A’s call up Pete Kozma!

Vimael Machin goes on injured list

The Oakland A’s have been eliminated from postseason contention, but there will be an interesting new player to watch for the final three games of the year.

The A’s placed infielder Vimael Machin on the 10-day injured list Friday with a stomach illness, not related to COVID-19. To take his place on the active roster, they called up veteran infielder Pete Kozma from Triple-A Las Vegas. Kozma was not on the 40-man roster, but there was already an open spot to add him without any further moves.

Oakland signed Kozma last winter to a minor league contract, and he played for them during spring training, batting .286 in 47 plate appearances in the Cactus League. From there he spent the summer in Triple-A, with modest numbers in 500 plate appearances in Vegas’ hitter-friendly environment, while serving as the starting shortstop.

• Kozma, AAA: .244/.307/.337, 62 wRC+, 4 HR, 6 SB, 7.4% BB, 19.4% Ks

The glove-first utilityman is no stranger to the majors. He debuted back in 2011 for the Cardinals, and the next year he rose to prominence when he was involved in a controversial infield fly call in the NL Wild Card Game. In 2013, at age 25, he was the everyday shortstop on a St. Louis team that went to the World Series.

However, his playing time faded after that, and he’s only appeared in 156 games since. Most recently he suited up for the Yankees and Rangers in 2017, and the Tigers in 2018. Now he’s finally made his way back, for a few days in an A’s uniform at age 33.

Meanwhile, Machin is effectively out for the season with an ill-timed stomach bug. He was called up last weekend to replace other injuries on the roster, his fourth brief stint in the majors this year, and he went 1-for-4 in two appearances. Overall for the summer, he got into 15 games for Oakland at three different positions and went 4-for-32 at the plate.

Analysis: These last three games are meaningless, so they may as well be fun. We’ve had some running jokes about Kozma on Athletics Nation this summer, but he’s an experienced MLB player with a neat history, and he can hustle and make some cool plays. What could be more A’s than a name from yesterdecade returning to the majors for the first time in three years? All that said, it’s a bummer for Machin to miss out right when he was getting another opportunity.

Here’s the updated roster, with the injury report below.

Injury report:

• RHP Trevor Rosenthal, OUT FOR YEAR, entire body (thoracic outlet, hip labrum)
• OF Stephen Piscotty, OUT FOR YEAR, wrist (had surgery 8/27)
• SS Elvis Andrus, 10-day IL, leg (fractured fibula, out for year)
• 2B Jed Lowrie, 10-day IL, hand (mathematically out for year)
• RHP Mike Fiers, 60-day IL, elbow (probably out for year)
• RHP Daulton Jefferies, 10-day IL, elbow (probably out for year)
• DH Mitch Moreland, 10-day IL, wrist (maybe out for year?)
• IF Vimael Machin, 10-day IL, illness (mathematically out for year)