A's Second Baseman Suffers Injury Scare Against Cleveland Guardians
During Wednesday's game against the Cleveland Guardians, Athletics second baseman Zack Gelof was hit on the hand by a Paul Sewald fastball in the bottom of the sixth. He was immediately removed from the game.
As Martín Gallegos of MLB.com would later report, the X-rays on Gelof's hand are set for Thursday, but was told by manager Mark Kotsay that he thinks the second baseman will be fine. He also noted that Gelof was about to be pinch-ran for anyway, so he was coming out of the game regardless.
This spring, Gelof is bating .297 with a .395 OBP, collecting two homers and 8 RBI. He has also struck out 16 times in camp across just 43 at-bats, and according to Baseball Reference, he has been facing, on average, Double-A pitching.
Last spring he struck out 35.1% of the time while batting .288 with a .351 OBP, four home runs and 8 RBI.
In 2025, he's striking out 37.2% of the time, while also walking at a slightly higher clip. Obviously any potential injury is the biggest concern at the moment, especially to the hand, but his stats this spring are mirroring what he did last year at this time, and that could also be worrisome.
In 2024, Gelof ended up batting .211 with a .270 OBP. He had the worst strikeout rate (34.4%) and on-base in baseball among qualified hitters, and his batting average was second-worst. Obviously spring stats don't count for much, but it did seem as though last year's underlying stats during camp were a precursor to a rough season.
The hope is that this year will be different, despite a similar line.
While Kotsay believes that Gelof will be fine, the A's also have some added depth this offseason, just in case. Earlier this year, they brought in Luis Urías, who can play second, and is also a seven-year veteran in the league. He would likely get the first crack at a regular role at the position, if needed.
Also on the depth chart would be Max Schuemann, who took over shortstop when needed last season, and even put together a solid month of July where he proved to himself that he belongs in the bigs. In that month he hit .308 with three homers and 19 runs scored. He also tallied 11 RBI and held a 151 wRC+ (100 is league average) in 91 plate appearances.
Schuemann can play all over the diamond, and should even see some time in the outfield this season. While Urías is also versatile, he's more of a jack-of-all-trades on the infield dirt.
For right now, the expectation seems to be that Gelof will be cleared for Opening Day in a week's time, but if the X-rays show anything unexpected, the A's will have a couple of options to choose from to replace him while he's away.
Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.