehabbing. He could be ready by 2019 optimistically, but he hasn’t thrown a pitch in a while and needs to build his stamina back up. Puk showed yesterday why he isn’t quite ready for the majors, so he’ll be a midseason call up.
You are crazy if you think Puk will be up before June. The A”s will get a new ballpark before they allow a guy to get a extra year of arbitration.
Kaprelian has only reached High-A and missed all of last season with injury. He won’t be up until next season at the earliest.
Dodgers won the trade
Hmm, really? He was traded along with Holmes and Montes for two rentals. The worst you can say about Oakland’s side of the trade is they were unlucky.
Dodgers and all those rings they won with Reddick and Hill
Dodgers have really done a good job with the prospects they have traded away. Jharrel cotton and de Leon are both injured and Calhoun ain’t doing much at the moment
They special ordered their crystal ball instead of buying one off Amazon. Always a smart move for anyone who really needs to know the future.
I’m not sure the Dodgers are doing anything special. They aren’t adverse to trading what they view as non impact SP and any RPs, because they break. It’s not like they’re just trading guys bc they can predict the future.
Oaks, Alexey, Rhame, JDL, DeJong, Montas, Cotton, Holmes etc…
There are too many young pitchers that have to have surgery’s. Alex Reyes, Brent Honeywell, Jose De Leon etc. and now Jharel Cotten. They need to start doing something to avoid these players getting hurt
You mean not like not using one’s arm to throw a ball very hard using a very unnatural motion? I”m amazed when guys actually stay healthy consistently. like Scherzer and Verlander for example.
Second opinion, ey? That’s a bold move Cotton.
“Full strength and not much pain in the elbow” sounds much better to me than yesterday’s news. He is just so much fun to watch, especially with that crazy changeup, I really hope that the injury is not too bad and he can pitch this year for us.
Hellickson’s gone now. Do something, Beane!!!
well that leaves them with an uninspiring starting 5 of Manaea, Graveman, Mengden, Blackburn, and Triggs…four of them missed significant time last year, ugh
I think the only way the A’s are going to sign Cobb is if they can get him on an inexpensive short-term deal. The injury history is too much for a small market team on the cusp of competition to gamble to much on.
Cobb on a 2-year, $30,000,000 or something like that would be the best case scenario for the A’s.
First I believe that’s a little rich for Cobb as far as dollars are concerned.
Secondly, the only way Cobb considers anything on the A’s is a 1 year deal for the simple reason, this is where Trader Billy lives and it would be almost guaranteed he’s be flipped at the trade deadline. Signing anything other than a 1 year deal would eliminate his ability to dictate team and dollars by being traded.
Third and importantly, he would require Trader Billy to give up a draft pick which probably kills any potential deal
Cobb signing would mean the A’s lose a draft pick. So there is no way they sign him to a 1 year deal it is to big of a gamble. If he doesn’t pitch well enough for a valuable trade piece they lose a draft pick and nothing to show for it.
That’s so unfortunate man. Was really looking forward to seeing him this year. Hopefully this doesn’t spell the end for him and he comes back strong
Sad. There goes his 9-12 season.