Athletics

Congrats to Muncy on his first MLB homer. The 22-year-old will be the starting second baseman as long as Zack Gelof is unavailable, but fantasy players should look for other options up the middle before investing a roster spot.

Rooker struck out in five of his first six at-bats, and then broke the schnide with a two-run blast to give the A’s a 2-0 lead off Luis Castillo. Rooker isn’t a great bet to match his .293 average he put up in 2024, but he’s a lock for 30 homers as long as he’s healthy enough to play in enough games to reach that number.

A heck of a debut for Springs after he was acquired from the Rays over the winter. The left-hander kept the (almost entirely) right-handed lineup of Seattle off-balance, and his change gave the Mariner hitters fits. Springs was very good prior to his injury, and while he offers risk, the 32-year-old has upside in his left arm, to be sure. The Cubs are next.

It was noticeable to see Brown sitting against a right-hander on Opening Day in favor of Miguel Andujar, but the 32-year-old slugger is in there as the left fielder against righty Luis Castillo on Friday. He’ll bat sixth, sandwiched between Tyler Soderstrom and Gio Urshela.

Soderstrom took advantage of a rare mistake from an otherwise-dominant Logan Gilbert to give the A’s a 1-0 lead. He went deep again off Trent Thornton to make it 2-1, but that was it for the Sacramento-ish offense. Soderstrom has the talent to be a strong fantasy option in the coming years, and hopefully it comes with catcher eligibility in the coming weeks.

A heck of a debut for Severino. The 31-year-old did walk four, but he gave up just three hits and kept the Mariner offense from ever really mounting a challenge. His final pitch was a perfectly-located offering to strike out Rowdy Tellez on the outside corner with runners on second and third. He generated 12 swing-and-misses, and his fastball was routinely in the mid-to-high 90s. Severino will get a chance to keep it going in a harder matchup against the Cubs next week.

The expectation had been that Brown and Miguel Andujar would form a platoon in left field with Brown seeing the strong side at-bats, but instead it’s Andujar in there and batting fifth against Gilbert on Thursday evening. Any limited value that fantasy managers in deeper leagues were hoping to extract from Brown disappears completely if he’s not even a regular against right-handed pitching.

It’s merely a procedural move as Waldichuk continues his recovery from last May’s Tommy John surgery. He might be able to make it back before the end of the year, but that’s probably a stretch.

Muncy was selected to take the place of Zack Gelof (wrist) while Gelof recovers from hamate surgery. Muncy hit .289/.391/.395 in 46 plate appearances this spring and, much like his teammate Jacob Wilson, will bring a solid batting average but not much power and speed, which limits his fantasy upside a bit.

Basso was pushing for a spot in the Athletics’ bullpen before being shut down with a shoulder strain at the beginning of March. There is not yet a firm timeline for his return to the mound.