The A’s are pulling Zack Gelof back from his minor league rehab assignment, relays Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. The second baseman sustained a stress reaction in his ribs and has been shut down from swinging a bat. The team didn’t provide a timetable for his return.
That’s a distinct injury from the one that cost Gelof the first month of the season. A Spring Training hit-by-pitch resulted in a hamate fracture in his right wrist. The infielder underwent surgery that shelved him for roughly four weeks. The A’s sent him to Triple-A Las Vegas on the rehab stint last Monday. Gelof went 1-7 over three games with the Aviators before apparently suffering a new injury.
The A’s initially relied on rookie Max Muncy at second base. He hit just .171 with one homer over his first 21 big league games. They optioned him three weeks into April, turning second base to offseason signee Luis Urías in the process. Urías hadn’t hit much between 2023-24, but he’s been good early in his A’s tenure. He’s hitting .246/.342/.492 with 10 walks and nine strikeouts over 23 games. Urías has popped five homers in 74 plate appearances, already topping his respective totals of the past two seasons. He has been far better in Sacramento’s hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park than he has on the road.
Gelof is coming off a disappointing second season in the big leagues. He’d broken through with a .267/.337/.504 slash over 300 plate appearances during his rookie season. The line dropped to .211/.270/.362 over 547 trips to the dish a year ago. Gelof connected on 17 homers and stole 25 bases, but the power-speed combination was undercut by huge whiff rates. He fanned more than 34% of the time and led the American League with 188 punchouts overall.
The A’s could transfer Gelof to the 60-day injured list once they need a 40-man roster spot. They’d be able to make such a move retroactive to Opening Day even though he’s now dealing with a new injury since he didn’t return to the active roster in the interim.
They’ve been playing pretty good. Gunnar Hoglund had a nice start the other day, the A’s window is opening right in time for their move to Vegas.
Vegas? Lol.
It will be cool for fans of the Las Vegas Aviators Triple A team to get to see former Aviators players playing for the Athletics when they move in. Things are moving along as planned for the new stadium. One of the final steps was for the Board of County Commissioners to approve construction permits. They just recently approved the permits for the first two phases of construction.
The Dodger’s Muncy wishes he might hit so well. Yikes.
Gelof injured swinging a bat surprised it didnt happen earlier he can carve up air with the best of them.
Muncy better start hitting in MLB- this opportunity has just increased in time. His AAA stats are going well
Muncy’s stats would look even better if he wasn’t hitting in bad luck. He has been crushing the ball, Unfortunately for him, several of the balls have gone right to fielders who wouldn’t have had time to move if the ball went a few feet to either side. The most monstrous one was a line drive where the scoreboard showed an exit velocity of 108.9 mph. It went straight to the left fielder. On the negative side is the fact that he has been a huge liability on the bases. I know managers are supposed to love aggressive baserunning, but he has been running into out after out trying to stretch base hits.
I would DFA Urshela by June if he doesn’t pick it up. There’s a lot of recent top prospect 3B/2B types at AAA Las Vegas. Hernaiz and Brett Harris are interesting options on the 40 man. Especially if Kurtz gets sent back down too.
Zack whazzhisname all those irritating TMobile ads on repeat not funny then not funny now
Any relation to Bob?