JULY 17: Hahn told reporters, including MLB.com’s Jane Lee, that upon receiving a second opinion, it’s been confirmed that there’s no ligament damage in his elbow (Twitter link). Hahn is still, however dealing with inflammation — specifically in his forearm, per the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser (on Twitter). He’ll be shut down from throwing for more than a month.
JULY 16: Athletics right-hander Jesse Hahn will be sidelined indefinitely and spend a “somewhat extended stay” on the disabled list with a flexor tendon injury, GM Billy Beane told John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group.
“We’re going to be conservative with Jesse,” said Beane. “And the tough thing with is starters is once they’re shut down, it take a while to build back up. So it’ll be longer rather than shorter.”
In the meantime, Hickey notes, right-hander Chris Bassitt is likely to be recalled from Triple-A to step into the club’s rotation (once a fifth starter is needed on July 25). Both Hahn and Bassitt were acquired in offseason trades, with Hahn coming from San Diego by way of the Derek Norris deal and Bassitt coming over from the White Sox as part of Oakland’s compensation for Jeff Samardzija.
Hahn has been largely excellent while working out of the Athletics’ rotation — 3.35 ERA, 6.0 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 52.6 percent ground-ball rate — making the loss a reasonably large one for Oakland. Bassitt has handled himself well in a trio of spot starts and a handful of relief appearances, compiling a 2.93 ERA, but he’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher that has been fortunate in terms of home runs allowed, leading sabermetric stats to forecast a far gloomier picture (4.05 FIP, 5.44 xFIP, 4.96 SIERA).
The Athletics currently sit in last place in the AL West, eight and a half games back from the division-leading Angels and eight games behind the current Wild Card leaders — the Twins and Astros. Hahn’s injury comes at a critical time for an Oakland team that is widely expected to become a selling club but still hopes to claw its way back into the division race prior to the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31.
pimpdaddy
Mark this one down as a win for Preller.Hope Hahn will be ok but Im worried he is going in for a second tommy john soon.
A'sfaninUK
Please dont gague trades after 3 months.
pimpdaddy
Was being somewhat sarcastic because of the mass of people judging Preller prematurely lately
A'sfaninUK
Haha! Sorry and yes I know all about that, I’m getting shredded on here for saying we need to reserve judgement for 3-5 years on his work.
hojostache
Jon Niese is available…ya know…if BB was looking for a more proven option. Obviously Zobrist would be the target, though I’m not sure BB would trade Zobrist before the bitter end in case there is a late run by a desperate team. I’m not a fan of rentals, but getting Zobrist would at least show some sense of urgency by SA and the Mets.
alex navarrette
I’d be highly surprised if Zobrist is still with the team after the deadline.
Brixton
The question is at his current production, will a return be worth more than a QO?
A'sfaninUK
Depends on what the Mets mean when when they say “overpay”
nypost.com/2015/07/03/ben-zobrist-is-the-mystery-h…
AsFan89
Zobrist would require way more than Jon Neise. If the A’s just want some random guy to eat innings, they have Zito for league minimum they can bring up.
A'sfaninUK
Neise, Conforto & Familia qualifies as an “overpay”, no? 🙂
HelloItsMe
Does this boost Samardzija’s value even more?
A'sfaninUK
No. If it was Kazmir getting hurt it might. But Kazmir isn’t hurt other than his random early leaving of games for no real reason.
A'sfaninUK
Watch Beane trade for David Price just to troll…but he is Sonny Gray’s best friend in real life!