The A’s Chris Herrmann catches on quick with new team

OAKLAND — It crossed Chris Herrmann’s mind some time this April: there was a chance, at least, that the catcher wouldn’t return to the show.

Pain still ached through his surgically repaired right knee and reality hit. Herrmann hadn’t had a serious injury since a freak tubing accident on a lake left him with a torn labrum back in high school. He hadn’t had surgery since he broke his hand with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2016.

“But things like that, you know you’re gonna come back,” Herrmann said before Wednesday’s game. “I was still fairly young. I’m 31 and had knee surgery and it’s just like, oh gosh, I really hope this goes well because I don’t know what’s going to happen next year or the rest of my career. I’m just lucky that I’m able to play again.”

Support from his wife, Shelby, kept him in the right state of mind. A few weeks later Herrmann could finally run. It wasn’t pretty, he said, but he knew he was coming back.

Tuesday night, all those months of pain and doubt wiped away with one big swing. In his second at bat with the A’s, Herrmann mashed a go-ahead grand slam in the A’s 8-6 win over the Minnesota Twins. It was the first time an A’s player hit a grand slam in his debut in team history.

“Obviously it was a long process coming back, but for me to do something like that, you don’t see that very often,” Herrmann said.

His second at-bat silenced those internal demons, his third one proved the fans were on his side. The Coliseum greeted him with a standing ovation.“I just felt very welcomed here after yesterday,” he said.

Long journey aside, it was of no surprise that Herrmann would be swinging a hot bat in his A’s debut. He was batting .333 with 13 RBIs in 13 rehab assignment games with the Las Vegas Aviators.

Perhaps his most impressive feat of the night: he fell seamlessly into the fold catching four different pitchers. He kept his right knee off the dirt in his crouch to alleviate extra stress on it, but where he had to make up in minor physical adjustments he made up for with on-the-fly mental recalibration with the pitching staff.

Herrmann got his surgery just a few weeks into spring training, so the staff’s repertoire is all but a mystery. Catcher Josh Phegley and pitching coach Scott Emerson were in his ear constantly before and during the game with tips, and Herrmann has been in the video room studying up on pitcher tendencies.

These next couple weeks — as the A’s attempt to build on a four-game win streak and erase a three-game deficit for the wild card’s first spot — will be like a spring training, of sorts, for Herrmann.

The grand slam marked his symbolic return to form — the 31-year-old let the game come back to him. But it’s just the beginning.“It’s going to be a learning process,” he said. “But I’m going to learn because I want to help this team win.”