The Athletics have placed infielder/outfielder Chad Pinder on the 10-day injured list with a left knee sprain, Shayna Rubin of the Mercury News was among those to report. The team recalled southpaw A.J. Puk in a corresponding move.
Pinder suffered the injury during what was a horrible weekend for the Athletics, who are 0-4 after the division-rival Astros swept them and outscored them 35-9. The 29-year-old started three of the team’s first four games in the corner outfield and began 2021 well with three hits (including a home run) in 10 plate appearances. The A’s figure to lean on Stephen Piscotty, Tony Kemp and Ka’ai Tom to help replace Pinder. Ramon Laureano and Mark Canha are also on hand in their outfield, though Laureano hasn’t played since Friday because of a jammed wrist, and he’s not in their lineup Monday against the Dodgers. Manager Bob Melvin said he’s hopeful Laureano will be back Tuesday, per Martin Gallegos of MLB.com.
Puk, 25, will work out of the A’s bullpen. The hyped prospect made an 11 1/3-inning major league debut in 2019, in which he was highly effective, but underwent a Tommy John procedure the year before and didn’t pitch at all last season because of shoulder issues that required surgery in September. The A’s optioned Puk to their alternate site last week, but he’ll now get opportunity to stick on their roster.
Hope he doesn’t get injured again, I’d imagine they’ll monitor and limit his innings this year, with reliever being his main role
I just want to see Puk consistently throw strikes. It can be frustrating watching him pitch because he wastes a lot of pitches that aren’t close trying to get batters to chase. His stuff is good enough to get swings and misses in the strike zone.
Randy Johnson had terrible BB/9 rates until his age 29 season. Takes a while for the lanky ones….
So true
Yay. Thinking Cole Irvin is not long for the big team. And so it begins- the age of Puk.
What is up with the A’s pitching this year? They’ve given up 44 runs already in their first 5 games. Maybe if they find a way to pitch well tomorrow against Kershaw and the Dodgers they can hold an opponent under 8 runs for the first time this season.