Oakland Athletics send Josh Reddick to disabled list; activate Ryan Cook

The Oakland A’s have been arguably the best team in Major League Baseball over the first third of the 2014 season, but on Saturday, they lost a piece of their offense early as a result of injury. That player was outfielder Josh Reddick, who left their game against the Angels with a knee injury, and now, Reddick is headed to the disabled list as the team activates star reliever Ryan Cook.

It is difficult to say which is the bigger roster move at this stage, especially when considering that the 27-year-old Reddick has struggled mightily in the recent past. This season, Reddick has posted an ugly slash line of .214/.279/.339 with just four home runs in 50 games, but his defense is consistently above-average, and that alone could sidetrack what has been an impressive season of run prevention for Oakland.

On the side of Ryan Cook, the 26-year-old right-hander has been absent for much of the 2014 season as a result of a forearm issue, but he has been one of the best set-up men in baseball for the last three seasons. Cook has navigated 12 appearances with an ERA of 2.92 despite a scarily bad walk rate (6.57 per 9 innings), and if he can keep up that effectiveness, it will be the third consecutive season with a sub-3.00 ERA in the American League.

The A’s are cooking on all cylinders right now, and frankly, this swap shouldn’t do anything to directly counter that.