A’s say Matt Chapman is done for season
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The Oakland A’s will be without one of their best players for the rest of the season. Platinum Glove third baseman Matt Chapman will undergo surgery on his right hip Monday that will sideline him for the rest of a 2020 season in which the A’s look primed for a deep playoff run.
Chapman was diagnosed with right hip tendinitis on Sept. 7, but went for a second opinion from hip specialist Dr. Marc Philippon in Vail, Colorado, prior to the A’s road trip to Texas. Saturday morning, Chapman was placed on the 10-day IL with a strained hip.
The A’s have depth to cover third base. Chad Pinder, Vimael Machín and Tommy La Stella can rotate through the position depending on match ups.
The A’s are a scrappy team that thrives on the ethos of a never-say-die mentality. Though Chapman is one of the team’s stars, from an opponents’ standpoint it’s the team’s depth makes them somewhat enigmatic and tough to crack.
No doubt about it, though. This is a huge blow for the A’s, who are creeping up on a top American League seed in the postseason with a seven-game cushion atop the American League West, ahead of the Houston Astros. Chapman’s hip was clearly bothering him as he struggled at the plate before he left mid-game Sunday’s against the San Diego Padres. He is one of the team’s strongest, most potent hitters with the defensive prowess that can dictate the course of a game and series.
Chapman was batting .120 with 17 strikeouts over the last eight games he played, when his hip was bothering him. Before that, he was batting .303 with seven home runs and 18 RBI over a 16-game stretch from Aug. 7-23.
What the A’s will miss most is his game-changing glove. The two-time Platinum Glove winner, despite feeling twinges of pain in his final games, was one of the most impactful defenders in the game this short season. He had accumulated 3 defensive runs saved — A statistic more than any other as it directly calculates how many runs a defender has prevented. Since his call-up year in 2017, Chapman leads baseball in DRS with 82. Los Angeles Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons follows with a 76 and outfielder Mookie Betts is third with 71, according to Fangraphs.
Chapman’s range at third best shown through his 13 outs above average — meaning, he has an innate ability to turn the most difficult defensive plays into outs. Since 2017, only Colorado Rockies’ Nolan Arenado has had more total outs above average (27) than Chapman (26) from the third base corner.
The A’s will certainly miss that kind of competitive edge at the hot corner in a postseason, where one shining individual performance can alter the course of a series.
Though he went through his hot and cold streaks, Chapman’s potent power at the plate will be sorely missed, too. When Chapman gets a barrel on the ball — which he did more frequently than all his teammates and most players in the league — the power is eye-popping. His season will end with 10 home runs, a .232/.276/.535 slash line and a solid .812 OPS.
His 93.2 average exit velocity and 18% barrel rate ranked among the league’s top 98 percentile; in other words, he was hitting the ball hard, which is a good indication that he could have been on pace for a noteworthy year at the plate, perhaps in a longer, healthy season. But he was striking out in 35.5 percent of his at bats, an indication of some discomfort.
Perhaps the most substantial gut punch will be the leadership lost. Shortstop Marcus Semien, among others, has taken on a leadership role within the A’s clubhouse. Semien steadies the boat and leads by example. Matt “Chaptain” brought a special kind of competitive fire as a leader in the A’s clubhouse.
Check back for more updates as news develops. Manager Bob Melvin is about to address the media now.