A’s roster moves: Stephen Vogt to injured list, Austin Allen reinstated

More roster moves!

The Oakland A’s dugout keeps changing as the injury bug continues biting. Thursday morning they announced that catcher Stephen Vogt has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a sprained right knee.

Vogt was hurt in the 8th inning last night. While playing first base, he jumped to catch a high throw, and the runner clipped his leg while hustling through the bag. The collision tossed Vogt off balance and caused him to tumble awkwardly to the ground, and he immediately exited the game.

An MRI revealed a Grade 2 MCL sprain, reports John Shea of the S.F. Chronicle. There is no timetable for Vogt’s return, adds team insider Martin Gallegos.

In addition to the loss of Vogt, the A’s made a series of other moves:

• C Stephen Vogt to 10-day injured list
• C Austin Allen reinstated from COVID injured list
• C Christian Bethancourt joins 40-man roster permanently
• RHP Miguel Romero designated for assignment

These transactions all come together in one fell swoop, but here’s a functional breakdown to make sense of it all.

Begin with Allen, who’s been out since last week. He first went on the Restricted List when the club traveled internationally to Toronto, and then when they returned home he was placed on the COVID IL. Now he’s ready to return to action.

In order to facilitate Allen’s reinstatement, one of the emergency COVID substitutes had to head out. That’s fellow catcher Bethancourt, who had been temporarily added to the 40-man roster and brought to the majors Friday under a special set of COVID rules. His assignment ending means he would be taken back off the 40-man and returned to the minors, without having to pass through waivers or anything, like his callup never happened — but don’t worry, his part of the story isn’t done yet.

At the same time as all this, Vogt got hurt and landed on the IL. Now a different catcher is missing, Vogt instead of Allen, so Bethancourt comes right back up to replace Vogt instead.

However, Bethancourt wasn’t on the 40-man roster anymore, since his temporary COVID assignment ended. He needed to be re-added as a proper permanent member in order to stay in the majors, which meant cutting somebody else to clear a spot. Romero was chosen as the odd man out and DFA’d.

In reality, all of this happened simultaneously, and Bethancourt never actually went anywhere. The official transaction is merely that he “had the substitute player designation removed and is now officially on the 40-man roster.” But those are the nuts and bolts of how it all works under the rules.

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The end result in terms of the active roster is that Allen taps in for Vogt, and Bethancourt sticks around in the majors. Both Allen and Bethancourt are out of minor league options, so neither can be sent down to Triple-A again or else they’ll have to pass through waivers.

The 30-year-old Bethancourt made useful contributions in several areas over the past week. On defense he played a couple games behind the plate and threw out his only attempted basestealer, and he also started a few times at first base and made an impressive running catch in the Coliseum’s expansive foul territory. With the bat he’s a modest 5-for-20 with a double, but he’s only struck out three times, and his 92.6 mph exit velocity is second only to Sean Murphy on the team. He’s hitting the ball a lot and he’s hitting it hard, and he also stole a base.

Meanwhile, Romero never quite got his chance in Oakland. He was briefly called up to the majors last summer but didn’t get into a game, and otherwise he’s toiled in Triple-A since 2019. We’ll find out the result of his DFA over the next few days, including the possibility that he is claimed by another team, or that he simply stays in the A’s organization as a non-roster player in Las Vegas.

Roster update

Here’s the updated 28-man roster. There are five players on the COVID list (CV), four on the regular 10-day IL, two on the 60-day IL, and one on the Suspended List. Players marked with an asterisk* are specifically COVID substitutes called up under that special set of rules (Nick Allen was already on the 40-man, the others were not).