Reinforcements?
The A’s announced a major roster move just before hitting the road for Cincinnati, activating star prospect Jacob Wilson off of the IL and adding him back to the major league roster:
A’s have optioned Darell Hernaiz to Triple-A Las Vegas. Likely creates an opening for Jacob Wilson to return from the IL.
— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) August 25, 2024
Yes, yes, we may be getting ahead of ourselves here but the writing is clearly on the wall. This move makes too much sense to happen with Hernaiz being optioned out. The club wouldn’t be making this move if their prized prospect wasn’t healthy and ready to roll with the major leaguers.
Wilson will rejoin the team after roughly a month away due to that injured hamstring. As you may remember, Wilson broke onto the big league stage with a single in his first at bat before straining his hamstring rounding third trying to score. It was obvious from the moment that it happened that Wilson would be down for the count for a bit of a while and hamstrings can be notoriously tricky if you don’t fix it right the first time. With Oakland where it is in the playoff standings it was clearly the right move to take their time with him.
Wilson will now return to the club with a perfect 1.000 batting average but of course that’ll drop over the next few days. The assumption is that he’ll lay claim to the everyday shortstop job from here to the end of the season, barring injury. Incumbent shortstop Max Shuemann has done an admirably job taking over as an everyday player when he wasn’t expected to see much playing time eveyone the season. He’ll now shift to a utility role and bounce around the diamond as needed, hopefully thriving and solidifying himself as the Athletics’ 2025 primary bench piece. Let’s focus on that versatility for the rest of the season.
With Wilson rejoining the roster the team needed to make room. The roster causality was fellow infielder Darell Hernaiz. It’s been a disappointing campaign for the 23-year old rookie who entered the season with high expectations. While he cracked the major league roster when camp broke during the spring his playing time was few and far between. Finally given the reigns to take over at shortstop on an eve day basis it was bad luck that just a couple days later he would twist his ankle and be shelved for the next few months. A successful rehab assignment brought him back to the big leagues in early August but the sporadic playing time and playing a different position (third base) seems to have just been too much for Hernaiz’s plate. Still one of the organization’s better prospects, Hernaiz will now head to Triple-A to hone his game at the plate and play in a less stressful environment. Hopefully some everyday at-bats can help him right the ship and at least end the season on a positive note for the young infielder. He’ll be facing an uphill battle entering next season regardless so a full successful offseason will be critical for Hernaiz entering his second season. Time will tell.