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It May Be Time for Athletics to Place Chapman on Injured List Just to Take a Break

The Oakland Athletics are going to need Matt Chapman in October, so it may well be wise for the club to put Chapman, currently battling tendinitis in his right hip, on the 10-day injured list to aid his healing. He's already missed four days, and there are no announced plans for him to do any kind of baseball activities while he heals.
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Oakland Athletics third baseman Matt Chapman had hoped to be working out by Wednesday, maybe Thursday at the latest.

Chapman, coming back from an MRI that showed him to have right hip tendinitis, didn’t get on the field for hoped-for baseball activities on either day.

It’s not clear when he will. The A’s will leave after Thursday afternoon’s game against the Houston Astros for a road trip that begins Friday and runs through Texas, Seattle and Colorado.

With the A’s having doubleheaders against the Rangers Saturday and against the Mariners on Monday, they’d like to get their two-time Platinum Award winning third baseman as part of their weaponry.

Manager Bob Melvin said as early as Sunday, when Chapman had to come out of the last game of a series in Houston, that there was no thought being given to Chapman going on the 10-day injured list. That was then.

Baseball teams can post-date injuries for five days, and it is looking increasingly as if Chapman might need most or all of those 10 days to regain his health and his strength.

“No activity today,” Melvin said when asked about Chapman Thursday morning. “He’s still not in position to get (on the field).”

After Thursday, a 3-1, Melvin said there was no update on Chapman’s condition.

With the A’s having the largest lead of any team in any of Major League Baseball’s six divisions at 6½ games entering the weekend’s play, the best option might be for the club to put Chapman on the injured list, making sure he gets a full 10 days off to recover.

Oakland has a deep roster – Tommy La Stella, Chad Pinder and Vimael Machin can handle third base in the short term, perhaps without the defensive panache that Chapman brings, but with enough on their plates for the A’s to get by.

The A’s have missed Chapman’s presence at third, to be sure, but Oakland just finished taking four of five from second-place Houston without him, so the A’s depth is, as they say, deep.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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