The Oakland Atheltics welcome back Adam Rosales to their lineup against the Baltimore Orioles following an absence that dates back to mid-August. Rosales suffered a stress fracture in his right ankle that eventually required surgery and knocked him out for the first two months of the season. Rosales made three rehab starts with the Sacramento Rivercats before being recalled earlier today.
The A’s actually made a couple of moves to try and shake things up on the offensive side of the ball. In addition to recalling Adam Rosales, the A’s recalled recently acquired infielder Scott Sizemore. To make room for the two infielders, the A’s optioned Kevin Kouzmanoff and Fautino De Los Santos to AAA. The Kouzmanoff is not all that surprising given his offensive struggles the last season and a half. Third base has been a black hole for the A’s and they’ve now got two new third basemen following the optioning of Kouzmanoff and designating Andy LaRoche for assignment.
It remains to be seen if Rosales or Sizemore can provide some punch, but most would agree they can’t be any worse than the Kouzmanoff/LaRoche duo. Rosales had a fairly solid .271/.321/.400 line in 2010 and will get a fair shake to steal some playing time somewhere, whether it be third base or second base behind Mark Ellis.
Oakland Athletics
1. Coco Crisp CF
2. Daric Barton 1B
3. Conor Jackson LF
4. Josh Willingham DH
5. Kurt Suzuki C
6. Mark Ellis 2B
7. Adam Rosales 3B
8. Ryan Sweeney RF
9. Cliff Pennington SS
Baltimore Orioles
1. Robert Andino 2B
2. Nick Markakis RF
3. Adam Jones CF
4. Vladimir Guerrero DH
5. Derrek Lee 1B
6. Matt Wieters C
7. J.J. Hardy SS
8. Mark Reynolds 3B
9. Nolan Reimold LF