Shoulder soreness sends Irvin to IL
MINNEAPOLIS — The Oakland Athletics placed pitcher Cole Irvin on the 15day injured list with left shoulder soreness and recalled lefthander Zach Logue from Triple-A to start Friday at Minnesota.
Irvin felt soreness following his most recent start and had an MRI exam Wednesday that showed tendinitis in his throwing shoulder, A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.
“As opposed to pushing through that and maybe causing more long-term soreness, we made a decision that it’s in Cole’s best interest in the long term to kind of just back off and give it time to rest and recover,” Kotsay said before Friday’s game.
Kotsay voiced optimism that Irvin could rejoin the A’s after a minimum IL stint. The A’s placed Irvin on the IL retroactive to Monday. Kotsay said of the tendinitis diagnosis: “I think that’s best-case scenario.”
Team trainer Nick Paparesta said the A’s will wait for Irvin’s symptoms to improve before having him resume playing catch. “Once he picks up a baseball, we’ll have a better sense of when he’s going to be ready,” Paparesta said.
Irvin, who opened the season as the No. 2 starter in Oakland’s rotation, worked six innings Saturday against Cleveland, allowing one run. He is 2-1 with a 2.93 ERA in five starts this season. He did not miss a rotation turn in 2021, making 32 starts for the A’s.
Logue joins the A’s rotation in place of Irvin, who was scheduled to start Friday. Acquired from Toronto in the Matt Chapman trade, Logue made his major-league debut April 19 in relief with the A’s, working 11⁄3 innings and recording
a win. He had a 5.63 ERA in four starts with Triple-A Las Vegas.
Oakland’s starting depth will be tested in the next two weeks. Friday began a stretch of 15 games in 13 days for the A’s, who are scheduled to play doubleheaders Tuesday in Detroit and May 14 at home against the Angels. A cluster of seven games in five days will likely require them to call up two additional starters.
Laureano close: Kotsay said the impending return of Ramón Laureano should help the A’s navigate that dense May schedule. Laureano will be eligible to rejoin the A’s from a PED suspension Sunday, potentially crowding their outfield picture.
Cristian Pache has played center field regularly over the season’s first month. It’s unclear if the A’s will keep Pache in center and shift Laureano to a corner spot or reinstall Laureano in center. Their other corner options include Stephen Piscotty, Seth Brown and Chad Pinder, all among their more tenured players.
“Depth is a good thing,” Kotsay said. “We’ve got a long stretch in front of us, we know how difficult it is to recover in this game and we’ll have a decent rotation, all things considered.”
Lineup shuffle: Brown, a left-handed hitter, wasn’t in Friday’s lineup against Twins right-hander Josh Winder. Brown entered Friday hitting .181, but Kotsay cited Winder’s early-season splits — in Winder’s first four games, righthanded hitters were 8-for-34 against him and left-handed hitters were 1-for-22.
The A’s also moved Sheldon
Neuse, who carried a .313 average into Friday, up to the leadoff spot, with Tony Kemp dropped to the ninth spot. It marked Neuse’s first majorleague start as a leadoff man.
“He’s one of our better hitters, so you try to get your better hitters to the top of the lineup,” Kotsay said. “Tony being in the nine, it’s basically a second leadoff spot for Tony back there.”