The Athletics are playing all of their games for the next few years at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento while they wait for their stadium in Las Vegas to be constructed. It\u2019s been expected from the very beginning that playing in a minor league stadium would be an adjustment for the players, and before the season began there were issues raised by the MLBPA that resulted in a brief scuffle over whether the park would have grass or synthetic turf. Even with concessions such as the use of grass, however, some players were bound to find the change jarring.<\/p>\n
According to Brendan Kuty of The Athletic<\/a>, Luis Severino<\/a> is one such player. Severino has performed much better on the road this year, with a 2.27 ERA in seven road starts as compared to a 6.79 ERA in ten starts at Sutter Health Park. When asked about the discrepancy, Severino was quick to attribute it to the fact that the team gets to play in a traditional MLB stadium when on the road.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have that at home right now,\u201d Severino said, as relayed by Kuty. \u201cIt\u2019s not the same. It\u2019s not the same atmosphere. We don\u2019t have a lot of fans. Our clubhouse is in left field. So, when we play day games, we have to just be in the sun. There\u2019s no air conditioning there, too. It\u2019s really tough.\u201d<\/p>\n The A\u2019s are expected to remain at Sutter Health Park through the end of the 2027 season, so conditions aren\u2019t likely to change in the short-term. Severino signed with the A\u2019s for three years and $67MM over the winter, and while his deal comes with an opt-out clause after the second season he\u2019s still locked into that contract through the end of the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n Given Severino\u2019s displeasure with his home ballpark and the Athletics\u2019 lackluster 34-51 record, it\u2019s easy to speculate about the possibility of a trade benefiting all parties. The righty was floated as a possible trade target<\/a> for the Cubs earlier this week, but there\u2019s plenty of reason to think the A\u2019s might be reluctant to part with Severino considering the struggles they\u2019ve had luring high-dollar free agents into the organization previously. While most clubs would expect to be able to replace a high-dollar veteran they part with in trade via free agency the following winter, it\u2019s not hard to imagine the A\u2019s ballpark situation making free agent pitchers reluctant to sign there.<\/p>\n More from the AL West\u2026<\/p>\n Astros\u00a0shortstop Jeremy Pena<\/a> was out of the lineup today after getting hit by a pitch in the ribs during yesterday\u2019s game against the Cubs, but manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Chandler Rome of The Athletic<\/a>) that Pena came in today feeling better after being considered day-to-day yesterday. Espada added that Pena would receive treatment and do light baseball activities but be held out of tonight\u2019s game. That creates reason for optimism he could be back in the lineup for the series finale on Sunday, which would be a huge boost given that Pena has put himself into the MVP conversation with a blistering first half. Mauricio Dubon<\/a> has filled in at shortstop in Pena\u2019s absence.
\nRangers\u00a0outfielder Wyatt Langford<\/a> was placed on the injured list due to an oblique strain yesterday, but MLB.com\u2019s Kennedi Landry<\/a> writes that both Langford himself and Rangers brass have suggested the issue isn\u2019t a serious one. President of baseball operations Chris Young<\/a> told reporters that the team having two upcoming days off on the schedule played a role in the decision to send Langford for what the club expects to be a minimum IL stint, and added that the injury was \u201cright on the cusp\u201d\u00a0of being something they\u2019d just rest Langford on the bench for a few days for. Langford has struggled to a lackluster .224\/.286\/.342 in June this year, so perhaps a ten-day reset could benefit the 23-year-old in more ways than one. Alejandro Osuna<\/a> has joined Evan Carter<\/a> and Adolis Garcia<\/a> in the regular outfield mix while Langford is out of commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletics are playing all of their games for the next few years at Sutter Health Park in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,5828,1327,4,385],"class_list":{"0":"post-138760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-jeremy-pena","10":"tag-luis-severino","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-wyatt-langford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114764855621102431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}