Tough breaks with Opening Day coming up
The injury bug continues to bite the Athletics as the team announced a couple significant injuries:
Tough injury news for A's:
— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) March 23, 2024
-Miguel Andujar has a torn right meniscus and will undergo surgery. Out a minimum of 4-6 weeks.
-LHP Sean Newcomb has left knee irritation and will begin the year on IL.
Both were expected to play key roles to start the season. https://t.co/VYAu6onJg3
This is yet another tough break for an A’s team that didn’t need anymore of those. Losing both of these players hurts the team in different ways.
Andujar was one of the top hitters for the Athletics this spring, slashing .357/.372/.738 with five home runs in 14 games. After playing in just a handful of games over the past few years due to inconsistency and injury, Andujar was finally set to play a major role for the Athletics and likely get a nice long look from the club.
Once a top-100 prospect in the sport, he hasn’t lived up to expectations but the team was hoping to catch lightning in a bottle. On the plus side, the injury isn’t a season-ender and he’ll likely be back well before the All-Star break. In the mean time this opens a spot up for someone like Hoy Park or perhaps even Lawrence Butler.
On the pitching side the left-handed pitching depth just continues to take hits. Just days after Scott Alexander went down to injury fellow left-hander Sean Newcomb will also begin the season on the IL. He was set to enter the season as the top left-handed reliever in the bullpen and a top arm for Mark Kotsay but will instead try to figure out what is going on with that knee. The unclear timeline isn’t a good sign.
The only other left-handers on the 40-man roster are Kyle Muller, Brady Basso and Hogan Harris. They could look to an option like Jack O’Loughlin or Easton Lucas but the team might be active on the waiver wire as left-handers from other clubs get cut. Keep an eye out.
