Chapman should be ready for ’21 season
Matt Chapman’s recovery from hip surgery is expected to take four months, leaving the A’s optimistic that the two-time Platinum Glove winner will be ready to play again after the team gathers for spring training in 2021.
Chapman had right hip surgery on Monday in Vail, Colorado. Nick Paparesta, the A’s head trainer, said Tuesday afternoon that Dr. Marc Philippon repaired the labrum of Chapman’s hip and “did a little bit of cleanup” regarding the femoral head.
“But everything else is
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great, and he’s recovering well from it,” Paparesta said.
Paparesta said Chapman will remain in Vail for the next two weeks. Chapman has started physical therapy already, and once he gets to spring training next year, Paparesta said the A’s will put him through a progression program for his running before starting baseball activities.
“This isn’t Matthew’s first surgery,” Paparesta said of Chapman, who had minor shoulder surgery in December 2018. “So I think he has a pretty good sense of what it takes to get back and rehab.”
Paparesta also said utility player Chad Pinder, who was placed on the 10-day injured list Sunday, has a Grade I strain of his right hamstring and is not expected to play again before the end of the regular season on Sept. 27.
Paparesta said Pinder will spend the next week getting back into baseball activities. He added the A’s are hopeful that Pinder will be available once the American League playoffs begin Sept. 29 with the wild-card round.
Paparesta said outfielder Stephen Piscotty is day-today with a right knee sprain. The A’s plan to be cautious with Piscotty, who dealt with the same issue three years ago with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Piscotty was injured Monday in the first game of their doubleheader with the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. In the fifth inning with the A’s leading 5-0, Piscotty leaped up to try and catch a Jose Marmolejos deep fly ball. The ball glanced off his glove instead, landed on the top of the fence and bounced over for a solo home run.
Mark Canha started in right field Tuesday as the A’s faced Colorado Rockies righthander
Antonio Senzatela. In 37 games this season, Piscotty is hitting .248 with a .695 OPS.
Chapman was diagnosed with right hip tendinitis Sept. 7 but went for a second opinion from Dr. Philippon last week before to the A’s left Oakland for Arlington, Texas on Sept. 10.
The A’s announced Saturday that Chapman would need surgery on his right hip and miss the rest of the season. Paparesta said Chapman’s surgery was similar to Sean Manaea’s procedure in June 2013.
The A’s entered Tuesday’s game at Coors Field with a 7-4 record since Chapman left the lineup on Sept. 7. They have a 6 1/2-game lead in the American League West with a magic number of six to capture their
first division title since 2013.
In that time, the A’s also put Pinder on the 10-day IL and signed free-agent Mark Lamb.
Tuesday, Tommy La Stella started at third base and Lamb will hit sixth and be the designated hitter.
Chapman last played Sept. 6 when he left midway through a game with the San Diego Padres at the Coliseum. In eight games prior to being taken out, Chapman had struck out 17 times and was batting .120.
In 37 games this season, Chapman hit .232 with an .812 OPS. He also had 10 home runs, 25 RBIs and had made five errors. He made nine errors in 156 games last season when he won his second consecutive American League Platinum Glove.
CLEAN AIR >> A’s manager Bob Melvin said some of his players were feeling minor effects of playing a doubleheader in unhealthy air quality Monday in Seattle, but nothing that would prevent them from playing Tuesday night against the Colorado Rockies.
The A’s played the Mariners twice Monday as a thick haze inside the covered stadium seemed to increase as the day went on, and especially after rain moved into the area.
Melvin said that he received an update about an hour and 15 minutes before the start of the first game Monday that the air quality index at the stadium was still over 200, which is considered unhealthy. But the league did not stop the game.