MVN - Most Valuable Network

Prediction: Ryan Goleski isn’t going anywhere.

The big news tonight is Mark Kotsay’s decision to have back surgery. Via Mychael Urban at the A’s official website:

A’s center fielder Mark Kotsay told MLB.com on Wednesday that he will undergo back surgery Thursday that he said is expected to keep him out of action for eight to 12 weeks. Kotsay said by telephone from California, where he has been since last Friday undergoing tests, that the procedure in Los Angeles will repair a herniated disc between the L3 and L4 (lumbar vertebrae).

Take that estimate of 8-12 weeks and stretch it out by at least another 4, because even after he is fully recovered it will take Kotsay time to get back to the level where he can play day in and day out. My guess is he won’t be available to play major league ball until at least June and even then the A’s will want to take it easy until he gets back in the swing of things.

With Milton Bradley also an injury risk and Kielty currently nursing a bum knee, the A’s outfield no longer looks so crowded and Beane’s moves in the offseason to add even more depth to the OF now seems a wise one. While it’s disappointing that Kotsay will miss significant playing time, it frees up a daily OF position and virtually guarantees Ryan Goleski staying with the team - not that his chances weren’t good before, but now I believe he’s a virtual lock.

Nick Swisher most likely will stay in RF with Milton Bradley in center and Shannon Stewart manning LF until Kielty is back in action. When that happens, expect a platoon of Kielty/Stewart in the OF, with Kielty seeing plenty of time against lefties and Stewart in the lineup against righties. Ryan Goleski will be the backup and can probably expect a decent amount of playing time if Swisher is played occasionally at 1B or the A’s outfield experiences yet another injury to one of their players.

For those of you who don’t know,  Ryan Goleski was the first pick of the rule 5 draft back in December, selected by the Devil Rays who flipped him over to the Oakland A’s for cash. David Forst, the A’s assistant general manager, had this to say about Goleski at the time:

“Our scouts have liked him from as far back as college,” Athletics assistant general manager David Forst said of Goleski. “It’s unlikely that Jay Payton will be coming back, so [Goleski] could make the club as the fourth or fifth outfielder. He’s a young guy with power.”

The A’s were alarmed to discover that Goleski had an unreported injured wrist, but a quick recovery from wrist surgery  put those concerns to rest. Goleski sports a career minor league line of 0.275 BA / 0.349 OBP / 0.528 SLG / 0.898 OPS (hat tip to The Baseball Cube). With 176 BB vs 417 K over 4 minor league seasons he isn’t exactly the stereotypical “Moneyball” player, but he certainly has shown some power with 27 HR in 2006 between A+ and AA ball. In fact, if it weren’t for a poor 2005 season, his overall numbers would look even better.

So far this spring Goleski has managed only 2 hits over 17 at bats with zero walks and 5 strikeouts, but I never put much stock into Spring Training stats.  Along with the A’s front office Geren seems to be high on Goleski, and former A’s hitting coach Dave Hudgens, who coached Ryan in Cleveland, said “We hated to lose Ryan.” Sorry Cleveland - it looks like he’s staying.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Spring Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.