Davis was placed on the disabled list Wednesday but revealed he has been bothered by discomfort in his hip and the surrounding areas for months, dating to when he was nursing a strained left quad during a DL stint from May 14-June 18. Davis is scheduled to undergo surgery on Thursday, and he’s expected to make a full recovery ahead of spring training. But Davis’ struggles will likely lead Oakland to non-tender him, however, and as a result he could have an opportunity to test the market this winter.
Advertisement
The left-handed Doolittle, the team’s returning closer from last season, never made it out of spring training, and his injury was the start of the bullpen’s demise from strength to weakness. I guess it got progressively worse, and he wasn’t saying a whole lot about it. He hit just three home runs for a club that had hopes of a solid bounceback season from him, already missing 33 games along the way with the quad injury. He had lost some bat speed this season as the hip injury got worse, and it’s problematic if the A’s will bring him back for the 2016 season.
Even though the A’s won’t qualify for the playoffs, Doolittle said it was important for him to pitch in the final six weeks of the season “because I’m a competitor and I’ve missed this so much and I’ve worked so hard this year to get back healthy…”
With Davis ailing, the A’s have already been using Mark Canha more at first base, and Stephen Vogt can play there as well – though Canha’s splits are actually better against right-handed pitchers this season than left-handers.
Sean Doolittle’s past few rehab outings have been encouraging, including striking out the side in scoreless innings his last two times out.
Oakland got a run in the ninth on an RBI single from Coco Crisp but left men at second and third as the game ended.
Advertisement
Crisp (ankle, neck) and Lawrie were back in the lineup Friday after both had missed the previous three games. Doolittle his 93 on the gun in Nashville, Bob Melvin said, a relief after he topped out at 90 in May.
