Weary, but back on track for A’s
Chapman feels good swinging bat after injuries
MESA, Ariz. — After thumb and shoulder surgeries this winter, A’s third baseman Matt Chapman said he had some trepidation about the recovery process.
“Every time you have surgery, there’s always that thought about whether you’re going to be the same or whether you’ll be able to get back to where you want to be as fast as you can,” Chapman said Tuesday after taking live practice on the field for the first time since the procedures. “A couple of weeks ago, I was nervous trying to do that, and now it’s way past that.”
Chapman said that right after the surgeries, his left (non-throwing) shoulder was achy in the morning and took a while to get going, but now he has no issues with it. He’s being brought along slowly, however. On Tuesday, he took three rounds of batting practice rather than four; on Wednesday, he’ll do a full BP and will hit off the machine. There are still some markers he has
to cross to be allowed to play in spring games, though: He will have to do sliding drills, and, most important, he will have to dive for grounders.
“That’s probably going to be the hardest thing, diving and then pushing myself back up,” he said. “That’s where I use my shoulder the most. That will be the last thing I have to have cleared to get into a game situation.”
If Chapman continues to tick off all the boxes for the training staff, he could start playing in games sometime next week. In any event, Tuesday went well and Chapman’s swing looked as good as ever.
“The ball was coming off my bat like I expected it, so it was kind of good,” he said. “It’s nice to see the ball carry, so I think my strength is better than I thought it was. Now it’s just building up the endurance, because I was a little more fatigued than I thought I would be near the end.”
“He looked great,” said manager Bob Melvin, who thought Chapman looked in midseason form. “The big thing is going to be trying to hold him back. He’s going to want to try to speed it up, but there’s no reason to. I think he feels like he’s in a good place.”