{"id":14505,"date":"2025-07-22T22:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/14505\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T22:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:50:07","slug":"athletics-recall-carlos-cortes-for-mlb-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/14505\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletics Recall Carlos Cortes For MLB Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletics announced today that both outfielder Denzel Clarke<\/a> and infielder Max Muncy<\/a> have been placed on the 10-day injured list. Outfielders Colby Thomas<\/a> and Carlos Cortes<\/a> were recalled as the corresponding moves. No information was provided about the injuries or expected absences. According to the team\u2019s MLB.com transaction tracker<\/a>, Clarke has a right adductor strain and Muncy a right hand fracture.<\/p>\n

Cortes, 28, gets the call to the majors for the first time and will be making his major league debut as soon as he\u2019s put into a game. Just last week, the A\u2019s selected his contract to the 40-man but immediately optioned him to Triple-A Las Vegas. That suggested Cortes likely had an opt-out in his deal, which prompted the A\u2019s to give him a roster spot. They didn\u2019t immediately have a big league opportunity for him but didn\u2019t want him to get away.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long road for Cortes, who was drafted by the Mets back in 2018. He climbed to Triple-A with that club but didn\u2019t hit much at that level. At the end of the 2024 season, he still didn\u2019t have a roster spot with the Mets and qualified for minor league free agency.<\/p>\n

He then landed a minor league deal with the A\u2019s, which has turned into a huge win for everyone. In 71 Triple-A contests, he has stepped to the plate 314 times. He has hit 17 home runs. His 13.1% walk rate and 14.6% strikeout rate are both strong figures. The Aviators play in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, but Cortes\u2019s offense is still 39% above league average, according to wRC+. Understandably, the A\u2019s didn\u2019t want a guy with that kind of production to slip through their fingers.<\/p>\n

Cortes has a bit of infield experience and some time in center field, but he\u2019s only been a corner outfield guy in recent years. Some websites list him as a switch-thrower, though that\u2019s not really relevant anymore. He naturally throws left-handed but would throw from the right side when playing second base several years ago. He hasn\u2019t been at the keystone since 2019.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Butler<\/a> played center field last night due to Clarke\u2019s injury and he\u2019s back in there tonight, so perhaps he\u2019ll stay there for a while. If so, that would leave two corner spots for Tyler Soderstrom<\/a>, Miguel Andujar<\/a>, Thomas and Cortes, with designated hitter Brent Rooker<\/a> chipping in on occasion. Andujar is an impending free agent and could be moved before the month is over. Soderstrom would be a more surprising trade but he has been in a few rumors. Even if just Andujar is moved, that would further open the path for Cortes to get some major league hacks down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletics announced today that both outfielder Denzel Clarke and infielder Max Muncy have been placed on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,15920,15921,15922,15923,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-14505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-carlos-cortes","11":"tag-colby-thomas","12":"tag-denzel-clarke","13":"tag-max-muncy-2002","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}