Oakland A's injury update: Josh Reddick returns Sunday, who gets sent down?

Before the start of the season, most indications were that the Athletics were going to activate Josh Reddick on Saturday from the oblique strain that held him out of much of spring training because the Mariners had a chance to skip left-hander J.A. Happ thanks their off day on Thursday. Now that Happ is pitching today and right-hander Felix Hernandez will start Sunday, the A's will wait to activate Josh Reddick until then, says MLB.com's Jane Lee.

In Lee's article Bob Melvin was curiously guarded about Reddick's role upon his return. Widely expected to be the everyday right fielder, some platooning may be in order, " 'In the past, he has played every day some, and sometimes he's been platooned,' said Melvin. 'We'll see what the roster dynamic looks like when he gets here.' "

Well let's look at the roster dynamic now. Tyler Ladendorf is expected to be sent down, Lee writes. If that's the case, however, a platoon doesn't really make much sense, because all you would be doing is turning one of your other RHP-only platoon players into an everyday player. I don't think any of us wants Stephen Vogt, Ike Davis, Sam Fuld, or Eric Sogard getting more playing time than Josh Reddick.

This setup creates a little bit of a problem if Bob Melvin wants to give a player in one of these "optimum" lineups a day off. Against lefties, you're basically looking at Josh Reddick vs. Sam Fuld. Against righties, you're looking at Mark Canha vs. Josh Reddick.

But what if the A's send down someone else?

Tyler Ladendorf has only six plate appearances, and he is 2-for-5 with a triple and a walk. His minor league performance on offense only makes him out to be a lefty masher, though he has shown to be quite adept all over the field on defense. If you keep Tyler Ladendorf, there's only one other candidate to send down right now, Eric Sogard.

First, what would those lineups look like?

Here, a Reddick platoon would mean Mark Canha becomes an everyday player.

How to decide

So that means the decision for who to demote on Sunday comes down to summing up the values of several factors, evaluating keeping Sogard and playing Reddick everyday against keeping Ladendorf and platooning Reddick:

I assume the A's are assigning run values to all of these factors. I'll just run through it narratively.

There are more right-handed starting pitchers than left-handed starting pitchers in baseball, and the A's are about to face six consecutive right-handed pitchers after Saturday's game. It's easier to plan around using only the optimal lineup against left-handers than it is to avoid giving players days off against right-handers.

Mark Canha appears to be Bob Melvin's hot-handed hitter of the week, getting two starts against right-handers over Craig Gentry. Having him as at least the first available bat off the bench against right-handers is my primary reason to hang on to Eric Sogard. Even if Canha jumps into the everyday role, I think I would still rather have Eric Sogard be the first bench bat over Craig Gentry against right-handed pitchers.

Your evaluation of these factors may vary, of course.