Chapman ready to prove he’s still premier 3rd baseman
Oakland star returns from hip surgery rehabilitation feeling fresh, athletic
Matt Chapman is back, and he’s feeling fresh.
The Oakland A’s Platinum Glove winner reported to Mesa nearly five months after surgery to repair a torn right hip labrum feeling a little more like himself physically, he said.
“I feel fresh, I feel good and I feel athletic again,” Chapman said to reporters over Zoom on Monday. He said he was cleared to do sport activities on Jan. 6 — he had surgery Sept. 16 — now without restrictions for spring training.
“It feels amazing, it’s nice to feel like I got both legs under me. Especially my right leg, which is my dominant leg,” Chapman said. “I like to push off my throw and drive off my swing. So to have that strength back it took pressure off my knee and back, which was hurting a lot there toward the end.”
The 27-year-old plays an aggressive third base and has a violent swing — so an achy hip hampered Chapman’s strengths. He’d felt a twinge and tightness since the shortened 2020 season began, and it only got worse as he played through the pain. It got to the point that he was spending entire days leading up to games trying to get his hip loose.
It didn’t hinder his raw power. Chapman still checked in with hard-hit rates and exit velocities that were above the league average. But he was still compensating for the pain, which led to strikeout issues and a low walk rate.
“I felt very inconsistent when I’d load onto my back leg,” Chapman said. “I felt all over the place in the batter’s box. That’s why the hard hits were still there, but the strikeouts and chases were up. Because it was hard to be consistent.”
Pain compensation translated to his play at third base, too. The nearflawless defender known to take risks on hops that pay off ended up five errors in the 36 games he played.
“Defensively I felt I lost a step or two,” Chapman said. “On defense I rely on my legs a lot. And to be out there on defense and not be fully committed to just playing defense, knowing in the back of my head I was dealing with something nagging, it was really tough.”
The nags got bad enough that Chapman consulted doctors for opinions and, ultimately opted for seasonending surgery that September with hip specialist Dr. Marc Philippon in Vail, Colorado. He did physical therapy twice a day before returning to his Southern California home to start weening off his crutches and brace. He’d sleep in a device that kept his leg moving.
After two weeks, he started increasing his exercises and began working out at a Prosport facility in Southern California. Between soft tissue stretches and weight training, Chapman watched his team win its first postseason series since 2006 — a wild card series win over the Chicago White Sox — and head to Los Angeles to play, and lose in four games, to the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium.
He had to experience a different kind of pain watching his team lose the ALDS while he sat helpless a short drive away.
“It was fun to watch, everyone looked like they were having fun. Ball was flying at Dodger Stadium. I was bummed I couldn’t be there,” Chapman said. “I was watching that game live and I’m only 45 minutes away down the road at home. It was tough to be that close and not be able to be there. But I was excited for those guys to get to that point in the playoffs. They all played well. Houston was really hot at the time.
“Sitting there, injured and rehabbing, watching those games gave me the extra motivation to come back and make that run this year.”