A’s Chapman ‘eager’ to get back playing on field
A’s workouts will be mostly closed to the public, but all eyes will be on Matt Chapman as he ventures back to his post at the hot corner after hip surgery.
Full squads don’t report until Feb. 22, but the Oakland A’s social media accounts posted a clip of Chapman fielding ground balls at third base.
“He looked good, maybe even a little lighter,” manager Bob Melvin said over Zoom on Friday. “He’s eager. It’s going to be more trying to hold him back than trying to get him ready.”
Chapman, right now, is on track to be a full go for spring
training. Though Melvin said he’s anticipating having Chapman as the designated hitter to start the first few Cactus League games.
“We’ll take the lead from our training staff,” Melvin said.
The 27-year-old has been working out at a facility in Southern California during the offseason — it’ll be worth watching if Chapman can get through spring training without a setback or hitch.
“He’s very driven, he’s a hardworking guy,” Melvin said. “So there was never a doubt in my mind that he would be hitting all the markers along the way,
which he has. I think the only thing you worry about is if he’s trying to push it too hard to get back. But he’s not. He’s doing everything that he’s asked to do and he understands that to come back from this injury you can’t push it too much. You have to rely on and trust what the training staff is telling him to do and he’s doing exactly that.”
The Platinum Glove winner had surgery in September to repair a partial tear in his labrum. He’d been dealing with right hip discomfort practically the entire season in 2020, he said, and felt it worsen on a tricky defensive play he made at third. Chapman struggled mightily after the play, striking out in 10 of his next 11 at bats.
In the 37 games he played, he’d batted .232 with 54 strikeouts in 152 plate appearances — one of baseball’s worst strikeout rates — and 10 home runs.
ARAMIS GARCIA: GOOD AT FRAMING PITCHES » The A’s knew they’d have to give up Jonah Heim in the trade that netted them Elvis Andrus. The AL West rivals had their eye on him for years. The A’s also knew they’d need someone to replace Heim’s defensive ability as part of the deal. So, they swooped Aramis Garcia, who was out of range at the time of the trade.
“I was fishing with my wife and didn’t have any cell service,” Garcia said over Zoom on Friday. “When I got back to my phone, my agent told me, ‘Hey, these guys don’t think you want to be an A. So you might want to call.’ But that couldn’t be further from the truth. We’re happy to be back in the Bay Area to be part of this organization and ready to get things going.”
Garcia proved in his short
time with the San Francisco Giants that he has above average pitch framing abilities, which could put him front and center for backup duties to Sean Murphy (an above average defensive catcher himself). In 2019, Garcia saw 293 pitches converted 53 percent of nonswing pitches into called strikes in the Shadow Zone (borderline strike zone). If he kept that pace with more time behind the dish, that would qualify Garcia as one of the best pitch framers in baseball.
“Being drafted as a hitfirst catcher, my defense was always something viewed as something to improve, and that’s something I took seriously early on because that’s such a big part of what we do,” Garcia said. “We get four at bats a night, but we’re calling hundreds of pitches every day and receiving those pitches.”
Garcia underwent hip surgery last February. He was designated for assignment that November, and the Rangers picked him up off waivers.