Some injuries are fluky, some are chronic and likely to repeat. Every team gets decimated by injuries — even the limitless payroll Dodgers have had the worst of it. So while it’s hard to generalize around injury prediction and prevention one thing is certain: the A’s progress from “rebuilder” to “contender” is being hampered by young players who are having difficulty staying on the field.
Right now not one, not two, but three key cogs are on the IL missing precious time in the last 1/3 of the season. And while two of the injuries are in the “fluky/unavoidable” category of HBP on the wrist, the reality is that all 3 players have missed time before coming up in the minors.
Clarke’s injury, a left adductor (hip) strain, is perhaps the most concerning in that it wasn’t a “well he got plunked by an errant pitch” type of affliction. Clarke plays all out in CF and has had a few run ins — literally — with walls and the like.
Anytime you see a player who seems prone to soft tissue maladies it’s a concern because those injuries can become chronic, repeatable, and ultimately can affect the player’s mobility even when “healthy”. Clarke’s blazing speed is a huge part of his game both on defense and also as a hitter, and so it’s a bit disconcerting to see him go down after running the bases (when there wasn’t even a play being made on him).
The A’s need Clarke to stay on the field as he is by far their best defensive outfielder. It was also exciting to see him finally starting to hit the ball hard on a regular basis — it looked like maybe he had turned a corner to becoming a successful hitter, which could in turn make him a star.
Questions have always existed around his hit tool and whether he can make good enough contact, and enough contact in general, but there are also legitimate questions just around his ability to stay on the field. Fingers crossed because he is incredibly fun to watch and it is exciting to ponder his ceiling if how he was hitting when he hit the IL was foreboding success ahead.
Wilson hit the IL following a fastball to the hand and that on its own sounds like a “one off”. Of course Wilson will continue to be pounded inside until he starts laying off the fastball running in off the plate, and when that pitch gets at all away it’s headed for Wilson’s hand or wrist. So perhaps not entirely coincidental that he got nailed there.
More concerning, though, is that coming up in the minors and then again debuting in the majors last year, Wilson has battled hamstring injuries. Even this season he had “soreness” that kept him out a couple games even though he avoided the IL.
Not only does this weakness threaten to keep Wilson off the field repeatedly, there has been an impact on his defensive skill set. His range and sprint speed are well below average and have helped turn a sure-handed and strong armed infielder into statistically one of the worst defensive shortstops in the league.
A move to 3B would surely help get the most out of Wilson’s skill set, but he still has to stay healthy enough to bat and play defense somewhere. His dad, Jack, seems pretty savvy around strength and conditioning and the value of focusing on the core and whole body rather than just building muscle and bulk. Here’s hoping Jacob’s off-season regimen works on preventing a recurrence of the soft tissue maladies that have already cropped up throughout his professional career.
Some guys are “injury prone” and that can include just being darn unlucky. Muncy was showing improvements both at the plate and in the field when he took a fastball to the wrist and landed on the IL with a wrist contusion and hairline fracture.
Last season at AAA, Muncy was finally getting reps at 3B when his season ended early when he bruised his knee bone in a collision at 3B.
It’s fair to say Muncy’s injuries have been fluky, not the type you would expect to repeat or caused by poor conditioning, how he plays the game — just bad luck. But Muncy has had trouble staying on the field to make progress and you hope this IL stint is the last one for a while as he will end this season still green at 2B and 3B and having lost the momentum he had built up at the plate.
So far so good for Nick Kurtz in 2025. He sat out a couple games with some soreness in his lower half but that’s not entirely surprising given his rapid ascent and suddenly playing every day at the highest level a year after leaving college.
However, Kurtz does come with a college history of soft tissue injuries and is another player who would be well advised to focus his off-season conditioning program on prevention. He’s just too essential to the A’s going forward to be “great when he’s in there, but…”
On the plus side, so far so great with Tyler Soderstrom, Lawrence Butler, Shea Langeliers, Jack Perkins, and Luis Morales on the health front. Just keep an eye on these guys for more than how they develop on the field — they also have to stay on it.