Good, bad news, and a loss
Doolittle ready to return; Davis done for the season
OAKLAND — The A’s won’t see Ike Davis at first base any more this season, but closer Sean Doolittle will join the club Saturday in Oakland with the hope that this time he is healthy enough to pitch.
Oakland, which saw its offense betray a strong pitching effort from rookie Chris Bassitt in a 2- 1 loss to Tampa Bay on Friday, will be nothing but delighted at the return of the lefthanded Doolittle, whose injury in spring training was the first domino to fall in a season when the A’s bullpen tumbled.
Doolittle missed the first seven weeks of the season with a strained left rotator cuff, came back for three days, then went back on the disabled list with a left shoulder strain.
He’s been getting closer and has spent the past couple weeks on an injury rehabilitation assignment with Triple- A Nashville. He threw one inning Thursday, striking out all three batters he faced, and he’ll be in Oakland on Saturday in time to be in uniform, this newspaper has learned.
It’s not clear if he’ll be activated Saturday or Sunday, but after almost four months on the shelf, he seems ready to add depth to an Oakland bullpen that sorely needs it. The A’s relievers have a 6.32 ERA over the last 20 games, and Oakland’s 4.53 ERA out of the bullpen is the worst in the league.
“I want him to close,” manager Bob Melvin said of Doolittle. “I’m not sure we’ll have him do that the first time out, but I want him to close.”
Doolittle is held back a bit by not having a full spring training to build strength and by throwing only five games at Nashville. But Melvin said he hit 92 or 93 mph on the radar gun Thursday, so his velocity is back, which it wasn’t when he was first activated back in May. And the A’s haven’t found a steady closer since Doolittle’s replacement, Tyler Clippard, was traded three weeks ago.
As good as the news is for Doolittle, it’s bad for Davis. He will undergo surgery Thursday in Colorado to repair a labrum tear in his left hip, a procedure for which the recovery time is two months plus.
Melvin said an MRI on Wednesday showed that Davis wasn’t healthy enough to keep playing. The A’s had cut down his workload in recent weeks in the hope he’d be able to stay on the field. That didn’t work.
Davis will be in his final year of arbitration eligibility this winter, but for a first baseman with just three homers and 20 RBIs, it’s problematic if the A’s will go that route after Davis’ injury- plagued year in which he was unable to show the 32- homer power he had in 2012.
Davis missed part of the spring with back problems, then spent over a month on the disabled list in May and June with quad problems. The first baseman said Wednesday he believed