Matt Chapman held back from baseball activity, return date uncertain

Matt Chapman exited the A’s-Padres game Sunday in the fifth inning with what was later confirmed to be a right-side hip strain. He took 48 hours off and, though he said it felt a little better Wednesday, he did not play and was held back from any baseball activity during pregame warmups against the Houston Astros.

Chapman this week explained his status:

“I’m okay, just kinda taking it day to day and just kinda seeing how it feels. It is kinda hard to tell … already in a few days it has kinda calmed down and were just gonna kinda go from there.”

Marcus Semien was out of the lineup for a couple of games due to left side soreness and returned for the A’s doubleheader on Tuesday. Chapman had been playing shortstop while Semien was out and now that Chapman is out, Tommy La Stella, Chad Pinder and Vimael Machin have helped fill in for the All-Star third baseman and 2019 MVP finalist.

Though Chapman didn’t need a cortisone shot leading up to Wednesday, starting right fielder Stephen Piscotty did. Piscotty received a cortisone shot on his right wrist on Wednesday after he was pulled due to soreness. Piscotty came in to pinch run for catcher Sean Murphy in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s 3-2 win, when the A’s clinched their season series against the Houston Astros for the first time since 2014.

It is still unknown if Chapman will eventually need a cortisone shot to help with his recovery. Chapman said:

“I think that [cortisone shot] is something that is a last resort thing. I haven’t heard of too many people doing cortisone at the hip. I think we are just kinda waiting to see if we can calm down that area.”

The Platinum glove third baseman can’t put his finger on what exactly triggered the injury and explained that while there are always injuries, some allow you to give whatever you can that day but this specific injury has been bothering him all season:

“I think the whole start and stop, whether it was the Covid or we stopped after Houston for a week but then also just the way the whole season has gone just from, spring training, it was off-season, spring training, get going again, and then stop and then play speed up really fast and then stop … I think for me hopefully my body is just confused with all the stuff it has been going through this year and it’s just not responding well.”

The 2020 season has been one of the weirdest in MLB history and, although Chapman is tough pushes his body as far as it can go, he said this injury has been bothering him more than he can bear:

“It’s hard enough to go out there and compete when you have a clear mind but when you start to think about something like that, every step you take you know something felt weird in my hip so I was just like, you know what, if I can’t make plays on defense right now, I don’t want to hurt the team so I just wanna get this right … because you know, were going to be playing hopefully late into October and that is my goal.”

Chapman said he was prepared on Wednesday to start baseball activity but was not seen warming up at third. He explained that once he starts doing baseball activities again, there will be no telling how fast he will be coming back.

He spoke very highly of his teammates who are subbing in for him:

“Absolutely, it goes to show how deep our team is. When me and Marcus aren’t in there we have other guys who have stepped up who are able to do great jobs and I think that is what makes us a great team.”

Chapman doesn’t know what to do with himself when he sits out of games and said he sits in the stands sometimes and it feels weird:

“I used to be a little bit worse when I missed a game, I wouldn’t be able to sit still but the last thing I want to do is be a distraction. … Like if I was watching Chad [Pinder] play third base, seeing if there was anything defensively I could help him with but for the most part, I don’t wanna distract those guys and I don’t wanna bother anybody but it is hard to sit still in one spot.”

The A’s advanced their AL West lead Wednesday night to 5-1/2 games with just 19 games left.

Simone McCarthy is SFBay’s Oakland Athletics beat writer. Follow @SFBay and @SimoneMcCarthy0 on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of A’s baseball.