Oakland's season has been rough enough on the scoreboard. Now it's rough on the trainer's table too. MLB Trade Rumors confirmed the Athletics are placing both Nick Kurtz and Zack Gelof on the injured list, a gut-punch double whammy for a club that was already scraping for offense.
MLB Trade Rumors broke the news that both Kurtz and Gelof were headed to the IL.
Kurtz is the one that really stings. He's in the middle of a strong follow-up to his unanimous AL Rookie of the Year campaign, slashing his way to a .902 OPS with 20 home runs through 92 games this year. Reports out of Oakland pointed to a right thumb capsule strain that had been bothering him for a bit, and the timing couldn't be worse — he was in line to start next week's All-Star Game in Philadelphia after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. passed on the invite. That start is now off the table.
Gelof's injury is a different kind of bad luck. He went down after sliding into the left field wall chasing a fly ball, the latest setback in a season that's already seen him miss time. He'd only recently come back from a right hand contusion he suffered in late June, when a Giants baserunner stepped on his hand trying to stretch a single into a double. Now he's back on the shelf, this time banged up from the outfield wall collision.
MLB Trade Rumors summed up the situation bluntly: the spiraling A's just lost their best hitter to the 10-day IL.
Calling it "spiraling" isn't just clickbait framing — that's basically where this team is at. Oakland's already been piecing together a lineup around injuries most of the summer, and losing Kurtz, arguably the best all-around bat on the roster, on top of Gelof is the kind of gut punch that turns a rebuilding year into a lost one fast.
Both moves are 10-day IL stints for now, so there's a path back before the calendar flips too far. But for a team already fighting an uphill battle in the standings, watching your two most fantasy-relevant names hit the shelf in the same 24 hours is a rough way to head into the All-Star break.