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Oakland A’s become latest team to get hit hard by COVID

By Drew Koch

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 25: An Oakland Athletics hat sits near the dugout during the game against the Houston Astros at RingCentral Coliseum on September 25, 2021 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 25: An Oakland Athletics hat sits near the dugout during the game against the Houston Astros at RingCentral Coliseum on September 25, 2021 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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The Oakland A’s will be without several players for tonight’s game versus the Baltimore Orioles.

The Oakland A’s are the latest MLB club to get hit hard by COVID-19. The Athletics will be without six players for Monday night’s tilt with the Baltimore Orioles. Oakland will be minus A.J. Puk, Lou Trivino, Kirby Snead, Jed Lowrie, Chad Pinder, and Austin Allen.

All six players were placed on the COVID-19 Injured List and the A’s added left-hander Sam Selman and infielders Nick Allen and Christian Lopes to the roster as substitute players.

Allen is the A’s No. 5 rated prospect according to MLB Pipeline.

Oakland A’s placed six players on the COVID-19 IL.

This is obviously less than an ideal scenario for the Oakland A’s who are actually playing their first game at home this evening against the Baltimore Orioles. The Athletics opened the 2022 season with 10 consecutive games on the road, and despite being in the middle of a rebuild, put together a 5-5 record.

The COVID-19 restrictions for Major League Baseball have changed over the last couple of years, but players who are placed on the COVID-19 IL will not count against a team’s active roster.

Furthermore, if a team suffers significant placements on the COVID-19 IL, a team can add substitute players to its major league active roster temporarily. That explains why the Oakland A’s can add a player like Allen without selecting his contract from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Allen, the A’s third-round pick in the 2017 MLB Draft, and Lopes will be making their major league debuts while Selman actually has 59 big league games under his belt. Since there’s no specific number of games a player must miss if he’s placed on the COVID-19 Injured List, this could be a one-time affair for Allen, Lopes, and Selman, or they might be in the Show for a little longer.

Neither Nick Allen nor Christian Lopes were part of the starting lineup for the Athletics’ home opener versus the Orioles, but it would not be surprising to see either player make an appearance later in tonight’s game at the Oakland Coliseum

Next. COVID-19 issues could have lasting effect on Red Sox. dark

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