{"id":685852,"date":"2026-05-22T07:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685852\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T07:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:03:09","slug":"denzel-clarke-suffers-significant-hamstring-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685852\/","title":{"rendered":"Denzel Clarke Suffers Significant Hamstring Strain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Athletics announced this evening that center fielder\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/clarkde02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Denzel Clarke<\/a> suffered a high-grade strain of his left hamstring while playing in a rehab game. The A\u2019s won\u2019t even have a defined return timeline until he\u2019s reevaluated at some point after the All-Star Break.<\/p>\n<p>Clarke sustained the injury on Tuesday with Triple-A Las Vegas. He was working back from a bone bruise in his right foot that had already cost him a month. The hamstring seems to be far more significant, as it\u2019ll be a couple months before they consider a return to play. That all but ensures he won\u2019t be ready for MLB action until at least August.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most talented defensive players in the sport, Clarke has missed most of the past calendar year with injuries. He lost almost all of the 2025 second half with an adductor strain. The injuries have robbed the A\u2019s of their starting center fielder and Clarke of much needed reps to develop at the plate.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old has appeared in 69 games at the big league level. He has struck out 85 times while batting .214\/.262\/.323 over 219 plate appearances. Clarke has already racked up an impressive highlight reel on the other side of the ball, pulling off multiple home run robberies while grading as one of the top outfielders in MLB. Statcast credits him with 14 Outs Above Average in a little over 500 innings in center field.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gelofza01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Zack Gelof<\/a> initially handled center field when Clarke went on the injured list in late April. They\u2019ve moved him to third base of late, giving the center field responsibilities to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/boltehe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Henry Bolte<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/butlela01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lawrence Butler<\/a>. The latter hasn\u2019t gotten going in his return from last fall\u2019s patellar tendon procedure. Butler is hitting .174\/.273\/.265 over 150 plate appearances. Bolte is batting .269 with one double in his first seven MLB games.<\/p>\n<p>The A\u2019s enter play tonight with a 25-24 record that has them narrowly above the Rangers and Mariners in the AL West. It\u2019s unlikely they\u2019ll invest much prospect capital to upgrade center field on the trade market, though they\u2019ll need at least one of Bolte or Butler to get on a roll offensively. They\u2019ll move Clarke to the 60-day injured list the next they need to open a spot on the 40-man roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletics announced this evening that center fielder\u00a0Denzel Clarke suffered a high-grade strain of his left hamstring while&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,20075,82],"class_list":["post-685852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-denzel-clarke","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}