MLB PLAYER NEWS

A’s don’t plan on easing Crisp back in

The Sports Xchange

August 02, 2015 at 9:01 pm.

OAKLAND — Coco Crisp was in the Oakland Athletics clubhouse on Sunday even if he wasn’t on the roster just yet.

That activation is to come soon, Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. And when it happens, there will be no babying Crisp.

“It’s not like make sure he’s healthy here in August and make sure he’s ready for next season,” Melvin said. “We’re looking to get something out of him now.”

To date, the Athletics have got all of 13 games out of the 35-year-old outfielder, who has been disabled since May 20. Crisp had a rough go in 45 official at-bats, collecting only two hits — a single and a double.

“I feel fine, that’s really all I’ve got to say,” Crisp said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

Melvin envisions Crisp batting second in the order behind leadoff man Billy Burns.

“I like the intensity and dynamic he adds,” Melvin said. “When Billy is on base there’s a lot of attention on him. Coco is a pretty good situational guy. He can pull the ball in the hole and he’ll get more fastballs.”

Basically, everyone is interested to see if Crisp can return to be the kind of productive sparkplug who appeared in between 120-136 games in each of the previous four seasons in Oakland.

“I don’t know that we’ll ease him back in,” Melvin said. “We gave him multiple games, we played him nine innings back-to-back. I wouldn’t run him out there 10 days in a row right away.

“The plan all along was to make sure he was healthy to come back, play multiple games in a row and now play 6-7 innings and have to take him out,” the manager added. “He’ll be a full-go once he’s activated.”

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