Matt Chapman, silent throughout baseball’s coronavirus shutdown as he “went off the grid” to work out, hasn’t lost his ability to speak his mind forcefully.
Chapman expressed dissatisfaction with the A’s late report date to spring training 2.0 in a video call with reporters Thursday, saying, “We would have liked for them to be a little more well prepared for when the green light was given to go.”
Oakland’s Platinum Glove third baseman said that had the A’s moved things up, they might have avoided the testing delays that kept position players off the field an additional day this week.
“I know it’s an honest mistake, but had we been a little more proactive and gotten guys into town earlier, like some other organizations did, and got testing done before (July 1), there never would have been a testing delay because we wouldn’t have cut it that close,” Chapman said. “It’s not anybody’s fault, per se, but when you wait until the last moment to do things, eventually things are going to catch up to you.”
The A’s couldn’t enter the Coliseum until given the go-ahead by the Alameda County health department, which allowed them to open the facility June 26. The truck carrying the team’s equipment from Arizona didn’t arrive until June 29, and then the team had to set up a new clubhouse in the former Raiders locker room and make numerous other changes to comply with MLB’s safety protocols before the A’s could start testing, which began June 30.
The Fourth of July holiday and a delivery snafu Sunday kept the A’s from receiving position players’ test results until Monday evening, a day after their first scheduled workout.
“I know it’s uncharted territory for everyone, MLB, front offices, players,” Chapman said. “You’d like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But it is frustrating, we feel like this year we have a really good club and have a chance to make a run, especially this year with the short season, anything can happen. We know how valuable every single day is, especially when it comes to spring training.
“We were frustrated we weren’t able to start on the 1st. You look around the league and a lot of teams were starting their spring training on the 1st, and a lot of guys were flying into cities days prior to the 1st and getting tested to stay on top of it. I think we were just disappointed our organization took those extra few days and it ended up costing us even more few days when we were all ready to go.”
Manager Bob Melvin chalked up Chapman’s frustrations to his competitiveness, calling him “extremely excitable.”
“He’s a competitor, he wants to get out there, he wants at-bats,” Melvin said. “I don’t think it’s a big deal.”
Chapman, somewhat cantankerous Thursday, also took a little shot at the A’s attendance issues. Asked about playing in front of no fans during the coronavirus pandemic, Champan said: “I think it’s going to play to our advantage — a lot of our games are pretty quiet in general. We’re used to not having too many fans at the games.
“I think other teams coming in and seeing no fans and a big huge empty stadium and it might be a little cold at night, it just plays to our advantage. We’re used to playing there. We’re used to playing in front of however big or small a crowd is.”
The A’s have another pending issue: They have yet to announce a site for their alternate camp; The Chronicle reported this week that the team is looking at San Jose. Is it a concern that the A’s pool players don’t yet have a place to work out together?
“I think everyone’s a little bit concerned about that,” Melvin said. “It’s just not happening right now. Hopefully, it gets done sooner than later.”
Susan Slusser covers the A’s for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser
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Matt Chapman questions A’s late start to camp, wishes team had been ‘more proactive’ - San Francisco Chronicle
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