The Athletics will place utilityman Chad Pinder on the 10-day DL due to a hyperextended left knee, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. In a corresponding move, Oakland will also call up one of their top prospects, infielder Franklin Barreto.
Pinder suffered the injury during Thursday’s game and, while it wasn’t serious enough for him to leave the field that night, the A’s decided to be cautious after Pinder’s pregame workout yesterday. Oakland has two off-days next week but also a two-game interleague series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, so the extra bench depth was required for the extra substitutions often necessary in NL games.
This will be Barreto’s third visit to the big leagues after a brief stint with the A’s last summer and another call-up in September once the rosters expanded. The 22-year-old didn’t show much at the plate, posting just a .602 OPS over 76 plate appearances, though he did perform much better (.290/.339/.456) over 510 PA for Triple-A Nashville in his first extended taste of Triple-A pitching. Barreto has been a staple of top-100 prospect lists for several years, including high grades from Baseball America (which ranked him as the 43rd best minor leaguer in the sport), Baseball Prospectus (63rd) and MLB.com (66th) prior to this season.
Depending on how long Pinder is out, this could end up being another relatively brief call-up for Barreto, as the A’s obviously want to see him playing every day in the minors rather than only receiving sparing playing time as a big league bench player. (Service time considerations are also surely a factor for the organization.) Marcus Semien and Jed Lowrie are still locked in as Oakland’s regular middle infield combo, plus Matt Chapman has quickly become a fixture at third base, not that Barreto has ever played the hot corner. Barreto does seem in line for some work, however, as he is currently the only backup infield option on Oakland’s 25-man roster.
Pinder is a really great guy to have around. He can capably play 6 positions, has been working on 1st base and volunteered to work on catching so he can be the emergency catcher. Hes got good power and a real good arm. I do hope Barreto plays well so maybe we can move on from Semien. I like Marcus but his glove is bad.
A’s need to trade for a defense first SS and end the experiment of Semien at SS. His lack of range and poor fielding habits cost the A’s last night. Pinder is a great bench player with his multiple positions and hits left handed pitching very well.
Err that was mostly chapmans fault, lead to 5 runs and loss.
Chapmans was bad, but he also did like 50 amazing things in that game. Semien should have had that ball. Mateo needs to take over at SS ASAP. Fowler needs to kick Smolinski off the team too.
I am talking the ball that clanked off his glove that for some reason (home call) said it was a hit. 2 runs came into score on the play and the runner ends up at 2B to later score. Another time a hard hit ball went by him that most SS would have caught. Same type of hit and Simmons make a easy play on it for the angels.
I’ve always thought Semien would be a good corner OF. He’s put in a lot of work to get better at short but I’d rather just let him focus more on hitting and play some OF
I have read approximately 1000 comments mentioning how “hard” he worked at getting better at SS, but that hard work has not paid off, as he is still miserable out there, only making decent plays every once in a while. I think he needs a fresh start on another team. You’re right, he probably could be a decent LF who goes 20/20 every year.
Semien can hit and play enough to be a utility player or 4th outfielder. The only problem is him being a starting SS with no range. He has worked hard but most A’s fans still see the late jump on balls and wild throws.
MLBTR writers, serious question: What is Marcus Semien’s trade value? He isn’t a fit on Oakland anymore due to their blue chip prospects nearly ready and looks to be a strict 2B or maybe even LF/1B. Oakland sure could use a cost-controlled SP with no injury history, who do they match up with?
Personally, I can see Semien in TB as a 2B, no idea who for though…anyone got ideas???
I see his trade value being similar to Stephen Piscotty the moment the A’s aqcuired him. Semien could net some 2 or 3 prospects similar to Munoz or Schrock. I would still wait with a potential trade like that because Semien can have his breakout year( although it doesn’t really look like it) and there is no guarantee that both Barreto and Mateo will work out well. Lowrie is a free agent after this year so it might be that Semien will still have an important role on the A’s in the future.
It’s frustrating they are so committed to him at SS (and Maxwell too), when both guys really have no future in their current roles (Semien the SS, Maxwell as a C/MLB player). I think Semien has a 30/30 ceiling but he seems so mentally destroyed by being bad at SS, he needs to just gtfo off the team entirely and go somewhere else. Not one player in MLB more in need of a change of scenery than Marcus Semien.
IMO the faster Maxwell, Smolinski, Semien, Joyce, Lowrie, Gossett and Hatcher are out of the org, the better. I can see them all gone by August, easily, but there’s too much of a logjam for all them to fit and plenty of intriguing kids on the farms right there too. There’s also the side of the story where they’re all too old to be in Oakland when things turn around for real (2019) anyway.
Maxwell is the only player listed by you that has a chance to be on the team next year. One of the problems with the A’s is Melvin over love of his players. Smolk and Semien gets to much praise for being back up players by him.
Semien’s time at SS is all dependent, well mostly dependent, on what Mateo does this year…I reeeealluy hope he (Mateo) forces their hand around the All-Star break
BTW Barreto was so much fun last year, even as an unpolished 21 year old. His energy will be good for the A’s and if his bat looks like it’s finally come around, then the A’s might have a major piece – its Barreto-Time!!! Frankie B the basher!!
Semien is – like Donaldson was at third – a project. Josh became sorta of wizard at third – he was brought as catcher – while Marcus seemed a lock someplace around the diamond while with the White Sox. Someplace these projects developing players work and sometime it does not. Billy Beane is just a master looking for this kind of scenarios…