⏩ Mike Fiers: A’s pitcher unlikely to resume throwing soon.
ARLINGTON, Texas — A’s righthander Mike Fiers’ sprained elbow does not require surgery as of now but will likely sideline him another several weeks at least, manager Bob Melvin said Thursday.
Fiers saw sports surgeon Dr. James Andrews on Wednesday after twice feeling discomfort while trying to resume throwing in recent days. He has been on the injured list since early May.
Melvin said the evaluation revealed “nothing structural as far as needing surgery at this point,” but Fiers will receive a plateletrich plasma injection and probably not resume throwing “for up to four weeks.”
“It’s going to be a while before he even starts playing catch again,” Melvin said before the A’s series finale at Texas.
Fiers, who resigned with Oakland on a oneyear, $3.5 million deal in the offseason, has made two starts between stints on the IL. Fiers began the season on the IL with a lumbar strain. He started against Baltimore and Toronto on April 30 and May 6, respetively, and allowed eight runs in 91⁄3 innings. He was placed on the 10day IL with an elbow injury May 8 and later transferred to the 60day IL.
Melvin said the A’s have not ruled out the possibility of Fiers still pitching for them this season.
“We wouldn’t continue to go down this path if we didn’t think there was some time left with it,” Melvin said. “That’s probably on the conservative side, four weeks. I don’t know that it can happen sooner than that, but that’s just kind of the timetable the doctors put on it right now. We’ll see if that speeds up as we go.”
Fiers’ IL stints have opened doors for two current members of the rotation. Cole Irvin started the season with Oakland as an apparent stopgap but is now one of four A’s pitchers who have made at least 15 starts. Irvin is 57 with a 3.98 ERA. James Kaprielian was called up by the A’s last month and in eight starts is 41 with a 2.86 ERA.
⏩ Ramón Laureano did not start in center field in the A’s final two games in Texas, playing right field Wednesday and starting at DH on Thursday. Melvin said that was to protect Laureano, who returned June 16 after missing 17 games with a right hip strain, from wear and tear on the turf at Globe Life Field.
“If we can get him off the turf here where he probably feels it a little bit more, or as a matter of fact I know he does, it’s a way to get his bat in the lineup and then hopefully once we get back regular surface we won’t have an issue with that,” Melvin said. “It also helps that Skye (Bolt) is playing well right now.”