The Athletics have made a series of roster moves in advance of today’s game against the Angels. The club’s PR department announced that third baseman Matt Chapman has been placed on the DL with a right thumb contusion, retroactive to yesterday. In a related move, the club has recalled infielder Franklin Barreto. Right-hander Josh Lucas has also been recalled, with fellow righty Carlos Ramirez headed to Triple-A in order to make room on the active roster.
As the PR department mentions in the above link, Chapman had played in all 69 of the A’s games prior to today. He’s hit 10 homers on the year and is batting .250/.346/.447. Chapman was hit by a pitch on the hand in the eighth inning of Tuesday’s game against the Astros. Because he remained in the game, it seemed at the time as though the injury wasn’t serious, but his placement on the DL says otherwise.
Barreto, meanwhile, will be up for his third bout with the MLB club this season. Long considered one of the organization’s top prospects, the young infielder has managed just a .182/.241/.325 batting line across 83 career plate appearances at the major-league level, striking out a catastrophic 43.4% of the time. He’s still just 22, however, so there’s still plenty of room for optimism surrounding his growth and development.
Lucas has been used in an intriguing capacity so far this year, having pitched at least two full innings in three of his four appearances on the season (only one start). He owns a 2.89 ERA across his 9 1/3 innings, with ten strikeouts against five walks. It’s not at all far-fetched to think that he’s simply up as a fresh arm to provide cavalry to an exhausted bullpen, as A’s starters have averaged fewer than four innings per start across the club’s past four games.
Time to play Franklin Barreto to see his real potential… Reggie Jackson struck a lot but made it through the all of fame still…
Sitting in the All of Fame!!
Wow, nice comparison
Nah, he’s still only 22 with a really bad swing that needs retooling. Please don’t start his clock and say stuff like that just because he was the #1 piece in the Donaldson trade. He might not be a good MLB player til he’s 25 or 26.
Ah, the always intense Matt Chapman
I feel like Barreto’s a bust.
He’s 22 and has batted 80 times in the majors. I’d give it a bit more time.
Lol
Trout, Pedroia and Judge aren’t exactly busts turned stars.
We won’t know until Oakland does what they did with Semien. let him play 100% of the time and with through his struggles. Now is the time especially since the A’s are now under .500 and the Astros and mariners are playing well.
Probably shouldn’t have any strong feelings about 22 year old prospects, wayyyy too early. If he still can’t hit and he’s 26 then it’s time to start worrying.