A’s injuries: Frankie Montas will miss next start; updates on Bride, Jimenez, Honeywell

Updates on some injured Oakland A’s, during this Thursday off-day.

First up is starting pitcher Frankie Montas. The right-hander exited his last start early on Sunday after demonstrating reduced velocity, with preliminary reports suggesting shoulder inflammation.

Montas went on to have an MRI, and the results offered a similar conclusion on Wednesday. He has inflammation but doesn’t have any structural damage in the shoulder, reports Matt Kawahara of the S.F. Chronicle. He was scheduled for a cortisone injection later on that day.

The bottom line moving forward is that Montas will miss his next start, adds Kawahara. His turn would have come up either Friday or Saturday, but instead he’ll sit out a bit longer to rest and recover. Beyond that, there is not yet any timetable for when he might return, so it might just be this one brief absence or he might yet miss even more time. For now, he has not been placed on any injured list.

Analysis: This is pretty much the best news we could have hoped for, with the key words being “no structural issues.” It’s still an injury, which is bad, and Montas will still miss some amount of time, which is bad. But right now we’re measuring that time in days and weeks of rest, not months of surgeries, so it could be worse. Of course, Frankie is in a special situation with the A’s this summer, where the only timetable that matters is the upcoming trade deadline a few weeks away. Even if he comes back promptly and fully, will this ill-timed setback affect his potential trade value?

Also out of action right now is reliever Dany Jimenez, who has served as the team’s closer most of this year. The right-hander has been out since mid-June with a strained right shoulder, and has now missed nearly three weeks of action. However, he played catch on Sunday, reports Kawahara, so at least he’s begun throwing in some capacity.

Elsewhere on the pitching staff, Brent Honeywell also began throwing this week. The righty has missed the whole season so far due to an elbow injury (olecranon stress reaction), but “he threw off flat ground for the first time yesterday and felt good,” reports insider Martin Gallegos. The next step is to get on a mound, which could possibly happen in the next week-plus before the All-Star break, adds Gallegos.

On the position player side, rookie infielder Jonah Bride banged up his shoulder in a collision with a teammate on defense. That happened June 26, which means he has already satisfied the minimum stint on the 10-day injured list, but over the weekend manager Mark Kotsay suggested it would take a bit longer than that for Bride to return, per Gallegos. That said, Bride was at least doing sprints on the field Sunday, adds Gallegos.

Here’s the latest injury report:

• RHP Deolis Guerra, out for year, elbow (Tommy John surgery on 4/13)
• RHP Brent Honeywell, 60-day IL, elbow (shut down 3/28; began throwing 7/6)
• RHP Daulton Jefferies, 60-day IL, rib (thoracic outlet surgery 6/13)
• RHP Dany Jimenez, 15-day IL, shoulder (retroactive 6/19; began throwing 7/4)
• IF Jonah Bride, 10-day IL, shoulder (retroactive 6/27)