The Athletics announced a handful of moves before tonight’s series opener against the Twins. Rookie starter Gunnar Hoglund is headed to the 15-day injured list, retroactive to June 1, with a left hip impingement. They also lost third baseman/outfielder Miguel Andujar to the 10-day IL with a right oblique strain. Outfielder JJ Bleday and reliever Elvis Alvarado are up from Triple-A Las Vegas in corresponding moves. Martín Gallegos of MLB.com reported the Bleday recall before the club announcement.
Hoglund has held a rotation spot since being called up on May 2. The former first-round pick looked good over his first two starts, combining for 11 1/3 innings of three-run ball. He has been hit hard in each of the four appearances since then. Hoglund has allowed multiple home runs in three of them, including four longballs over six innings at the Rogers Centre on Saturday. He carries a 6.40 ERA across 32 1/3 innings.
The A’s will need to figure out a solution to round out the rotation behind Luis Severino, JP Sears, Jeffrey Springs and Jacob Lopez. The team’s hopes of competing for a playoff spot have crumbled because of the pitching staff. MLB’s worst bullpen certainly bears some responsibility, but the rotation has also been untenable of late. Only the Rockies had a higher rotation ERA than the A’s 6.24 mark in May.
Bleday returns to the MLB outfield less than two weeks after being optioned. Rookie Denzel Clarke jumped him as the starting center fielder, as he brings a significantly higher defensive floor. Bleday could push for left field reps. Drew Avans remains in left field tonight against Minnesota righty Joe Ryan. Avans only has 11 career plate appearances, but this is his fourth start in the past six games. Bleday hit .370 over six Triple-A games to get back onto the MLB roster.
Makes sense after that jays BP session
Can’t hit, can’t pitch, can’t field, and they play in a minor league ballpark. Highest ticket prices in baseball for this doo doo.
It was really surprising how much people in the comments section were thinking the A’s were going to go anywhere too.
So… when are people going to get fired? I’ve seen far more accomplished personnel get fired for far less than what Forst and Kotsay have achieved (or haven’t achieved) and for some reason, neither seems to be at risk of losing their jobs. They’ve lost 17 of 18 games (probably will be 18 of 19 shortly), they have the worst ERA, FIP, xFIP, OAA, DRS and range of all teams in the majors and yet, no one has been fired. Their bullpen has an ERA over 11 in their past 20 games and yet, they keep running the same people out there, over and over again, expecting a different result and not getting anything different. I’m aware Fisher is a moron and shouldn’t be owning an major league team, but if you’re going to try and sell this on Vegas, shouldn’t you at least pretend to care about the product you’re going to be putting on the field?
The fact that a Vegas move is being considered as still happening eventually and having people believe it is quite baffling too.
Yeah, I don’t realistically see a scenario that it happens now. The expected cost keeps increasing, which doesn’t bode well for them if they’re trying to get more public funding for the stadium. On top of that, they keep throwing around the phrase that they’ve “essentially broke ground on the stadium.” That phrase sounds an awful lot like “well the A’s are essentially winning baseball games lately.”
The front office knew this was coming. The A’s pitching staff was always VERY questionable and playing their home games in a tiny minor league stadium makes it worse.
The pitching staff and the team had a nice little run while the weather was still cool. Reality has set it with the season. No one is getting fired, because no one in charge actually expected to win.
I’ll admit, I was one of the ones that thought the Athletics would be at least a 500 team, especially since they had to spend money. Oh how wrong I was…
1) The A’s are NOT trying to get more public funding. There is literally no evidence of that whatsoever. 2) It’s not that “essentially” they have broken ground. It’s that they HAVE broken ground. The County approved the permits for the first two phases of construction in April, and those phases are now in progress. There will be a groundbreaking ceremony in a few weeks, but it’s just that: ceremonial, for publicity purposes.
JJ Bleday’s .370 batting average with Las Vegas is misleading. He started out with 6 hits in his first 8 at bats. After that, he’s been flailing.