At the end of June when the Athletics' injuries started cropping up more often, they received a huge boost from utility infielder Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, who went 25-for-60 (.417) with a .435 OBP and a 1.018 OPS across 16 games. 

Then, he suffered an unfortunate injury, rupturing a testicle, on July 21, and that has kept him out of action until last week when he went out on a rehab assignment with the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators.

He went 2-for-9 with a walk in three games, and was slated to play a full nine innings on Tuesday, so the A's added him to the roster to give him one last week in the big leagues before the end of the season. 

"Obviously a long process," A's manager Mark Kotsay said before Tuesday's game. "One that we were unsure of a timeline. We wanted to make sure we gave him a chance to come back and finish the season, and all things lined up to where his health is good. Body feels good." 

Kotsay said he spoke with JKG during Monday's off-day, and he felt confident that he'd be ready to go for the A's this week in Sacramento. He also added that Kuroda-Grauer earned this opportunity thanks to his play at the big-league level before the injury.

"It feels great," Kuroda-Grauer said of being back in the A's lineup. "Been a long time coming, but just happy to be out there playing. Blessed and grateful to just be able to be healthy and try to take that into the offseason." 

Kuroda-Grauer is back in the A's lineup on Tuesday night against the Angels, batting sixth and playing second base. 

With JKG joining the A's roster, they also moved right-hander J.T. Ginn to the 60-day IL to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, and Max Muncy to the  10-day IL with left knee chondromalacia, ending his season. The injury occurred roughly a month ago when he banged it on the warning track in left field. 

He was still available for the next month despite the injury, which shows a lot about his desire to stay on the field. The A's tried to provide Muncy time to recover with Shea Langeliers returning from injury as a DH, but he wasn't able to go into the field, which limited the number of at-bats that were available to him.

Kotsay said that they are probably going to get his knee reevaluated.

"There's times where we've had to use him, or when he'd DH, and the knee would not respond well the next day."

There has not been a determination on when that evaluation will happen, whether it's this week, or once the season has ended. 

Muncy has had his struggles this season, but he's also made some improvements over his rookie season, batting .230 with a .296 OBP and increasing his OPS 45 points to .683. While his walk rate has increased to 7.4%, his strikeout rate has hovered around where it was last season, sitting at 32%. 

The hope will be that being fully healthy heading into 2027 will allow him to make those needed gains on a roster that is running out of opportunities.