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The Oakland A’s will be without one of their best players for the rest of the season. All Star third baseman and clubhouse leader Matt Chapman will undergo surgery Monday on his right hip.
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.
And, just like that, the A’s have lost one of the faces of their franchise.
“He’s disappointed that he has to have the surgery,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said on a video call with reporters Saturday. “But we also want him 100 percent healthy for next year. So that’s what it came down to, and he’s devastated that he can’t play and finish off this year.”
The A’s are a scrappy team that thrives on the ethos of a never-say-die mentality. They have the depth to cover third base. Chad Pinder, Vimael Machín and Tommy La Stella can rotate through the position depending on match ups.
No doubt about it, though. This is a huge blow for the A’s.
“The numbers, the performance, the Platinum Gloves, the power, everything,” Melvin said. “He’s one of the emotional leaders on this team. He is a big voice in the clubhouse and he’s a big voice on the field, during games. He’s been a leader really since the moment that he arrived here. So yes, this is quite a blow for us.”
Chapman hadn’t played since leaving last Sunday’s game against the San Diego Padres. In his last eight games, had struck out 17 times and was batting .120. Before that, he was batting .303 with seven home runs and 18 RBI over a 16-game stretch from Aug. 7-23.
Still, Chapman said this week the pain was impacting his defensive game most. (He had five errors in 36 games after making just nine all of 2019.)
He also said the pain has been with him “this whole season.”
The on-and-off realities of this extraordinary season couldn’t have helped. The sudden end of spring training in Arizona, then the quick-ramp training camp for Opening Day in July. A shutdown necessitated by a positive COVID-19, another start-up loaded with doubleheaders.
“I think maybe it was the inconsistencies of not playing all the time, not getting into that routine my body’s really used to,” Chapman said in a call with reporters Tuesday. “I do play hard, and I think it benefits me when I play every day and I get to kind of stay in that mode.”
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.
