Athletics right-hander Sonny Gray has been shut down for three weeks with what the club is terming a “moderate” lat strain, tweets MLB.com’s Jane Lee. The setback means that Gray will open the year on the disabled list and may not pitch until late April, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.
[Related: Updated Oakland Athletics Depth Chart]
The news is obviously disheartening for the A’s and for Gray, who missed significant time in 2016 due to a strained trapezius muscle and a strained right forearm. Those injuries contributed to the worst year of Gray’s young career. The 2015 Cy Young candidate limped to a 5.69 ERA in 2016 while registering an elevated walk rate and a 1.4 HR/9 rate that was twice as high as the 0.7 mark he posted a year prior.
With Gray on the shelf for what could be nearly a month of the season (in a best-case scenario), the Opening Day assignment in Oakland likely falls to Kendall Graveman or Sean Manaea. Both young starters are considered locks for the rotation, where they’re likely to be joined by another young arm in the form of Jharel Cotton. To this point in camp, there’s been a competition for the fifth spot in the rotation behind Gray and that young trio, but it now appears as if two spots will be up for grabs. Jesse Hahn, Andrew Triggs, Frankie Montas and Paul Blackburn are all 40-man options for manager Bob Melvin.
The Gray injury represents the second notable hit to the Athletics’ rotation depth in the past month. Back in early February, the A’s announced that right-hander Daniel Mengden, who started 14 games for the team last year, underwent foot surgery that would keep him in a walking boot for at least six weeks. While Oakland has some obvious depth in the rotation (as evidenced by the names listed above), one can imagine that the agents for currently unsigned free agents like Colby Lewis, Doug Fister and others will now circle back with president of baseball operations Billy Beane to determine if the latest setback for Gray creates any urgency to add an arm to the mix.
From a broader perspective, the injury to Gray could potentially hurt the Athletics beyond the thinning of their rotation early in the season. Gray has been an oft-speculated trade candidate for more than a year now, but an early injury in 2017 on the heels of an injury-ruined 2016 campaign makes it more difficult for the A’s to cite that 2016 campaign as an aberration. Even if Gray were to return to peak form upon returning from the disabled list, it’s unlikely that interested parties would completely disregard the recent run of injuries that have slowed the talented young righty.
Of course, Gray still has three years of club control remaining (including the 2017 campaign), so there’s little urgency for the Athletics to trade him in the near term anyhow. The 27-year-old agreed to a one-year, $3.575MM deal this winter to avoid arbitration — his first trip through the arbitration process.
trolofson
That hurts.
joshb600
Yeah. Huge damper in OAK’s playoff hopes this season
halofan20
Pow
Logjammer D"Baggagecling
Just a huge damper on Sonny Grays playoff hopes. I was hoping it would have been with the cubs. Billy beane has been tortured by Theo and Jed in past trades. Getting Addison Russell for Jeff Samardzija could go down as an all time greatest trade for one team and an all time worst for the other.
RootedInOakland
Please stop being dramatic. First off, the A’s were clearly going for it all that year and Samardzija was amazing for that half season, compiling 1.7 WAR in only 16 starts. And then in the offseason we flipped Samardzija for Addison’s replacement in Marcus Semien, who had an identical OPS to Addison last year and is only 3 years older at 26, and Josh Phegly who’s been a solid backup catcher for us. So yea Addison’s looking like a solid SS in this league and is only 23 but don’t think anyone sees him as a future top of the lineup type of hitter, so hardly the worst trade of all time lol.
BW
And don’t forget we also got Chris Bassit who showed promise until he got hurt. Good trades for both sides.
coombs11m
If you think that is an all time best and worst trade for a couple teams you obviously don’t watch much baseball lol
chesteraarthur
1.7 war through 16 starts isn’t amazing. That’s like a 3.5ish win full season of production. Also you’re conveniently forgetting the part where Addison Russell is significantly better at actually playing ss.
But I agree that wrek is exaggerating those claims.
JKB 2
If you think Siemen is comparable to Addison Russell or jf you think Addison Russell is not a star already you are an idiot. Trading Addison Russell will be one of the worse trades in history.
Oh yes by the way he 3 years younger and came up at age 20 and is getting better every year and was starting all star shortstop with almost 100 RBI’s and was BIG TIME player leading Cubs to World Series … and oh what defense he plays too!
Seriously you compare him to Siemen??
A'sfaninUK
Jesse Hahn and Andrew Triggs are on fire so far in ST, this isn’t a big deal.
fred-3
Spring training is televised practice
A'sfaninUK
I mean, both have also had success in the bigs and have shown that they have figured out their mechanical issues. My point is that the “battle” between them is over now, they both will be in behind Graveman, Cotton & Manaea.
Thanks for the downvotes tho
Mikel Grady
Spring training on fire ?
angels fan 3
Dang I was hoping to see him pitch on opening day
angels fan 3
Who is likely to be the opening day starter now? Sean manaea?
angels fan 3
Never mind just saw it in the article
freaky55
Sonny is fragile. He has the stuff and makeup to be perineal All Star. Too bad he’s a little guy who can’t stay healthy.
jakem59
The guy missed time for the first time in his MLB career last year with muscle strains, this seems more of a caution move and moderating his workload.
lesterdnightfly
“Perineal All Star”? You mean his perineum is injured also? Ouch, that’s a low blow !
denimvest
beane shoulda traded him when he had the chance. coulda prob got baez and more from the cubs.
julyn82001
Well, we can’t labeled Gray as the injured prone type. He’s still young and talented!
lesterdnightfly
Labeling him would just be another Shade of Gray.
chesteraarthur
What does this even mean? There are plenty of young and talented players that are injury prone. Stanton would fit this description, for example.
rycm131
I hope he’s not turning into the next Rich Harden
jkim319
That being said, I hope we (cubs) don’t trade for him