Oakland Athletics: Dustin Fowler in line to be A’s next center fielder

When the Oakland Athletics sent their ace Sonny Gray to the New York Yankees last summer, the trade was not unexpected.

The return the Oakland Athletics received for the 2015 Top-Three Cy Young Award finalist, Sonny Gray, was rather unexpected however. The A’s received three prospects from the Yankees, two of whom had already been rendered out for the season.

It’s hard not to admit that it is strange for a team to trade their most well-known player for three prospects, two of which were already injured.

The Yankees sent outfielder Dustin Fowler, infielder/outfielder Jorge Mateo and right-hander James Kaprielian to Oakland.

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Kaprielian had recently undergone Tommy John surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

The surgery is. at least these days, a common procedure that most pitchers are able to come back. Some pitch better than they had prior to the surgery.

It’s a long and arduous recovery that takes anywhere from a year to 18 months but it time-tested and it works the majority of the time.

Kaprielian recovery has been going smoothly and the A’s expect him to be ready to pitch by May.

Fowler, the other injured party in this transaction, is recovering exceptionally well.

Late last June, in what was his big league debut, Fowler ruptured the patella tendon in his right knee. While he was chasing down a foul ball, he slid awkwardly into the right field wall.

A ruptured patella tendon is more commonly seen in the NFL than in MLB, so the timetable for Fowler’s return was new territory for the Athletics.

Last week, however, Fowler was finally activated from the 60-day disabled list for the first time since the Yankees officially placed him on it on July 1.

Wednesday, Fowler officially began working out in Arizona according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The 22-year-old, who hit .293/.329/.542 with 13 homers and 13 stolen bases in 70 games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2017, is expected to be a front runner for the Oakland Athletics’ currently open center field position.

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With the position basically his to lose to names like Boog Powell, Chad Pinder and Mark Canha, should his knee continue to heal and hold up then you will likely see Dustin Fowler on the field at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Opening Night 2018 when the A’s take on the Los Angeles Angels.