A’s place Chad Pinder on injured list, recall A.J. Puk

It was bad enough that the Oakland A’s got swept to open the 2021 season, at home, by their top division rival, in thorough fashion. To add injury to insult, they also had three players get hurt during the series, and now one of them is going to miss some time.

The A’s placed Chad Pinder on the 10-day injured list Monday, the team announced. The diagnosis is a sprained left knee.

The super-sub was playing RF on Sunday and made a great leaping catch at the wall in the 1st inning, but came down hard and was slow getting off the ground. He was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the frame. Pinder is 3-for-10 this year with the A’s only homer so far, and already made multiple excellent catches in the outfield.

To replace him on the active roster, Oakland called up LHP A.J. Puk from their alternate site camp.

The pitching staff allowed 35 runs to the Houston Astros in their four games together, and received only around five innings per start from their rotation, so a new reinforcement makes sense. Puk is the team’s top pitching prospect, and for now he’ll work out of the bullpen, reports insider Martin Gallegos. In his final spring training appearance nine days ago, he faced the minimum through four scoreless innings.

Other injuries

In other injury news, catcher Sean Murphy is back in the lineup Monday. He was hit by a pitch in Thursday’s season opener and missed the next three games to a right wrist contusion.

However, CF Ramon Laureano is still out with his own jammed left wrist, incurred on a slide into first base. He remains day-to-day and is a possibility to return Tuesday, per Gallegos.

On the pitching side, RHP Mike Fiers (lumbar strain) will throw three innings Monday at the A’s alternate site in Stockton, in their first of 16 scheduled scrimmages against Giants players, per Gallegos.

• RHP Trevor Rosenthal, 10-day IL, shoulder (no timetable)
• UT Chad Pinder, 10-day IL, knee (no timetable)
• RHP Mike Fiers, 10-day IL, lumbar (alt-site rehab outing Monday)
• OF Ramon Laureano, day-to-day, wrist (any day now?)
• C Sean Murphy, ACTIVE, wrist (BACK IN ACTION!)