Manaea feeling better
HOUSTON — A’s left-hander Sean Manaea, who left his start Wednesday after just two innings because of shoulder stiffness, was encouraged with how he felt after playing catch Friday.
“Everything felt good,” he said. “No problems at all. I was happy with it.”
The A’s are unsure what the plans are for Manaea. They could push him back a few days because of the team’s off day Monday and because Sonny Gray is probably going back into the rotation Tuesday at Minnesota.
If Manaea is placed on the 10-day disabled list, Oakland would be able to call up a player. And as manager Bob Melvin noted, in such a case, Manaea would miss only one more day than he would if he were pushed back to the end of the rotation, because he’d be eligible to come off the DL on May 7.
“I’m still taking it day by day,” Manaea said. “It’s whatever the organization wants to do. I’m not really worried about it; I’ve just got to be ready whenever.”
Melvin said if Manaea is pushed back (or goes on the DL), Gray will go Tuesday and Kendall Graveman will start Wednesday against the Twins. It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Manaea isn’t at least pushed back, so that rotation plan seems fairly well set.
Gray, who has been out since early March with a lat strain, was enthusiastic about his rehab outing Thursday at Nashville, in which he worked six scoreless innings and allowed two hits.
“I feel great,” he said. “I got six innings in and feel good again today. … It goes back to feeling like I can do what I want with the baseball, I can attack hitters in the zone and trust my stuff is good enough to get them out.”
Asked if he feels ready for a big-league start, Gray said, “Absolutely. I feel ready to go.” Briefly: The A’s had good news on two other pitchers rehabbing from injuries: Daniel Mengden (foot) will throw live batting practice to hitters at Class A Stockton on Saturday, and reliever John Axford (shoulder) is expected to join the team in Minnesota to throw a bullpen session. Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.