The Athletics announced that catcher/first baseman Tyler Soderstrom has been placed on the 10-day injured list, with first baseman/outfielder Seth Brown selected to the roster to replace him. The club already had three vacancies on their 40-man thanks to recently outrighting Aaron Brooks as well as releasing Aledmys Díaz and Sean Newcomb, so the count now climbs to 38. Soderstrom has a left wrist bone bruise, per Martín Gallegos of MLB.com on X.
It’s unclear how long the club expects Soderstrom to be out. Clubs sometimes have a quick trigger when it comes to IL stints around the All-Star break. Due to the four off-days, Soderstrom could theoretically return after a minimal stint and miss fewer games than an IL stint at any other point in the season. Perhaps further reporting will shed some more light on the situation.
Regardless of the details on that, Brown gets back to the majors. He was outrighted off the roster last month after a rough start to the season wherein he slashed .189/.251/.306 while striking out in 33.8% of his 195 plate appearances.
He reported to Triple-A Las Vegas and has been tearing the cover off the ball. He hit seven home runs in 16 games for the Aviators and produced a batting line of .403/.416/.736. Part of that is surely due to the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League as well as his .423 batting average on balls in play, but it’s a nice bounceback nonetheless.
Brown hit 45 homers for the A’s over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, leading to a line of .224/.294/.457 and 112 wRC+. Last year, he hit just 14 homers and his line of .222/.286/.405 dragged his wRC+ down to 92. Then, as mentioned, he had an awful start to the 2024 season.
His recent showing with the Aviators was a small sample and surely he can’t maintain that insane pace, but it would be nice for the A’s if he could simply be back around his 2021-22 form. He won’t be a big part of the rebuilding club’s future since he turns 32 years old this Saturday, but he could be a deadline trade candidate if he’s in good form at the plate. He also has some versatility, capable of playing passable defense at first base or in an outfield corner. He is making $2.6MM this year and can be controlled via arbitration for two seasons beyond this one.
SMH… Thought Brown was struggling mightily…
He was. Then he went to AAA, hit .403 with 7 Home Runs while driving in 24 in 72 AB’s
Rooting for him, he has clearly busted his ass to get back, hope the adjustments translate
The PCL is such a hitters’ paradise. It’s hard to gauge improvement because even flawed hitters put up video game numbers in that league.
Yup. Seen it time and time again over the years, the PCL is a quad A guy’s paradise.
Strangely Brown.
Ryan Noda is better on D. Surprised he wasn’t the choice to get Called back up.
Did they give up on Noda? He’s got a .900 PCL OPS himself. Better D and NOT strictly a platoon guy like Brown.
I forgot about him. Was mired in an unbelievable slump but I thought something might still be there. He was productive last season.
Are the As renaming the team name and rebranding? Or will they be the Las Vegas A’s? I love their uniforms/hats and obviously the history I enjoy.
There was a big push from the city of Oakland to try and keep the name. MLB shut that down quick. They went to court and it took about 2 minutes to determine the branding logo and colors and name belong to the team not the city. They are staying the A’s, fisher is staying the owner and Mark Davis is staying with his haircut, not sure which news is the worst out of those three.
It’s a little off subject but it’s nice to see the original Philadelphia franchise come back to Philly. Though the Philadelphia A’s moved to Kansas City before moving to Oakland..