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Elephant Rumblings: Zack Gelof Has Rib Stress Reaction

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Good morning A’s fans!

The Athletics have been patiently await the return of second baseman Zack Gelof from the injured list for the entirety of the season so far after the 25-year-old broke his right hamate bone in the waning days of Spring Training. The hope was that the young infielder would only need the bare minimum or close to it to recover, rehab, and return to the team and take his rightful place at the keystone. It would be six-to-eight weeks but the team could at least tread water while waiting for his return

While the team has done more than tread water, they’ll be without their second baseman for a while longer. Yesterday we got word that Gelof had a stress reaction in his ribs and would be down for the foreseeable future:

Per manager Mark Kotsay, there isn’t any timeline for his return and it seems the club is prepared for Gelof to miss a lot more time than anticipated. There is a wide range of possibilities with this type of injury, from missing just a couple of weeks to a months-long absence. It seems like a distinct possibility the club elects to transfer Gelof to the 60-day IL, which would open up a spot on the 40-man roster but guarantee Gelof misses all of May and likely at least half of June.

There were huge expectations for the young infielder entering last season after he ended the 2023 season as the club’s best hitter. He looked like a future building block and a potential top-5 second baseman if he could continue that production over a full season. As a former 2nd-round draft pick the pedigree was there and he’d slowly climbed the minor league ladder before bursting onto the scene and hitting 14 home runs in just 69 games.

Maybe fans put too much expectations on the rookie. Gelof slumped out of the gate to open the ‘24 campaign and he never really broke out of it. He finished with 17 long balls to go with 25 stolen bases but he also led the lead in strikeouts and hit a measly .211 on the year. Not the campaign people were expecting for an encore performance. Still, the team had every reason to believe there was more that he can offer and the team went into the offseason fully comfortable with him as the everyday second baseman again.

The injury will now delay that plan even longer. There shouldn’t be any doubt that the team plans to plug Gelof back in as the everyday starter when he returns. The club still feels very highly of him and youth is on his side. How he does when he returns is another question all together. The club would love for him to seize the job and return to his 2023 form but if he looks more like he did last year the club may need to make hard choices, especially if they remain in the playoff hunt.

For now the club has veteran Luis Urias manning the keystone in Gelof’s absence. The 27-year-old has been a suitable stopgap for a club desperate for one. The team tried to find lightning in a bottle by giving rookie Max Muncy everyday run at second base to open the season but it became clear fairly early he wasn’t yet ready for The Show. Once Muncy returned to the minors and Urias became the undisputed second baseman he began to heat up. On the year he’s hitting .266 with five home runs. Perhaps more impressively he has more walks than strikeouts as of this morning. If he keeps playing like this the club will want to find him at-bats even when Gelof returns. Lucky for Kotsay he won’t have to think about that for a while.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

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