<\/p>\n
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay, right, argues a call at first base with umpire Jordan Baker, left, during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Cleveland.<\/p>\n
Phil Long\/AP Photo\/Phil Long<\/p>\n
Athletics’ Shea Langeliers, right, walks back to the dugout as Cleveland Guardians’ Patrick Bailey, left, looks on after a strikeout by Cleveland Guardians relief pitcher Cade Smith for the final out of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Cleveland.<\/p>\n
Phil Long\/AP Photo\/Phil Long<\/p>\n
The Athletics entered the season with high hopes, and for good reason.<\/p>\n
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They had a young core of talented players and came off a season in which they put together a 35-29 record after the All-Star break. The A’s also played in baseball’s worst division, the AL West, which Houston ultimately won with a .500 mark.<\/p>\n
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But then the injuries happened. Mark Kotsay said Monday it was unlike anything he has seen in his five seasons as manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven as a player, I can\u2019t recall a roster of your top five opening day players in the lineup going down and not having them for 60-plus games,\u201d said Kotsay, who played 17 big league seasons.<\/p>\n
The injuries \u2014 as well as a pitching staff that struggled to keep balls inside the Athletics’ temporary, hitter-friendly Triple-A stadium in West Sacramento, California \u2014 took a toll. Instead of making a playoff run, the A’s went 64-98. Only Colorado and the Los Angeles Angels posted worse records.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t win enough games and we\u2019re not satisfied with the overall results,\u201d interim general manager Dan Feinstein said. \u201cWe came into the year expecting to contend, and obviously that didn\u2019t happen. At the same time, we made real progress in some important areas, and we saw continued growth from a number of our young players who were frankly thrust into some unexpected roles.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Feinstein pointed specifically to infielders Zack Gelof and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer and outfielder Henry Bolte making the most of their chances, which could benefit the A’s when they play their scheduled third and final season in Sacramento before the club’s planned move to Las Vegas in 2028.<\/p>\n
A potential lockout hangs over the start of next season, but Feinstein said the A’s are proceeding as if everything is on schedule.<\/p>\n
This season showed the unexpected could certainly create negative consequences.<\/p>\n
Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker, Jacob Wilson, Shea Langeliers and Tyler Soderstrom were on the injured list for a combined 340 games. Only Langeliers among that group finished the season, and the catcher did it as a designated hitter.<\/p>\n
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The A’s also placed infielder Max Muncy on the IL with a knee injury last week.<\/p>\n
Starting pitcher Luis Severino was placed on the IL on May 30 because of strained right shoulder and never took the mound again. Severino signed a $67 million, three-year contract in December 2024, but can opt out after this season. The right-hander is 10-17 with a 4.43 ERA in his short time with the A’s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ultimately his decision,\u201d Feinstein said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to get ahead of it. We\u2019ve enjoyed having him here and once he makes his decision, we\u2019ll have a better sense of what the next steps are.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as next steps with other players, Kurtz and Rooker took batting practice late in the season and Kotsay said he expected a \u201cnormal\u201d offseason for them. Wilson and Soderstrom are going through the rehabilitation process through winter, and Muncy’s knee needs to be \u201cfurther evaluated,\u201d the manager said.<\/p>\n
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Feinstein said the A’s, as they routinely do, will evaluate every aspect of their organization now that the season is over, including the training and medical staffs.<\/p>\n
But Kotsay said there wasn’t a unifying reason why the A’s had some many players get hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Luis Severino going out and playing the WBC, you always question the intensity that he threw at so early in the year as to possibly leading to his injury,\u201d Kotsay said. \u201cShea Langeliers was a specific play. Tyler Soderstrom was a specific play.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if we’re looking at strength and conditioning, training staff, medical as a cause, I think you have to look at the injury specific as opposed to the training methods. Generally, the training methods lead to muscle strains, in particular lower-half hamstrings, things of that nature. Correct me if I’m wrong, but elbow, things like of that nature in our arm care programs have held up really well in this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
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See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Athletics manager Mark Kotsay, right, argues a call at first base with umpire Jordan Baker, left, during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[99345,5,545,135,51,2565,10745,538,71706,1950,72487,1327,4215,1532,4,459,9501,9496,39138,83205,3442,544,3291],"class_list":["post-817075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-guardians","tag-athletics-injuries-kotsay-feinstein","tag-baseball","tag-brent-rooker","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-clevelandguardians","tag-dan-feinstein","tag-guardians","tag-henry-bolte","tag-jacob-wilson","tag-joshua-kuroda-grauer","tag-luis-severino","tag-mark-kotsay","tag-max-muncy","tag-mlb","tag-nick-kurtz","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40776-ap-california-sports-only","tag-product-40798-ap-nevada-sports-only","tag-shea-langeliers","tag-tyler-soderstrom","tag-zack-gelof"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817075","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=817075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}