Injured Athletics catcher Nick Hundley underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Tuesday, per Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. He should return within six weeks, according to manager Bob Melvin (via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle).
The 35-year-old Hundley has been on the injured list with back spasms since June 8, so his knee issue is a new development. Before Hundley landed on the IL, the respected veteran got off to an underwhelming start, hitting .200/.233/.357 (55 wRC+) in 73 plate appearances. He struggled defensively in the process, according to Baseball Prospectus.
Hundley, an ex-Padre, Oriole, Rockie and Giant, joined the Athletics on a minor league deal in February. Prior to that, the A’s plan was for Josh Phegley and Chris Herrmann to comprise their two catchers at the outset of 2019. However, Herrmann underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in March, which paved the way for Hundley to earn a roster spot.
While Hundley hasn’t performed well to this point, the normally light-hitting Phegley has been surprisingly effective. He and Beau Taylor, whom the A’s selected from Triple-A Las Vegas when Hundley went down, look as if they’ll continue to handle backstop duties for Oakland for as long as Hundley’s out.
Hundley has played his last game for the A’s. Herrmann and Murphy should be ready by then.
might as well get rid of hermann if murphy comes up first. he’s useless.
Murphy won’t come up first, he’s still sidelined, recovering from the exact same surgery Nick Hundley just got. He probably won’t be back in games until late July.
Beau Taylor is about to break out, if the A’s let him.
He’ll get an opportunity tonight. Defensive versatility doesn’t favor him, though, since Herrmann can play more than just catcher.
If he does nothing with this opportunity he can really only blame himself. He would have gotten the nod initially over Maxwell if he hadn’t gotten busted using PED’s in 2017.
Beau did PED’s? I don’t remember that.
Yep, in 2017, after breaking out in 2016. Really hurt his spot on the depth charts, even in a system that was considerably weak at catcher.
You don’t just give someone an opportunity that would potentially lead to some unsavory decision making later on if there’s a chance they might do something stupid like use PED’s again. Then you end up having to sign someone midseason, or call up a catcher from within the system, which was a major weakness for us over the last couple of years in the upper levels.
Good call on Beau breaking out!
He was 1-4 against a team we just demolished 16-2. I wouldn’t say he broke out.
I’m hoping by September either Heim or Murphy are up
Melissa Lockard of The Athletic said he was progressing with his own recovery from surgery to repair a meniscus tear with no setbacks, but there is currently no new info about a timetable for his return to Triple A. We’ll just assume he’s probably 3 or 4 weeks from beginning his rehab given the initial time table.
Heim in his small sample size is doing well in Triple A, but it is a small sample size. Any offensive production you get out of him, considering he’s a valuable defender behind the plate, is good, though.
Hundley’s veteran presence on a young team cannot be overlooked. He is the old consummate professional that is sorely needed for this group of outstanding young players.
Jonah heim doing well in AAA at catcher, hopefully regain some value from that ill advised joey wendle trade, who had a great rookie season for rays last year
> Joey Wendle trade
And who has since had an injury riddled second full season. There was no guarantee he was ever going to be the player we wanted him to be on this team, and we got another good year out of Jed Lowrie, so I’m really not complaining. When you can get a catcher, have an abundance of middle infield depth and your organizational depth at a position like catcher is weak you do it.
I beleive in Steven Vogt