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Here’s the latest!
Rosenthal and Moreland arrive
Even when position players began workouts on Monday, the team still wasn’t quite fully accounted for. That’s because two free agents hadn’t yet been formally announced, but that changed this week as closer Trevor Rosenthal and DH Mitch Moreland are now officially members of the A’s and both have reported to camp.
“It puts us in a similar situation when we had Liam here. We didn’t think that was going to be the case once Liam signed with with Chicago. So it’s a lot easier on us to not have to be as creative in the last couple innings.”
Matt Chapman recovery
The team’s best player missed the end of last season due to hip surgery, so of course one of the biggest questions facing the club is how his recovery is going. All sounds good so far.
“I didn’t see anything different,” said manager Bob Melvin after hitting Chapman some grounders, via insider Martin Gallegos. “We gave him a few balls and I didn’t make him go too far. But he’s eager. It’s going to be more trying to hold him back than trying to get him ready.”
Some Matt Chapman action via A’s IG account. pic.twitter.com/DXXS4fFgCb Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) February 18, 2021
morning afternoon, Athletics Nation!
The baseball world lost one of its top journalists on Sunday, as ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez died at age 58. The cause of death has not been revealed, but ESPN’s news release states that he “passed away unexpectedly.”
While Gomez began his sportswriting career in Miami in 1985, his first full-time job as an MLB beat writer came in 1992, when he covered the Oakland A’s for the
San Jose Mercury News (and later the
Sacramento Bee). From there he became a national reporter for the
Arizona Republic, and in 2003 he joined ESPN. One of the highlights of his time at ESPN was his coverage of Barry Bonds and the slugger’s chase for the career home run record.