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Chad Pinder

A’s Select Jacob Wilson, Place Chad Pinder On IL

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The Athletics announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Jacob Wilson from Triple-A Las Vegas and placed Chad Pinder on the 10-day injured list due to a hamstring strain. A’s skipper Bob Melvin tells reporters that Pinder’s injury is going to sideline him “awhile,” noting that the strain is in the middle of the hamstring muscle and that such injuries are “probably at least a month” (Twitter link via Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle).

Wilson, 30, will be making his MLB debut nine years after being selected by the Cardinals in the 10th round of the 2012 draft. He’s since bounced to the Nationals for a few seasons and also spent a year with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Lotte Giants. After inking a minor league deal over the winter, he headed to Vegas and has mashed at a .288/.385/.630 clip while slugging 14 home runs, 17 doubles and a pair of triples in 218 plate appearances.

Wilson has played all over the diamond in his pro career, though his primary positions have been second base and third base. He’s also logged nearly 500 innings at first base, and the A’s have been giving him time in left field so far in 2021 as well. He’ll give them a right-handed bat to help cover for Pinder’s absence. In 1409 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level, Wilson is a .263/.341/.462 hitter.

This is the second IL stint of the season for Pinder, who missed more than a month earlier in the year thanks to a left knee sprain. The 29-year-old has been a versatile and valuable role player for the A’s in recent years, but he’s struggling through the least-productive season of his MLB tenure to date, batting just .216/.269/.358 with the second-highest strikeout rate (27.6 percent) and second-lowest walk rate (5.5 percent) of his career.

Athletics Activate Chad Pinder

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The Athletics announced before their game against the Twins on Friday that they reinstated infielder/outfielder Chad Pinder from the 10-day injured list. He’s taking the roster spot of infielder Vimael Machin, whom the team optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas.

The Athletics have gone since April 4 without Pinder after he suffered a sprained left knee, robbing them of a versatile defender and useful offensive contributor. Dating back to his major league debut in 2016, the 29-year-old has lined up at every position but pitcher and catcher and hit .245/.302/.432 (99 wRC+) with 45 home runs in 1,138 plate appearances.

Pinder carries little experience at shortstop, though he could eventually be an option for an Oakland team that’s in serious need of a boost at the position. A’s shortstops entered Friday dead last in the majors in wRC+ (22) and fWAR (minus-0.8) across 156 PA, all of which have been taken by Machin and starter Elvis Andrus. Machin hit a miserable .050/.136/.050 without a home run in 22 trips to the plate before the A’s demoted him. Andrus, meanwhile, went into the day with a woeful .177/.224/.234 line and no home runs of his own in 134 PA.

Injury Updates: Chisholm, Alfaro, Voit, Odor, Pinder, Puk, Luzardo

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The latest on some injury situations from around baseball…

  • Jazz Chisholm and Jorge Alfaro are both set to begin Triple-A rehab assignments on Tuesday, according to SportsGrid’s Craig Mish (Twitter links).  Chisholm was sidelined with a left hamstring strain back on April 28, following an outstanding start to the season that saw the Marlins youngster hit .290/.375/.551 with four homers in his first 80 plate appearances.  (Despite the missed time, Chisholm’s seven stolen bases still led the National League heading into Sunday’s play.)  Alfaro had only a .507 OPS at the time of his IL placement on April 21, albeit over only 36 PA.  The catcher is also recovering from a left hamstring strain.
  • Luke Voit is on pace to be activated for the start of the Yankees’ series with the Rays on Tuesday, New York manager Aaron Boone told ESPN’s Marly Rivera (Twitter links) and other reporters.  Voit has yet to play this season after undergoing knee surgery in late March.
  • It isn’t yet clear if Rougned Odor could also be joining the Yankees soon, as Boone wasn’t sure if Odor will be immediately activated after the minimum 10 days.  Odor hit the IL due to a left knee sprain back on May 5, and is at least making good progress in recovery, Boone said, noting that Odor was taking grounders.
  • The Athletics visit the Twins in a series on May 14-16, and Oakland manager Bob Melvin hopes Chad Pinder will be ready to rejoin the A’s for those games.  Melvin told The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara and other reporters that Pinder will play at least three games during a Triple-A rehab assignment that starts on either Monday or Tuesday.  Pinder has been out of action since April 4 due to a left knee sprain.
  • Melvin also provided updates on a pair of Athletics pitchers, telling MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos (Twitter links) and other media that A.J. Puk could begin a rehab assignment of his own this week.  Puk has been plagued by injuries throughout his young career, including a left biceps strain that sent him to the IL on April 8.  Jesus Luzardo’s timeline isn’t as clear, since A’s head trainer Nick Paparesta said Luzardo is week-to-week in his recovery from a fractured left hand.  On the plus side, Paparesta did indicate that Luzardo might be able to return by the end of the month.

Athletics Notes: Pinder, Rosenthal, Shortstop

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The A’s placed versatile Chad Pinder on the 10-day injured list with a knee sprain last week, but manager Bob Melvin indicated this week that Pinder should expected to miss a fair bit longer. Speaking with Mike Ferrin on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (Twitter link, with audio), Melvin called Pinder’s injury “worse than we originally anticipated” and added that he does “not expect him back anytime soon.” There’s no specific timeline on the injury or an indication as to the severity of the sprain (or any additional damage). Pinder was out to a 3-for-10 start to the season, including a homer, and has posted a .245/.304/.435 batting line in 1083 plate appearances since establishing himself as a utility option with the A’s back in 2017.

More notes out of Oakland…

  • In a recent appearance on the A’s Cast podcast, general manager David Forst indicated that Trevor Rosenthal was throwing well and feeling good early in camp before the symptoms that prompted his thoracic outlet surgery caught everyone off guard. “He threw the ball well at the beginning of camp, and it seemed like these symptoms popped up out of nowhere,” said Forst. “There’s certainly hope for [a return] sometime in August. Everyone’s protocol is a little different, and timeline’s different based on how the surgery goes.” Oakland inked Rosenthal to a surprising $11MM guarantee late in the offseason, so they’ll obviously be hoping to salvage some kind of return on that investment. For the time being, the A’s aren’t going to define their bullpen roles, it seems. Righty Lou Trivino has notched the club’s first and only save of the season thus far.
  • The A’s aren’t exactly flush with depth options at shortstop should Elvis Andrus sustain any sort of injury, as Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle notes in his latest mailbag column. Jed Lowrie or Matt Chapman could slide over to short in a pinch, should something happen mid-game, and Kawahara points out that both Vimael Machin and veteran Pete Kozma are on the A’s early taxi squad. Machin is more of a second baseman/third baseman, but he played 44 innings at short last year and has 600-plus innings there in the minors. Kozma, meanwhile, is traveling with the club on the taxi squad despite not being on the 40-man roster. The 33-year-old obviously doesn’t have a strong track record at the plate, but he’s a steady defender who enjoyed a nice showing with Oakland in Spring Training. The lack of immediate depth at shortstop is another manner in which the A’s are feeling Pinder’s absence; he’s logged 224 innings there over the past few seasons and would make a logical replacement option if Andrus were to sustain an in-game injury.

A’s Place Chad Pinder On IL, Recall A.J. Puk

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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.

AL Injury Notes: Pinder, Laureano, Brantley, Dozier, Britton

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The Athletics were outscored by a 35-9 margin over the course of a four-game sweep at the hands of the Astros, and some injury concerns only further worsened Oakland’s nightmare of a series.  Chad Pinder will receive an MRI after suffering a left knee sprain while making a jumping catch at the wall in the first inning of today’s game.  Pinder made an awkward landing while completing the play, and though he finished the inning, he was replaced by a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the frame.

Losing a valuable utilityman like Pinder would be another blow to an A’s lineup that is already missing some key names, though manager Bob Melvin suggested Ramon Laureano could potentially be back in action on Monday.  Laureano “feels a lot better today…I think we’re getting a little bit closer with him,” Melvin told MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos and other reporters.  After jamming his wrist during a slide on Friday, Laureano has missed the Athletics’ last two games.  Sean Murphy was hit in the hand with a pitch during that same Friday game, and Melvin said Murphy will be sidelined for at least one more game since the catcher had some discomfort swinging during Sunday’s batting practice.

More from around the American League…

  • Astros manager Dusty Baker updated reporters (including MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart) on Michael Brantley’s status, after the outfielder was hit in the left wrist by a pitch during Saturday’s game.  X-rays were negative on Brantley’s wrist, so “when he’s coming back, it just depends on his body and how he heals,” Baker said.  “We dodged a major bullet by him having no fractures or broken wrists or anything like that.  I’m sure his bone is bruised and whenever you have a bone bruise, different people heal at different time intervals.”  It isn’t out of the question that Brantley could play on Tuesday, Baker said, but “we’ve just got to wait and see on a daily basis without rushing him back.”
  • The swelling in Hunter Dozier’s right thumb has gone down, Royals manager Mike Matheny told the Kansas City Star’s Lynn Worthy and other reporters, and Dozier was set to participate in an on-field workout.  While Dozier didn’t make a defensive appearance during today’s game, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be out of the lineup for much longer.  The newly-extended infielder hasn’t played since leaving Thursday’s game with the thumb issue.
  • After undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow in March, Zack Britton is “doing really well” in his recovery, Yankees manager Aaron Boone told ESPN.com’s Marly Rivera and other reporters.  Britton “is scheduled to play catch this week.  He has full range of motion already,” Boone said.  It isn’t yet clear whether or not this progress could mean that Britton returns at the shorter end of the 3-to-4 month projection initially attached to his surgery.

Jed Lowrie To Make Athletics’ Opening Day Roster

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The A’s are going to add Jed Lowrie to the Opening Day roster, manager Bob Melvin announced to reporters (including Martín Gallegos of MLB.com and Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle). Oakland still needs to formally select Lowrie’s contract but has a vacant 40-man roster spot to do so.

Interestingly, the A’s plan to deploy Lowrie as the primary second baseman, Melvin said. Lowrie obviously had quite a bit of success in that role in 2018, when he hit .267/.353/.448 and earned an All-Star selection. However, the 36-year-old (37 in April) hasn’t played a single inning on defense since then on account of knee injuries.

Lowrie’s 2019-20 stint with the Mets was a disaster, as those health woes limited him to just eight total plate appearances (none last season). He returned to the A’s on a minor-league deal over the offseason. Lowrie does have a long track record of being a productive regular, which can’t be said of either Tony Kemp or Chad Pinder. The A’s will certainly keep tabs on his workload, but Lowrie looks to once again be Oakland’s go-to option at the keystone.

Quick Hits: Brewers, Orioles, Rockies, A’s

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The Brewers will defer payments to both Jackie Bradley Jr. and Kolten Wong. Doing so allows the Brewers to add their salaries even amid the lost revenue of the coronavirus era, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (via Twitter). The Brewers will only pay out $3.5MM of Bradley’s $24MM total money this season, while Wong will receive just $3MM. Wong’s contract eventually will pay out $18MM in guaranteed money. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter) provides a fuller picture of Bradley’s deal. The latest possible payment Bradley will receive is a $7MM buyout for the 2023 season, which he would receive on January 1st, 2025. Elsewhere around the game…

  • Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced that sports venues will be allowed to open in his state at 50 percent capacity, per WBAL Anchor Phil Yacuboski and others (via Twitter). For the Orioles to open the doors at Camden Yards on opening day, they’ll still need approval from Mayor Brandon Scott, notes Pete Kerzel of MASNSports.com (via Twitter). That last bit of bureaucracy notwithstanding, it does appear that the O’s will have fans in the stands for 2021.
  • The Rockies have also been cleared to open the doors at Coors Field. With the help of MLB and state government officials, the Rockies can now host up to 21,363 fans per game, up from an initial limit of 12,500, writes MLB.com’s Thomas Harding.
  • Jed Lowrie returned to the diamond today starting at second base for the Athletics. Persistent knee problems limited the 36-year-old to just nine games the past two seasons with the Mets. Of course, the A’s know Lowrie well. If he makes the team, it will be his third stint in Oakland after posting 3.2 bWAR in 1,228 plate appearances across 2013-14, then returning for 7.4 bWAR in 1,694 plate appearances from 2016-18. In his last season in Oakland, he was a first-time All-Star at the age of 34 after slashing .267/.353/.448 with 23  home runs. A lot rides on Lowrie making the team. If he does, Tony Kemp and Chad Pinder better fit into their roles as utility options off the bench, writes Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle. If Lowrie doesn’t make the team, Kemp and Pinder will likely share the keystone in a more-or-less straight-up platoon.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 12/1/20

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With the non-tender deadline on the horizon tomorrow, expect quite a few players to agree to contracts for the 2021 season, avoiding arbitration in advance. In many (but not all) cases, these deals — referred to as “pre-tender” deals because they fall prior to the deadline — will fall shy of expectations and projections. Teams will sometimes present borderline non-tender candidates with a “take it or leave it” style offer which will be accepted for fear of being non-tendered and sent out into an uncertain market. Speculatively, such deals could increase in 2020 due to the economic uncertainty sweeping through the game, although there are also widespread expectations of record non-tender numbers.

You can track all of the arbitration and non-tender activity here, and we’ll also run through today’s smaller-scale pre-tender deals in this post.  You can also check out Matt Swartz’s arbitration salary projections here.

Latest Agreements

  • Athletics second baseman Tony Kemp will get $1.05MM over one year, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle relays.
  • The Rockies announced that they have re-signed righty Jairo Diaz to a one-year pact. It’s worth $1.1MM, Feinsand tweets.
  • The Phillies and righty reliever Seranthony Dominguez have a one-year, $727,500 deal, according to Feinsand. Dominguez underwent Tommy John surgery at the end of June, so he might not pitch at all in 2021.
  • The Athletics and utility player Chad Pinder reached a one-year, $2.275MM deal, per Nightengale. Pinder has two seasons of team control left.
  • The Orioles and catcher Pedro Severino agreed to a one-year deal worth $1.825MM, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (Twitter link).  There was some speculation that Severino could be a non-tender candidate, though he has posted pretty decent numbers over two seasons as Baltimore’s primary catcher.  Severino is controllable through the 2023 season.
  • The Nationals and right-hander Joe Ross agreed to a one-year, $1.5MM contract, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets.  This is a match of the salary Ross and the Nats had agreed on for the 2020 season, but Ross decided to opt out back in June.  This was Ross’ third year of arbitration eligibility, and is now expected to return and compete for a job in Washington’s rotation in 2021.
  • The Royals agreed to one-year deals with righties Jesse Hahn and Jakob Junis and outfielder Franchy Cordero, according to Feinsand and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Twitter links).  Hahn signed for $1.75MM in guaranteed money with another $350K available in incentives.  Junis will rake in $1.7MM. Cordero will earn $800K in his first arbitration-eligible year.

Earlier Agreements

  • The Athletics and righty Burch Smith agreed to a one-year deal worth $705K, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets.  The 30-year-old Smith allowed three runs on seven hits and a walk with 13 strikeouts in 12 2/3 frames with the A’s in 2020. That was a solid showing for Smith to carry into his first trip through the arb process, though he carried a career 6.57 ERA in 135 1/3 frames into the 2020 season. The A’s can control Smith through 2023.
  • The Rockies agreed to a one-year, $1.2MM deal with catcher Elias Diaz, per Nightengale (Twitter link). The contract contains another $300K in available incentives.  The 30-year-old looked like a clear non-tender candidate after posting an ugly .235/.288/.353 slash with lackluster framing marks and just a 1-for-8 effort in throwing out base thieves, but the Rockies must remain hopeful he can return to his 2018 level of performance. Diaz is controllable through the 2022 season via arbitration.
  • Right-hander Jacob Barnes and the Mets agreed to a one-year deal worth $750K, Nightengale tweets. Barnes, claimed off waivers back in October, was a quality reliever in Milwaukee from 2016-18 but has seen his results crater over the past two seasons. From 2019-20, he’s posted a 6.75 ERA over 50 2/3 innings. Barnes has averaged 10 strikeouts per nine frames in that time but also averaged 4.6 walks and 1.42 homers as well. Barnes is controllable through 2022.

What Should The A’s Do About Left Field?

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The Oakland A’s may look to offset the potential loss of left fielder Robbie Grossman with organizational depth. According to MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos, the A’s suspect 28-year-old Seth Brown could play an important role – but it’s now or never for the Oregon native. Brown’s combination of power and patience is a skill set the A’s have shown a fondness for over the years, and he played well during a 2019 call-up: .293/.361/.453 in 83 plate appearances.

From 2017 to 2019, Brown made the progressive leaps an organization likes to see as he jumped from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A in successive seasons. He earned his time on the big-league roster in 2019 after an impressive .297/.352/.634 line with 37 home runs in just 112 games at the highest level of the minors.

Grossman himself was somewhat of a late bloomer, cutting his teeth on unfortunate Astros squads of 2013 and 2014. He would be released by the Astros and then the Indians before finding a home in Minnesota. After three seasons of part-time work that culminated in a solid 1.7 bWAR season in 2018, the Twinkies cut him loose, too.

Hello, Oakland. Grossman’s 2020 output was easily the most productive season of his career, but those considering him in free agency must gauge whether his power display during the shortened 2020 season is the final step of his development or a small-sample burst. His .240 ISO this season far outpaced his career mark of .127 ISO.

All in all, Grossman’s skill set isn’t flashy, but that hasn’t stopped him from posting an above-average wRC+ in four of the last five seasons. If a market doesn’t develop for Grossman, the A’s could seek a reunion. Grossman and Brown both hit from the left side, of course, making for a ham-handed timeshare between the two.

Enter Chad Pinder, who could be in line for more regular playing time. Pinder has long been a short-side platoon utility player for the A’s, but his bat played up in a major way during their playoff run. Pinder was often penciled into the number three spot in the order while standing in for the injured Matt Chapman at the hot corner. Pinder could easily line up with Ramon Laureano and Mark Canha against lefties, but Stephen Piscotty should also be back in the lineup. The A’s could be intrigued by the possibility of more face time for the soon-to-be 29-year-old Pinder, but much of that time may have to come at second base, where Tony Kemp currently tops the depth chart.

All of which is to say, expect the A’s to slow-play the market this offseason and see where the value play lies. They’d like to explore the possibility of bringing back Tommy La Stella, who would expect a majority of the timeshare at the keystone. A long-time part-time player who almost retired many years ago when the Cubs sent him to Triple-A, La Stella is not likely to cherish a return to diminished responsibilities.

Add to the outfield mix ML-ready prospects Luis Barrera and Greg Deichmann – the latter of whom, Gallegos notes, was just added to the 40-man roster – and the A’s could head into 2021 as currently constituted with plenty of options to throw at the wall.

The real issue for the A’s is building a bridge between Marcus Semien and prospect Nick Allen at short. Allen’s defensive prowess is considerable, but the 5’8″ 22-year-old glove last appeared in High-A with a slash line of .292/.363/.434. Normal circumstances would dictate another year in the minors for Allen, but these days the development curve is more blueprint than model.

If Allen is close, Pinder could hold the line at short, but he’s totaled just 34 innings as the infield captain since 2017. Assuming they’re not ready to simply hand the keys to the car over to Allen, the A’s will focus their free agent energy (aka, dollars) on finding a short-term fix to keep the spot warm.

The A’s, like the Rays, are comfortable fielding a dynamic offensive lineup that shape-shifts as needed throughout the regular season. They’ll dole out playing time piecemeal until settling on the right mix. That could mean an increased share for Brown, but the A’s are sure to have ways to flex the roster if he’s unable to claim it.

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