Kotsay away indefinitely after daughter’s injury
Bench coach Mark Kotsay will be away from the team indefinitely while his daughter Sienna receives treatment for an eye injury, general manager David Forst said Monday.
Sienna, 11, was accidentally hit in the right eye at close range by a tennis ball earlier this month, incurring a partial loss of vision. Forst said Kotsay will remain with his family as they meet with specialists and throughout the recovery process.
“He is hopeful of returning at some point this season,” Forst said, emphasizing that Kotsay has the team’s full support.
Chip Hale, who was A’s bench coach from 2012-14 and returned this offseason after managing Arizona the past two years, will move from the thirdbase coaching spot to the bench role while Kotsay is away. Minor-league instructor Steve Scarsone, a longtime manager in Oakland’s system, will handle the third-base job. New coach: The team announced that longtime A’s minor-league coach and coordinator Garvin Alston, who was on Hale’s staff in Arizona last year, was hired as the bullpen coach.
He takes over for Scott Emerson, who was promoted to pitching coach after Curt Young was dismissed Thursday.
Reliever Sean Doolittle has long credited Alston with helping him convert from first base to pitching in 2011.
“Sometimes G would even catch for me — my right arm was still in a cast,” said Doolittle, whose wrist injury prompted the position change. “He was a big reason the transition went the way it did. It was a lot of long days for him, from just playing long toss all the way through instructional league. He would work with the pitchers, then come work with me one-on-one in 110-degree heat.
“I always drop his name everywhere I go when people ask me about the process, but he’s reluctant to take credit for it. But there’s no way it would have gone the way it did without Garvin’s help.” Briefly: Pitchers Kendall Graveman (shoulder) and Ryan Dull (knee) could be throwing off the mound later in the week . ... Right-hander Andrew Triggs (hip) received a cortisone shot.