A's place former No. 4 overall pick on IL with ACL sprain

The A’s placed outfielder JJ Bleday on the 10-day injured list with a left knee sprain Tuesday night, and manager Mark Kotsay further specified to reporters that an MRI revealed a sprain in Bleday’s anterior cruciate ligament, via Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. A return this season is not certain.

On the one hand, the fact that Bleday isn’t headed straight for surgery, as is common with ACL injuries, is a relative silver lining. Any sprain involves some degree of stretching and/or tearing in the ligament, by definition. In that sense, it’s perhaps fortunate that Bleday escaped a more dire injury. On the other hand, even a lower-grade sprain that can be treated without surgery is still an injury of note, as evidenced by the team’s uncertainty about a return in the next six-plus weeks.

Bleday, 25, was the fourth overall pick in the 2019 draft, going to the Marlins after a strong college career at Vanderbilt. The A’s acquired him in an offseason swap of former top-10 picks that had yet to live up to their draft and prospect pedigree, sending lefty A.J. Puk to Miami in return. Bleday came to Oakland with six full years of team control remaining, whereas Puk already had two years of MLB service and was on the cusp of reaching arbitration.

A consensus top-10 talent in that year’s draft class, Bleday demolished NCAA pitching with a .347/.465/.701 batting line and 27 home runs in 347 plate appearances during his final season with the Commodores. Outside of a 2021 stint in the Arizona Fall League, however, he’s never come close to that type of production in the professional ranks. Bleday hit .257/.311/.379 in High-A following the draft, didn’t play in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season and posted a .212/.323/.373 slash in Double-A in 2021.

Bleday began drawing walks at a massive 16.3% clip and showing off his plus raw power with Miami’s Triple-A affiliate in 2022, but he did so while hitting .228 with a concerning 27% strikeout rate. Last season’s big league debut saw him post just a .167/.277/.309 slash, and the Marlins flipped him to Oakland in hopes of strengthening their bullpen.

Bleday’s first season with the A’s has been a bit more encouraging than his rocky debut with the Fish. This year’s .316/.429/.643 line in 119 Triple-A plate appearances is easily his best minor league production to date, and he more importantly dropped his Triple-A strikeout rate from 27% all the way down to 12.6%. The improved approach carried over to the majors, to an extent. Bleday lopped five percentage points off his big league strikeout rate (23.2%) while narrowly improving his walk rate from 12.6% to 13.4%. He also upped his power output, his average exit velocity and his hard-hit rate. That said, his .203/.313/.373 slash still falls well shy of what the A’s had hoped to acquire when trading for him.

Even though he hasn’t exactly established himself as a clear big leaguer yet, Bleday should have ample opportunity to do so in 2024. Oakland already parted ways with Ramon Laureano, designating him for assignment and watching Cleveland claim him on waivers. Tony Kemp has logged the most time of any A’s player in left field this year, but he’ll be a free agent at season’s end. Seth Brown has seen plenty of action between both outfield corners, but he’ll be a trade or non-tender candidate in the offseason after an ugly first half — he’s hitting well since the All-Star break — and with an arbitration raise looming. Brent Rooker has faded since his hot start to the season (.200/.272/.349 since mid-May) and has spent more time at DH than in the outfield corners this year.

Given Bleday’s Triple-A performance this season and the improvements in his approach at the plate and power production, it stands to reason that he’ll be in the mix for a corner outfield job next spring. He’ll also have two minor league option years remaining beyond the current campaign, so the A’s can easily get him more work in Triple-A if he doesn’t grab a starting job out of the gate next year.