Oakland A's injury: Ben Zobrist out until at least Thursday

Oakland Athletics super utility man Ben Zobrist will be out until at least Thursday, tweets the Bay Area News Group's John Hickey from Ben Zobrist's afternoon press gaggle. Zobrist had an MRI today that showed no ligament damage and will be getting a cortisone shot in his knee tonight, tweets MLB.com's Jane Lee. Zobrist was removed from Sunday's game against the Kansas City Royals with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning with what the A's called "left knee soreness."

Zobrist in wait and see mode with knee. Has had existing cartilage issues but he doesn't think this is as bad as when he needed surgery.

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) April 20, 2015

While Zobrist could not rule out surgery, the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser also tweets, any surgery would be minimally invasive as the issue is just with cartilage and not the ligaments themselves.

Zobrist glad MRI showed nothing to suggest surgery needed. But if knee doesn't respond, he says it can't be ruled out either. #Athletics

— Joe Stiglich (@JoeStiglichCSN) April 20, 2015

In the meantime, it appears the A's will start the left-handed batting Eric Sogard at second base batting eighth against right-handed pitcher Matt Shoemaker tonight. Brett Lawrie, who had been scheduled to have a day off, will instead bat seventh and play third base.

The A's will be up against left-handed pitchers Hector Santiago on Tuesday and C.J. Wilson on Thursday, and one way for Sogard not to start in games against left-handers without Zobrist would be for Mark Canha to play third base with Brett Lawrie shifting over to second.