5:41PM: Chapman has suffered a torn hip labrum, agent Scott Boras tells Susan Slusser. Boras estimates Chapman will need 12-16 weeks of recovery time.
1:09PM: The Oakland A’s have placed Matt Chapman on the 10-day injured list, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). Chapman has been seeking a second opinion on his right hip tendinitis, per Slusser. Chapman will now undergo surgery on the hip on Monday, which will sideline the star third baseman for the rest of the season, tweets Martín Gallegos of MLB.com.
The news obviously comes as a blow to the division-leading Athletics. Chapman’s defense at the hot corner is a rare commodity of itself – he’s a two-time Platinum Glove winner – but paired with the thump of a .503 career slugging percentage and that’s a special player. More specifically, that’s an MVP candidate: Chapman finished in the top-7 for MVP voting in each of his two full seasons.
This year, Chapman’s triple slash of .232/.276/.535 is down a little from his career standards, primarily in the on-base department. A 10.3 BB% for his career has dwindled to 5.3 BB% this season, paired some additional swing-and-miss as well (35.5 K%). In 37 games, he’s produced 1.1 rWAR, which extrapolated would be a 4.8 rWAR year over 162 games.
Taking a glass-half-full approach, Chapman should be able to return to form after the surgery, which will be performed on Monday by Dr. Marc Philippon, per Slusser. Teammate Mark Canha can give Chapman the rundown of expectations, as Canha underwent the same surgery, Slusser notes. Chad Pinder and Vimael Machín figure to get the majority of playing time at the hot corner the rest of the way.
Seth Brown has been recalled to take his roster spot, the team announced. Brown put up a surprising 26-game stint in 2019 in which he slashed .293/.361/.453 across 83 plate appearances. He’s without a hit in 4 at-bats so far this season.
