Rehab start for Manaea

Left-hander Sean Manaea won’t return to Oakland’s rotation for at least a week. He’s heading to Triple-A Nashville for a rehab appearance Tuesday.

General manager David Forst said Tuesday’s game will be a tandem effort for Manaea and another pitcher on the disabled list, right-hander Chris Bassitt, who is coming back from Tommy John surgery.

Manaea, who has missed two starts while on the 10-day DL with shoulder tightness, threw a 38-pitch bullpen session Saturday and said it was pain-free. “I was really happy with everything. The pitches were there, the mechanics were good,” he said.

Manager Bob Melvin said

Manaea was throwing 90 mph, which is good for a bullpen session, which is typically 3 or 4 mph less than game velocity.

With most of the starters pitching well lately, there was no urgency to rush Manaea back.

“Kind of buys some time for everyone else, too, and allows us to be conservative with what we’ve seen from him here recently — drop in velocity and soreness,” Melvin said. “We need to be careful with it.”

Josh Phegley, who is on the seven-day concussion DL, caught two bullpen sessions

Saturday and probably will come off the DL when eligible, before Friday’s game. The A’s won’t keep three catchers when he comes back. “If we have a three-man bench, that would be tough to do,” Melvin said.

Right-hander Daniel Mengden (foot surgery) will throw 60 pitches in a rehab start at Nashville on Monday. Reliever John Axford (shoulder) is to throw a bullpen session Sunday.

Briefly: Chad Pinder is 5 for his past 12, making him one of the hottest A’s hitters, but the infielder is still getting only sporadic starts. “It’s tough not to put him in the lineup right now, to tell you the truth,” Melvin said. “He’s a hitter, and he has been his whole minorleague career. It’s just finding the right place for him, trying to get him consistent at-bats.” ... Pinder will get a start Sunday, Melvin said . ... Public-address announcer Bill Callahan was out with a throat ailment, and Matt Shelton, the A’s director of entertainment/production, filled in.