Inside The As

A's Get Good News on Webster Garrison

Minor league coach and manager Webster Garrison is no longer fully dependent on a ventilator in his battle with COVID-19 coronavirus in a Louisiana hospital.

John Hickey

The A’s community are getting some good news on minor league coach and manager Webster Garrison in his battle with the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Writing on Twitter, Garrison’s fiancée, Nikki Trudeaux wrote “He’s coming back to us” just days after Garrison went on a ventilator in a hospital near his home in Louisiana.

In saying that Garrison is “turning the corner,” Trudeaux continues to ask for nightly prayers for the 54-year-old former second baseman, whose major league career lasted five game for the A’s in August of 1996.

“Web was 100% dependent on the ventilator yesterday morning, 80% this morning and now 60% tonight,” Trudeaux posted on Tuesday. “His respiratory blood work came back really good, too. He’s coming back to us y’all. Keep praying.”

Trudeaux has also tested positive for the coronavirus, but her symptoms to date have been relatively mild. She clearly is feeling much more optimistic than last week when she wrote “The love of my life is on a ventilator in the hospital, fighting for his life, and I can’t even be at his side.”

For the last 22 seasons Garrison has been working with the A’s in a number of roles. He was the manager of the Class-A California League Stockton Ports in 2019 and was due this season to manager one of Oakland’s rookie-league teams in Arizona. He was with the A’s in spring training as a coach.

The A’s haven’t officially announced Garrison’s condition, saying only that a minor-league staff member had tested positive and was under hospital care. The press release said the club is “following MLB suggested protocols CDC guidelines and local public health recommendations for care.

“During this pandemic,” the release read, “the health and safety of our players, employees, and community is our top priority. We are in this together and will get through this together.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the A’s believe that Garrison’s exposure to the coronavirus occurred after he left the A’s minor league complex on March 13, after the A’s and the rest of baseball shut down major and minor league operations as part of the battle against the pandemic.

Since Garrison landed in the hospital, Trudeaux has called for friends and family to call out his name in prayer each night at 10 p.m.

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John Hickey
JOHN HICKEY

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