A’s roster moves: Soderstrom to IL, Brown recalled

The return of Brownie

The A’a announced on Thursday afternoon that they’d placed first baseman/catcher Tyler Soderstrom on the 10-day IL with a wrist injury:

Tough break for Soderstrom, who has had a rough start to his major league career to date. The former top prospect in the Oakland farm system made his debut last year alongside second baseman Zack Gelof. While Gelof thrived Soderstrom wound back up in Triple-A. This year he started in Vegas before getting called up at the beginning of May after tearing up minor league pitching. While this year hasn’t been as rough as his first taste last season, it’s still been a below-average performance from the former 1st-round pick. Luckily he’s still only 22 and has plenty of time to figure things out, but this wrist injury doesn’t help things. Hopefully this is more precautionary in nature with the added rest of the All-Star break factoring in.

Taking his roster spot will be Seth Brown. Once considered a potential building block in ‘21-’22, things have gone south fast for the lefty slugger. Last season saw Brown post a below-average 93 OPS+ (100 being league average) while providing almost no value against left-handed pitching or in the field. This year was even worse and it ultimately resulted in Brown being outrighted off the 40-man roster and being sent to Triple-A to fix things.

And from the early returns it looks like he’s gotten back on track. In a small sample of just 16 games Brownie is slashing a monster .403/.416/.736 slash line with seven home runs and two stolen bases. He even won PCL Player of the Week honors last week so he’s definitely been enjoying the best of the demotion. Now granted, it’s the hitter-friendly PCL and even former shortstop Nick Allen is sporting a strong batting line. Nevertheless, the team will turn to Brown to take over Soderstrom’s at-bats for now. And who knows? Maybe he keeps up his performance when he rejoins the A’s. Welcome back Brownie!