Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
The Oakland Athletics might have an explanation for Josh Reddick‘s early-season struggles.
The team announced on Tuesday that the Gold Glove right fielder, who is hitting .152 in 29 games heading into play on Tuesday, has been battling a wrist injury and will be held out of the lineup until this weekend against the Seattle Mariners.
Further, manager Bob Melvin told writer Susan Slusser that he believes Reddick’s wrist issue owes itself to the injury he sustained in Houston last month. Reddick crashed into the wall chasing a Jose Altuve foul pop-up and left the game in obvious pain, but somehow stayed off the DL.
Honestly, it might actually be somewhat refreshing to hear that Reddick’s hitting woes can be attributed to the wrist sprain and not solely due to fundamental flaws (although he has exhibited those as well, appearing to tweak his stance with hitting coach Chili Davis every few days recently).
The team says that Reddick will receive a Xylocaine shot in an effort to calm the pain and go from there. In his place, the A’s are starting the recently called-up Michael Taylor in right field for Tuesday’s game against the Cleveland Indians.
Reddick’s importance to the 2013 A’s cannot be understated. He was a major force in the team’s playoff run last season, and if they want to do anything this year, it’ll be really hard to do so without a healthy (and contributing) Reddick in the lineup. He combined with Yoenis Cespedes to form a pretty consistent two-headed offensive threat, and the A’s will need him to do the same this season.
Let’s hope that wrist recovers quickly, so Reddick can get back to being Reddick.
Adrian Garro is an Oakland Athletics writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter and/or add him to your network on Google.
