A’s spring injuries: Stephen Piscotty wrist; Ramon Laureano timetable

The Oakland A’s injury report has been mostly just muscle pulls and other minor issues so far during spring training, but they’re starting to add up.

Right fielder Stephen Piscotty was scratched from the lineup Friday with left wrist soreness, the team announced. He had a cortisone shot and will miss a few days, reports Melissa Lockard of The Athletic.

Manager Bob Melvin called it “tendinitis to an extent,” per Rickey Blog. Melvin suggested “two days of non-activity as far as swinging” followed by reevaluation on Monday about Piscotty’s readiness to resume playing, possibly as soon as that day.

The prognosis is similar for center fielder Ramon Laureano, who was scratched from the lineup Tuesday due to soreness in his side, with the intercostal muscle suggested as the likely culprit. He’ll ramp up today by taking batting practice and maybe participating in a simulated game, reports Matt Kawahara of the S.F. Chronicle, with Monday as the target date for a return to Cactus League action.

Analysis: If all goes well, there’s a realistic chance all of this is nothing. Laureano and Piscotty could both be back on the field in a few days, having simply sat out a few spring games for the usual aches and pains of warming up after a long winter. In fact, that’s the expected result right now.

But you can never fully predict how injuries will go, and/or new ones can come up. Fortunately the outfield is an area of extreme depth for Oakland, and on Saturday they’re putting out Chad Pinder in RF, Mark Canha in CF, and hot new prospect Ka’ai Tom in LF, with another promising prospect Seth Brown still waiting on the bench. But of course the ideal situation is to have everyone healthy and available, and hopefully that’s the case by Tuesday.

Summary

Summing up the current injury report:

• OF Buddy Reed: out for a while (quad)
• RHP Mike Fiers: longshot for opener, but playing catch (hip)
• OF Stephen Piscotty: possible return Mon/Tue (wrist)
• OF Ramon Laureano: expected return Monday (side)

Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days!