A's Southpaw Exits Contest Against Yankees With Injury

In the eighth inning of the Athletics blowout contest against the New York Yankees, A's left-hander T.J. McFarland exited the game after covering first base during an Austin Wells groundout. A's first baseman Nick Kurtz flipped the ball to McFarland, and the lefty awkwardly hobbled off the bag following the play.

McFarland walked back onto the mound to try and continue pitching. However, after one warm-up pitch, the veteran elected to walk back to the dugout with his injury too much to continue playing through. The severity of the injury and how long he will be out are currently unknown.

A's manager Mark Kotsay said after the game that McFarland's apparent ankle injury occured on the first step he took towards first to cover. The team is planning on getting McFarland an MRI to determine the severity of the injury, with the hope being that he won't be gone for an extended absence. "Hopefully we'll get some good news."

The left-hander has appeared in 18 games so far this season for the green and gold in 2025. In that time, he holds a 5.23 ERA with four strikeouts and a 1.74 WHIP. Although his numbers aren't great so far this season, McFarland was a huge piece in the A's bullpen last season, and it's still early enough in the year that a bad performance or two can really inflate the numbers of a reliever.

Last year, he appeared in 79 games and held a 3.81 ERA for Oakland. The 35-year-old inked a one year contract this past off-season to play for the A's in their first season in West Sacramento. Since the club lost left-hander Scott Alexander to the Rockies in free agency, the A's really need McFarland back soon to hold down the crucial role of left-handed reliever in the bullpen for Mark Kotsay.

If McFarland needs to miss extended time, and need a stint on the Injured List, the A's have just Jacob Lopez as the lone left-hander on the 40-man roster in Triple-A. Otherwise, Hogan Harris will become the only lefty in the A's bullpen. Ken Waldichuk and Brady Basso are both starting to throw, so both southpaws could join the team a little further down the line as well.

Hopefully McFarland just needs some rest and will be back fairly soon, but the way that Kotsay was talking about the injury, it sounds as though he could be out for at least a couple of weeks. The team has an off-day on Monday, and it is a much needed one for the banged up ball club.

Of the non-roster left-handers, Ben Bowden has been having the best season in Triple-A thus far, posting a 1.04 ERA (3.65 FIP) with the Aviators across 17.1 innings of work. The one concern is that he has a ground ball rate of just 22.5%, while his HR/9 rate is at 0.52. There is a chance he's getting a little lucky with those fly balls he's allowing staying in the ballpark.

While Sutter Health Park is an offensive environment, so is Las Vegas Ballpark. Maybe there is nothing to worry about?

The A's also have veteran Dylan Floro down in the minors, and while he is a right-hander, he could fill part of the role that McFarland has with the A's in being the veteran in a largely young bullpen group. He has a 0.00 ERA in 4.2 innings of work since returning from injury on April 18.