Gage Jump's Injury, What He's Hoping to Work On

Athletics starter Gage Jump was pulled after just two innings against the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night with shoulder soreness, saying that he felt tightness in the shoulder before the game and it never loosened up. He gave up five runs on five hits, one walk, and one hit batter, while striking out two. 

On Sunday morning, Jump had yet to see the doctors pregame at the time of the media's availability, so there is no definitive update, but he did mention that he feels like he usually would after a start. 

If Jump is to make his next start, Monday's off-day will push it back a day to Friday in Cleveland against the Guardians. If he's able to keep pitching this season, his plan to to stay on the attack, but perhaps using different pitches in different counts.

"Trying to protect the fastball a little bit," Jump said. "Making sure I'm throwing breaking balls where they need to be, finishing counts faster. But ultimately, being aggressive and staying aggressive. I think whenever I let my foot off the gas is when trouble starts to happen." 

If Jump is able to make his next start on Friday, then he would have one last start against the Houston Astros in the first game of the final series of the season. 

Jump is still just 23 and in his first big-league season. There has been a learning curve to pitching in the big leagues, as evidenced by his 5.47 ERA, but so far, the lefty has been able to make all of his starts, which he's proud of, and at times he's looked un-hittable.

The key for him moving forward will be finding consistency with his pitches and being able to locate them on a regular basis. 

In his 20 starts with the A's, Jump has racked up 98 2/3 innings, but despite the high ERA, his FIP is better than league average at 4.02. Part of that is due to a high .345 BABIP, which figures to come down, and his left-on-base rate being 67.1%, which is below the league average of 72.3%.

Improving that LOB% goes back to the lefty wanting to be aggressive and stay aggressive. 

He has the tools to be an impact starter in the big leagues as soon as next season. It's also going to take some work to get to that point during the offseason. He said he'll be in Arizona this offseason, and he generally begins throwing lightly early on.

That means that despite what happens with the expected lockout this winter, he'll be ready go when they get the call to ramp things up for the season.