Aug. 1: The A’s announced that Gossett’s surgery was performed today
July 31: The Athletics announced that right-hander Daniel Gossett will undergo Tommy John surgery, thus ending his 2018 season and potentially causing him to sit out the entire 2019 campaign as well. Gossett, remarkably, becomes the fourth Athletics hurler to require Tommy John surgery in 2018 alone, joining teammates Jharel Cotton, Kendall Graveman and A.J. Puk in that most unwelcome distinction.
Gossett, 25, entered the season in the mix for a rotation spot with the A’s and made five starts over the course of the season before being pulled from his final outing on June 3 due to elbow discomfort. The right-hander has yet to enjoy much in the way of big league success to date, but he’s torn through Triple-A lineups with a 2.87 ERA, 8.2 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 through 128 2/3 innings in his career. In parts of five minor league seasons, the 2014 second-rounder owns an impressive 3.42 ERA with a 2.99 strikeout-to-walk ratio through 437 1/3 frames.
The A’s have, of course, been thriving without any of their injured pitcher for much of the summer, but the loss of Gossett nonetheless thins out their staff and leaves the team with fewer depth options should any member of the current rotation go down with an injury. At present, that group consists of Sean Manaea and well-traveled veterans Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson and Edwin Jackson — making both Oakland’s contending run and their lack of a rotation addition prior to today’s non-waiver trade deadline both a bit surprising.
Gossett will finish out the year with one-plus years of MLB service time, so he won’t be eligible for arbitration this winter. If Oakland is comfortable dedicating a 40-man roster spot to him all offseason, they can retain him into next year and place him on the 60-day DL as soon as Spring Training opens. The A’s can control Gossett through 2023, so they have plenty of incentive to follow that route if they believe him capable of functioning as either a serviceable rotation piece of bullpen arm down the line.
rathman53
No surprise. All those guys are going to come back at the same time. Match that with Manaea, Luzardo, Shore, Kaprelian(maybe), Dunshee, Howard, Holmes. Might be good!
AsNchill
Manaea, Luzardo, Shore, Kaprielian (hopefully), Jefferies (hopefully), Howard, Holmes, Gossett, Cotton, Graveman, Blackburn. That’s some young depth.
rathman53
Saw u left out Dunshee. Skeptic?
AsNchill
No, by the time I realized I forgot Dunshee I ran out of time to edit and I hate replying to myself. It’s a pet peeve. I also forgot Dustin Hurlbutt, and I feel bad about it.
I was a little skeptical of Dunshee when he first got promoted, but he’s starting to really carve through Double A hitters. I’m a fan. He isn’t a guy a that throws hard. He’s a pitcher, and I like pitchers.
whatareyoutalkingabout
Maybe Dunshee won’t blow out his arm like so many others trying to throw every pitch with maximum velocity.
justin-turner overdrive
Great idea to not get any more SP depth at the deadline. Cool, get steamrolled by the Yankees or Red Sox in the WC game.
AsNchill
It’s fine, we’re ahead of schedule anyways. We were never going to be able to keep up with the defending world series champions and their ambitions for a repeat, the Mariners who have nothing left to lose at this point, and Fiers wasn’t going to net the Tigers the top 20 prospect they wanted.
Tiger fans were expecting Sheldon Neuse for Fiers, and that simply wasn’t going to happen. I wouldn’t have even given up Tyler Ramirez, our 20th ranked prospect, for him because he has regression written all over him and a not so savory track record to boot.
justin-turner overdrive
Man, what kind of attitude is that? You don’t want to win when given a chance? Uhhh…
I agree with the rest of your post other than I still don’t think the Mariners will keep it up, and I’ve watched every A’s game this year, so I’ve seen them become a threat that needed ONE piece, and the front office didn’t get it. Unless they bring up Luzardo next week, A’s fans (who care about winning at -any- part of the season) should be heated.
AsNchill
My big problem is having to overpay for a mediocre pitcher. I’m not about giving up anyone in our top 20 for the likes of a Mike Fiers, who isn’t a good pitcher. The market was pretty bad this year for starting pitching all around. Any of the tier 1 pitchers were going to cost a ton because of supply and demand and the tier 2 pitchers were going to cost more than they were worth to provide very little additional value.
I’m all about that sustained success, and we’re doing what we’re doing with what we have. We have a little bit of depth left, and that depth is mostly serviceable.
rathman53
Real A’s fans are living in reality. Oakland is ahead of schedule. To mortgage our future for a mediocre rental would only set the back. No A’s fan is upset. I for one am ecstatic they didnt make a foolish move.
AsNchill
I saw a lot of people that were saying they’d be fine with trading Neuse because he’s ultra blocked, but he’s also one of the best pure hitters in our system, and having him as a backup in case Chapman needs an extended stay on the DL (god please no) is valuable. He can also play other second, short and left, so he’s got the defensive versatility that teams are starting to really value.
We’ve also got huge holes in second, short and center. We have no idea if Barreto, Mateo and Fowler are the guys or if it’ll end up being Richie Martin, Eli White and Ramon Laureano instead. Gotta keep your options open when you have young players trying to cement themselves as regulars.
murphy
Giving up talent for a mediocre pitcher won’t help a young A’s team.
No one expected them to be good like they are so why not see what happens with what they have?!
justin-turner overdrive
Its absolute madness to speak in terms of “schedule”. You’re winning now, you upgrade at the deadline to make a run. It’s killing my soul to see baseball fans not ready to win.
And yes, I kinda agree about Fiers, I’m talking about putting Puk and Barreto plus on the table for deGrom. But the A’s can save face here by giving us Luzardo. Every single game I’ve watched of Luzardo is mindblowing. He’s the most ready-now AA guy I’ve ever seen. He should be in the rotation asap.
AsNchill
He just got promoted to Triple A as we speak. They don’t expect him to pitch in the majors this year, but you know if he’s carving up Triple A hitting and the A’s are still in contention in 2-3 weeks that they’ll seriously consider calling him up.
justin-turner overdrive
If they were serious about contending he’d last 2 starts at AAA. GM’s generally do not hold a guy like that down when he easily makes their weakest area better.
AsNchill
Problem is he’s a year removed from TJS and is on a pitching limit. He’s still got some command problems that crop up every so often, but I do agree he won’t be in Triple A long if the team feels he can help us now. This is the exact opposite situation Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson were put in where they made the jump straight from Double A because we literally had nothing left.
justin-turner overdrive
Ok Forst just said that yes, they are still attempting to add, and Luzardo will probably be up Sept 1. Not throwing in the towel!
twitter.com/JaneMLB/status/1024450451062763520
twitter.com/JaneMLB/status/1024448324743528448
oldleftylong
Mike Fiers is a darned good pitcher who would have help the A’s. Money Ball Billy balked.
AsNchill
He’s not a good pitcher. He has regression written all over him with an FIP over a point and a half higher than his ERA.
skip 2
Lol thank god some of you are only online GM’s!
pd14athletics
I don’t see ahead of schedule as a reason to be passive. To me, the team has shown the front office they are something special, and Forst and Beane just left them hanging. I’m surprised and grateful for what guys like Cahill, Jackson, and Montas have given this year but I am not counting on them to keep it up all season much less if we make it into playoffs. And Bret Anderson should be AAA depth. Slusser keeps defending the A’s talking about the Familia trade and that was great, but also not a massive area of concern for the A’s, They have a glaring need in the rotation. Prospects get hurt or don’t pan out. I feel we have enough depth that we could have spared some to try and win now.
AsNchill
If we had any idea what second base and shortstop will look like in 2020 it’d be fine, but considering we have no idea we need to keep as much up the middle depth as we can. Barreto hasn’t exactly panned out, Mateo still has a ways to go before he becomes a legitimate replacement for Semien, which isn’t saying that much, and Fowler will need to show improvements.
To get Fiers we’d have had to give up middle infield depth or pitching depth, and we’ll need those if we want to make this a consistent run and not just a one and done.
AJPGotThat2020Vision
Patience. The Southpawcalypse will be upon us in 2019
oaklandfan1
Couldnt agree more with this post. Glad we stayed put.
puigpower
Manaea knows the WC game is all about him.
justin-turner overdrive
Such a shame for Gossett, his last 2 innings were absolutely filthy. He looked like he had just had an a-ha moment, then TJ immediately.
sacball
they should bring up one or more of Dunshee, Howard, and Luzardo…even with Luzardo’s innings limit, he’d still pitch more than what the A’s are currently getting out of their starters
AsNchill
I’m actually seriously believing Howard could be a possibility, but I worry that he might hit his innings limit and not be available come September; this is his first pro year after all. We’ve actually got some dirty pitching in Double A between those 3, and the only power guy of the 3 is Luzardo.
Where he might be a better option than Dunshee is the height and deception department. Being 6’9 plays at every level.
justin-turner overdrive
Strong agree, hopefully all 3 are up in September at the minimum.
AsNchill
I could see it.
Brian Howard: 2.55 ERA/3.46 FIP, 9.42 K/9, 2.55 BB/9
Parker Dunshee: 2.96 ERA/3.45 FIP, 9.07 K/9, 0.99 BB/9
They’re basically the same pitcher, except that one of them is 6’1 and the other is 6’9. Dunshee’s BB/9 is outstanding.
justin-turner overdrive
Luzardo, Milburn, Howard and Dunshee all really salvaged the A’s farm this year, with all the injuries and learning/off-years so many had. Laureano too, can’t wait to see him up in Sept. Thankfully no more Smolinski ever again (until he goes to the Dodgers and becomes a 40-40 guy or some insane thing)
oldleftylong
A’s Suck.
arc89
If they do what do you say about the other 25 teams with a worse record than they have?
rycm131
Not a bad move
MetsYankeesRedSox
It wouldn’t surprise me that lowering the mound after ’68 somehow contributes to all these TJ surgeries.
Games were faster back then too.
swinging wood
Those two are perfect examples of conflating correlation with causation.
justin-turner overdrive
Throwers will always need TJ. Pitchers will never need it. It’s entirely about having repeatable mechanics that don’t waver at all. All these guys have too many moving parts. Pitchers like Ryan, Maddux and Verlander are identical every time.
Cam
Or, guys like that are freaks and should be treated as the exception. History is littered with TJ surgeries for all sorts of pitchers.
The experts of the experts still struggle to pinpoint what’s causing the spike, other than velocity increases.