Sept. 19: Oakland announced that Manaea underwent a subacromial decompression, acromioplasty and posterior labral repair today. There’s no indication that his timetable is any more favorable than it was when Melvin announced the surgery last week.
Sept. 11, 4:22pm: The news on Manaea’s timeline is brutal, as manager Bob Melvin now tells reporters that the expectation is that Manaea will miss an entire year (Twitter links via Jane Lee of MLB.com and Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). The team will know more after the surgery, but that early estimate is a crushing reality for the upstart A’s, who may now be without their most talented starter for the entirety of the 2019 season.
2:17pm: The Athletics announced today that lefty Sean Manaea will undergo surgery on his pitching shoulder. He had been on the disabled list since late August with what was then labeled as an impingement.
Certainly, the procedure will be expected to keep Manaea sidelined for the remainder of the 2018 season. Beyond that, though, it’s not clear what to expect. The organization says that it “will provide further details after the surgery.”
While it had become increasingly clear of late that Manaea would not make it back late this year, this is still a particularly disappointing way to wrap things up. We’ll need to wait to learn more about the prognosis, but shoulder surgeries are always of particular concern for pitchers.
Manaea had turned in 161 2/3 innings of 3.59 ERA pitching this year, helping spur a remarkable run for the Oakland ballclub. To be sure, his peripherals weren’t quite as exciting. With 6.0 K/9, 1.8 BB/9, and a 44.0% groundball rate, ERA estimators viewed him more as a quality rotation piece than a front-end starter (4.26 FIP, 4.33 xFIP, 4.46 SIERA).
Despite the questions, the 26-year-old is an indisputably talented and valuable pitcher. He’s slated to qualify for arbitration this coming offseason as a Super Two player, so missing some time late in the year will put a bit of a dent in his earnings. Still, with 464 MLB frames of sub-4.00 ERA pitching already under his belt, Manaea ought to earn well through the arb process.
And that leaves Mengden…
Anderson, Mengden, Cahill, Fiers, Jackson? lol that’s the worst postseason rotation in decades, even worse than KC’s Guthrie, Volquez, Ventura, Young, Duffy.
(neither are ordered in any particular way btw, its just those are 5 pretty bad pitchers and the team might sniff 100 wins – pretty sure this hasn’t happened before)
Yea has to be a record ..lowest payroll to start year…filler crap at every Starting rotation. Well I take that back…fiers is not and Jackson at least has been mlb filler crap
That all depends — if Milwaukee makes the playoffs, that would be the worst rotation I’ve seen in a playoff series.
Yes! No Manaea for the Wild Card Game now.
That’s classy…
Their comment and all ensuing comments are going to be removed once the moderator gets in here.
I’ve been that guy before
I guess you were wrong.
I am a Yankee fan, and doubt you are one. (If you are, a Yankee fan, you should be ashamed of yourself)
It’s not even TJ surgery, dude? Might not seem serious; seems like pitchers rebounding from Shoulder surgery lately, but anything Shoulder is quite serious.
It is serious, Manaea is out all of 2019.
Shoulder surgery could be a career ender. Hope it’s not for this kids sake.
And I agree, real classy Yankee fan over there. What a loser
Oh yeh,,,,all you west coast guys are so much more classy…too bad you don’t know anything about baseball!
Keep commenting…please…we need a good laugh!
Rocky, you shouldn’t be throwing stones from glass houses
Xabial you nailed it. Shoulder injuries should worry people more than TJS
Oops. Didn’t realize it was that serious. This looks really bad now. This comment aged poorly.
An injury where the optics are worse than the reality. Manaea had an amazing April, but his ERA after May 5 is 4.46, and since that point he’s only had one game where he went more than 6 IP against a team with a winning record.
It’d obviously be better for the A’s if he’d stayed healthy but Fiers would be starting the Wild Card game either way, and their entire run of great success came while Manaea wasn’t playing all that well.
Maeaea gave up
6 runs: 2
4 runs: 4
3 runs: 3
2 runs: 8
1 run: 5
0 runs: 3
No, you are wrong. The injury is not worse than reality. Even when pitching with clearly diminished stuff, he was still pretty outstanding and was being really wily and getting by. Even if this is his ceiling, that’s still a solid #2-3. A’s have absolutely no SP depth even in the long term. No matter what happens, Beane has to make a trade for some, and then sign some in FA. This is a huge blow, as they had just done a fine job keeping their prospects around. Now they might have to move a key one for a place of need.
As an A’s fan I love Manaea but a lot of the best starts in your breakdown were either in that early stretch of brilliance or not very long in terms of IP (which is why he didn’t allow that many runs).
I published that comment before the news that he’d be missing all of 2019, so my perspective was only about the playoff repercussions for this year. Agree that this is super damaging now that there’s a clear long-term vacancy caused by his injury.
Ah right on. Yeah it didn’t read well to me because I came into the thread knowing the missing 2019 thing. Thanks for the update.
Think they might sign Lowrie and trade Barreto as a headliner for deGrom or other good SP?
All good. I think Canha is a tradable luxury for this team with Laureano/Fowler, and that one of Semien/Barreto could go as well. Even though Semien’s defensive stats are better this year, that’s partly because Chapman covers so much ground and Olson’s so solid at first. Plus it would be typical Billy to move Semien at his peak value which is right now after a 4 WAR season and with arbitration coming up. You think Semien could get traded?
So my random guesses will be that the A’s re-sign Lucroy (1 year), Lowrie (2 years), and Cahill (2 years). Then they get Sabathia for his final year before retirement, move Canha for a prospect, and package Semien + prospects for a SP #2-3. DeGrom might require too much coming back and have a high arbitration price tag.
I’m not saying it will happen and probably won’t , but watch out for Tampa. They are a bit away from that second wild card but it would not surprise me if they pass Oakland
7.5 back with 18-ish to play…not impossible, but it would be surprising.
Beer-n-Chicken
Popcorn?
As an A’s fan who had a chance to see 2012, I am nervous about TB. Their scheduled includes 7 vs TOR and 3 vs Tex. That is 10 games that should be very winnable for them. On the other hand, they do have three games vs the A’s and four vs the Yanks. Both of those teams are insentivized to win, so those match ups will be tough. All of that stated, they are eight games behind OAK in the win column. Winning 8 more games than Oakland with nineteen left to play is incredibly difficult. Regardless of what happens, I am incredibly impressed with and have a huge respect for TB.
Tampa is hot right now but they will run out of games.
I can see Oakland passing the Yankees, I can’t see Tampa passing Oakland, just based off strength of schedule alone. Other than the Mariners on the road, the Rays are are only other contender Oakland plays. They could easily go 12-0 on those other games, that puts them at 99 wins. I can’t see TB basically going on a 20 game winning streak to end the season.
A’s get no respect at all. To lose a 7.5 game lead with 18 left to play means your team is very bad. Wait till WC game comes along my bet is every sport writer will be looking past the A’s. Of course when the beat the Yanks it will be because of injuries on the Yanks.
I’m not saying the A’s are bad I’m just saying good teams lose steam while other good teams get hot. And the pitching staff is pretty pieced together. Are you seriously comfortable with that pitching staff in a 5 game series against Houston Cleveland or Boston?
They’ll never get than far…no worries!
Houston is the team to beat in the AL. They have balance every where. A’s can win a WC game because of their bullpen like KC did when they won a WC game. For the A’s to get through a 5 or 7 game series they will need 2 of their starters to come up big. All year somebody else comes up big in each game. Pitching usually wins playoff games so for the A’s to win through the playoffs it would be almost a miracle performance.
They have been comfortable with that rotation ever since they got 8 closers. No need to get big innings from the starters. This team could easily sniff 100+ wins (as I predicted and was DESTROYED by the moron Yankee fans on this site for dare saying the A’s would be contending after a big second half).
Yeh, as usual you can see the Oakland A’s siting on the right hand of God….and of course passing the Yankees!
HOMER!
See you in the Bronx!
Like he said the A’s would be in front after the recent 3-game series. Let’s not forget his prediction on the Mariners overcoming the Yanks.
If Judge doesn’t come back in time Yanks will be very beatable. Yanks have to many players that are streak hitters so their hitting can goes into a slumps. Their defense is not very good. So yanks are very beatable.
Have the A’s shown any signs of slowing down? How is Tampa gonna make up that many games in 2.5 weeks?
We havent had Manaea since August 25th. We’re 10-5 since. We finish the season against the Orioles, Rays, Angels, Twins, Mariners, and then Angels again.
So yeah I’d be pretty surprised
and now they’re saying he’s out all of 2019. Wow.
NEXT!
Wow. Awful
A’s to sign Kershaw 8/250M
🙂
Losing Sean Manea now it’s just terrible and the A’s won’t rush Luzardo from AAA at this very moment so Daniel Mengden and Mike Fiers are valid options as well as Franklin Montas… We shall see…
Just send the next bum in…..NEXT!
A’s get no respect at all. To lose a 7.5 game lead with 18 left to play means your team is very bad. Wait till WC game comes along my bet is every sport writer will be looking past the A’s. Of course when the beat the Yanks it will be because of injuries on the Yanks.
when *they and not “the”. Either way you word it, never gonna happen, but what a good little season the A’s have had. Another decade of obscurity approaches in San Francisco’ ugly sister.
Its better to be the up and coming team than a old has been giants. The young sister is now at the prom while the old hag is down at the bar looking for barflies.
lmao you clearly aren’t paying attention, troll
We shall see, Richard.
The A’s have some of the biggest prospects in the game and like 5 superstars – they simply have too much talent to blow it. They will be contending until 2022 at the earliest, and maybe even longer.
This is bad for baseball, get well soon Sean!
Bummer. I loved watching him pitch, except against my Tribe.
I’m a little pissed Oakland hasn’t lost a game since June. However, I want to see NY win the WC. Not because I want to see Oakland lose, which I don’t, but a Yankees Red Sox playoff series would be great for baseball
As a non-Yankees, non-Red Sox fan, I don’t care if the Sox and Yanks play each other.
I agree the last series I want to see is Yanks vs redsox. Nothing like ESPN 2 favorite teams doing battle.
Those two teams are wildly overrated and boring to watch – Matt Chapman better.
I would rather see the As vs the Red Sox in the DS instead of the Yankees. I hope the As beat the Yanks by a large margin in the WC game and I’m an Astros fan.
I’m a giants fan, and even though Dave Kaval is kind of a jerk to the Giants (he seems to think that there’s a big rivalry) I want an A’s-Red Sox DS.
Seeing as how they are ahead of schedule on their rebuild, it would seem like a good time to spend in free agency on players other than reclamation projects, perhaps a top tier pitcher or two.
Our ownership doesnt mind paying the AAV, what they have a problem doing is committing beyond a year or two. So I think that puts us on the outs in terms of signing a top tier anything. David Price and Dallas Keuchel are likely way beyond our price range, We’ll likely dip into the mid range starters like we usually do. Its how we roll unfortunately.
Trade is always a possibility though
An off season trade is much more likely. Wouldn’t be surprised if they went after a Fulmer or someone of that caliber.
Fulmer would be a nice target.. I think anyone who has an ugly HR/9 rate is someone we should be somewhat interested in, considering the Coliseum and our defense. I think someone like Mike Minor would be a good ‘under-the-radar’ type get.
22% chance he’ll never throw a pitch in MLB again. 68% chance he returns to form
The other 10%?
He returns in a lesser form?
100% of this is half wrong.
When did the A’s keep amd inventory
Take heart Oakland fans, Carlos Rodon had the same type of surgery last season and is now back throwing darts and seemingly in no pain. He started out great and is now kind of weakening a bit which is understandable since he needs to build up endurance. It doesn’t have to be all gloom.
The Wild Card teams in the Al seem set. The only real question is if the game is in the Bronx or in Oakland. Tampa does have 4 games left with the Yankees at home and the Yankees have 6 games left with the Red Sox but they are just to far behind to catch them. I think Tampa has a better chance of catching the Yankees then Oakland but it will take an epic fail by the Yankees for that to happen just not in the cards. If the season was 15 games longer then things may of gotten interesting for Tampa.
Oakland has an interesting series this weekend with the Rays. Looks like they will miss Snell at least. After this weekend the A’s schedule is much easier then the Yankees very good chance that the one game playoff is played in Oakland or Houston.
Relayed via Twitter
https://twitter.com/JulianMack105/status/1042837485586280448
“Dr. ElAttrache cleaned up space between Manaea’s joint capsule to give him a little more room on what was an impinged shoulder. He also repaired Manaea’s labrum.”
May indeed pitch for the team in 2019.