A’s starter Jacob Lopez has been shut down after sustaining a Grade 1 flexor strain, manager Mark Kotsay tells reporters (including Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). He’ll go on the 15-day injured list tomorrow. Kotsay said the A’s still hope Lopez can make it back this season, likely as a reliever in the final few days.
Lopez has quietly been one of the American League’s best rookie pitchers. Acquired from the Rays alongside Jeffrey Springs in a deal sending Joe Boyle to Tampa Bay, Lopez was on and off the active roster early in the season. The 6’4″ southpaw has grabbed a firm hold on a big league roster spot since late May. He fired seven innings of one-run ball against the Phillies in his first start after being recalled and has occupied a rotation spot since then. Lopez has had a few blow-up outings but has shown glimpses of dominance, including five scoreless starts over the course of the year.
Four of those came consecutively between July 26 and August 12. He had the two best performances by an A’s pitcher all season in back-to-back outings earlier in the month. Lopez punched out 10 over 7 2/3 scoreless innings in Washington on August 7, then blanked the Rays on nine strikeouts over seven frames five days later. He tossed another quality start — six innings of three-run ball with eight strikeouts in Minnesota — last Tuesday.
Lopez had by far his worst outing of the season yesterday. He walked six and gave up nine runs in two innings in Seattle. The A’s revealed postgame that he’d been dealing with forearm tightness that initially cropped up during his start against the Twins. Yesterday’s appearance pushed his season earned run average to 4.08, but he’d entered the game with a 3.28 mark while striking out 29% of batters faced. That’s excellent production anywhere and especially impressive considering the A’s temporary home field in Sacramento has been the most difficult park for pitchers outside of Coors Field.
The 27-year-old Lopez is arguably the A’s most promising pitcher going into next season. Highly-touted prospect Luis Morales is in the big league rotation now as well. Morales has erratic command but power stuff headlined by a 97 MPH heater. J.T. Ginn has posted better than average strikeout and ground-ball numbers over 60 MLB frames, though it hasn’t translated to great results. Springs and Luis Severino are each signed for next year and will probably be in trade rumors in the offseason.
Osvaldo Bido is listed as the probable starter for tomorrow night’s game against the Tigers. It’ll be his first start since mid-May. Bido has been working 3-4 inning stints out of the bullpen and could take a few turns through the rotation in Lopez’s absence. He owns a 5.37 ERA in 65 1/3 frames over 19 appearances.
He reminds me a lot of Sean Manea. Hopefully he can get back healthy at the start of next year because he was great until this last outing where he got hurt
They can have JP Sears back
Hindsight but he never should’ve been on the mound if he felt discomfort after his prior start. There was no point to taking that kind of risk in a developmental year like this.
The genius of Mark Kotsay; leave an injured pitcher out there even when he is ineffective. After 2 batters it was obvious there was a problem. It’s one thing to have mediocre pitching on your staff – it’s another to have no staff because the IL is full.
No need to push his return back with so few games left. Shelve him for the year and get him rested for spring training instead.
So jack perkins and lopez both injured, can’t have enough pitching. Plus one of the pitchers Baez from mason miller trade also injured in AA. Maybe this will be Joey Estes chance to audition for next yr. The last remaining of Matt olson trade. At least langeliers from that trade having a monster 2nd half
Bido is taking Perkins spot in the rotation – still need another starter for Lopez’s spot…. Estes? Spence? Barnett? Waldichuk?
No need to rush him back this year. Was just praying he didn’t need major surgery. But I like what I saw in him.