Chris Young makes his return from the disabled list today, and to make room for him on the 25-man roster, the A's designated Daric Barton for assignment. Shipping Barton out was one of three possibilities, the other two being the optioning of Luke Montz and the waiving of Nate Freiman. The team professes to want to keep Barton, of course, but every team professes to want to keep every player they designate for assignment. Optioning Montz would not have required a 40-man move.

Since I can't make sense of the roster jumble in my head, let's work this out on paper.

The base lineups, it seems, as it stands, with Barton designated:

v RHP

C: Norris
1B: Moss
2B: Sogard
SS: Lowrie
3B: Donaldson
LF: Cespedes
CF: Crisp
RF: Smith
DH: Jaso

(Note that this is not tonight's lineup, as Melvin has opted for Chris Young in right with Seth Smith on the bench.)

v LHP

C: Norris
1B: Freiman
2B: Lowrie
SS: Rosales
3B: Donaldson
LF: Cespedes
CF: Crisp
RF: Young
DH: Montz

Suppose instead that the team had optioned Montz:

v RHP

C: Jaso
1B: Barton
RF: Moss
DH: Smith

v LHP

DH: Moss? Smith?

I'm not sure I see either of these options as obviously better than the other, now that they're drawn out. Bob Melvin made a defense-over-offense choice tonight with Chris Young in right instead of Seth Smith, but I suspect that's part of the A's "just got on the roster? Okay, you're starting!" plan as much as anything. Long term, if Smith is on the bench against righties, I don't know why he's on the roster.

What having Barton around does, though, is push Derek Norris out of the lineup and force John Jaso behind the plate. Norris is hitting in some sense of the word (.218/.364/.322), but I'm not sure you worry about that. Jaso isn't a great catcher, but Norris isn't the second coming of Yadier Molina either.

Barton does help the defense against righties because Barton is probably better than Moss at first and Moss is probably better than Smith in the outfield, so you get a cascading improvement in ball-catching.

Losing Montz would create a dilemma against lefties—as it stands, Melvin can run an entirely right-handed lineup out against your C.C. Sabathias and Jason Vargases. Without Montz, he couldn't do that.

The issue of Montz being a third catcher so that Jaso can designatedly hit is sort of a moot point, as I see it. If Barton stuck around instead of Montz, then Jaso would not DH in the v. RHP lineup anyway because he'd need to vacate the DH spot for Smith so that Barton could start.

I don't know whether a team will claim Barton. I don't know whether it matters. He got on base five times in 23 trips to the plate in his brief time in Oakland and he hasn't hit since 2010. Defense at first base only goes so far.

Tonight's win over Texas resulted in half a game of a fun lesson in what happens when "injury stacks" happen: you wind up with your everyday first baseman playing center field. That's what Bob Melvin was forced to turn to when Yoenis Cespedes had to leave the game with a tummyache¹. With Coco Crisp, Chris Young, and Josh Reddick all on the disabled list until at least Wednesday (when there's now some hope that Crisp could actually be the first one off the list, with Young apparently not recovering as fast and the possibility of Reddick having surgery being tossed around), it's amusing to ponder what the A's depth chart at each situation actually looks like and how many owies it would take to get to a really dire situation.

In center, we've already seen it:

1. Coco Crisp
2. Chris Young
3. Yoenis Cespedes
4. Josh Reddick
5. Grant Green
6. Brandon Moss!

Moss is by my estimation the sixth center fielder on the depth chart, but that makes him, again, as we saw tonight, #2 on the current roster.

Let's just note right now that right field, left field, and first base aren't fun. "Oh no Jemile Weeks is the 10th first baseman on the depth chart!" never made anyone laugh that hard.

So. Second base?

1. Eric Sogard
2. Jed Lowrie
3. Adam Rosales
4. Andy Parrino
5. Hiro Nakajima
6. Grant Green
7. Jemile Weeks (noting that Weeks actually has more games at short this year than at second)
8. ... Josh Donaldson? Mmmmmmmm Coco Crisp?

As for the current roster, this means Donaldson is fourth, though if you get to the point where you're down Sogard, Lowrie, and Rosales, that means you're also missing your shortstop, so Donaldson probably plays there, maybe with Luke Montz at third, and ... gosh Daric Barton at second?

In a sense what this really means is that you only need two injuries to get Donaldson to second base because whoever that third guy is will be playing short. That's an exciting prospect.

Catcher?

1. Derek Norris
2. John Jaso
3. Luke Montz (third catchers make things dull)
4. EDIT: Josh Donaldson, thanks Chris Biderman
5. Stephen Vogt
6. Daric Barton!

Unless I'm missing someone, Daric Barton is the only non-catcher on the A's with a catching background in professional baseball, but² Bob Melvin's desire for a third catcher so that he can designatedly hit John Jaso against righties makes it harder to imagine the situations where Barton dons the implements of bewilderment EDIT: especially with Josh Donaldson an ever-present presence.

If you want to get into rank speculation of who would come after Barton among all the players who've never caught before, you'd probably have to go with Adam Rosales, though it's worth wondering whether he'd hurt himself leaping forward for a pitch and launching his head directly into the hitter's swing path. Maybe just sit Bartolo Colon back there.

Your updated A's Power Ranking. As always: this is cumulative, not just based on the last week, and ranks only players who are presently on the 25-man roster. Stats through Saturday's game, though I've seen most of Sunday's as I write.

1. Jed Lowrie ↔ Lowrie's hitting continues to tumble inevitably given how impossibly hot he started the year. He's still got a .399 OBP and .471 SLG and he hit the ball hard a couple of times on Sunday, though to no good effect. With the rest of the team mostly cooling off or hurt and with Lowrie playing at one of the middle infield spots every day, he's got no real competition for the top spot.
2. Josh Donaldson ↔ Donaldson has a higher OPS than Lowrie, but it's based on a tad more slugging and a tad less OBP, and while he plays a good third base, it's still third base rather than shortstop. Anyway, 18 walks in 155 trips is extremely encouraging and a return to his 2009–11 minor-league form after an ugly 14 in 294 in the bigs in 2012.
3. Brandon Moss ↑ Moss looked awful on Sunday against Joe Saunders, taking home a golden sombrero, and he's now whiffed 43 times on the year. That's tops on the team, but he came in to the game just 16th in baseball, 14 behind the leaders, Chris Carter and Colby Rasmus, so it hasn't been as bad as it looks.
4. Derek Norris ↑ Norris's OBP has gone down and his SLG has come up since last week, but he's still at .370 and .338, which is still weird, especially for a guy who's six feet and 200-plus pounds. All the DHing of John Jaso means that Norris has two more PA against right-handers than lefties so far. (Don't you dare actually cite his split stats.)
5. Yoenis Cespedes ↓ I've liked Cespedes's defense in center a lot better this year than last. I've heard some claim that his struggles on defense came in left last year, not center, but I don't buy that—he looked like he got bad breaks and weird reads in both spots last season, and he's looked better to my totally flawed and TV-bound eyes this time around. I'm less skeptical about him being an asset in center in the post-Crisp, post-Young world (i.e. 2014). I'd prefer he not have a .280 OBP, though.
6. Tom Milone ↑ "Through Saturday's stats" is key since Milone did not have a good game against Seattle, beginning with a three-run homer by Kendrys Morales in the first inning. Before that, he had a team-leading 3.91 RA/9 and an excellent 41 strikeouts to just six walks. Unfortunately, he walked three and gave up just one homer to Seattle, so he's now got more walks allowed than homers.
7. Adam Rosales ↑ I don't like the way Adam Rosales throws because my sense is that he gives up more time on his release than he gains on the speed of the throw, but you can't argue with .311/.392/.467, with pretty much the entire damage coming against lefties. (He's platooned, but even platoon players wind up facing a lot of right-handers because of relievers and so forth.)
8. Seth Smith ↓ Smith is now down to nearly exactly what he hit last year: .333/.420 vs. .338/.417. His May free-fall is to blame: .154/.154/.205 will sink all sorts of hot starts. Tiniest of samples, but he's actually crushed lefties in 33 plate appearances so far.
9. Jerry Blevins ↑ Blevins hadn't pitched since May 7th when he gave up a homer on Sunday to Jason Bay.
10. Ryan Cook ↑ Cook allowed one more walk in two more innings since last week, so he's right on pace as always. He's still leading the bullpen in strikeouts, though, and is the only A's pitcher aside from Jesse Chavez not to allow a homer.
11. John Jaso ↔ Jaso has a respectable batting line for a catcher in Oakland. He does not have a respectable batting line for a designated hitter, in Oakland or anywhere else.
12. Sean Doolittle ↑ Doolittle has exactly two runs to his debit this season. He's also allowed two homers. He's allowed one of 10 inherited runners to score—the league average is thrice that.
13. Bartolo Colon ↓ Since last week, Colon allowed two homers and no walks. He's up to six homers and one walk allowed in 41 1/3 innings. According to FanGraphs, the lowest single-season walk percentage for an ERA qualifier from 1916 to present is Carlos Silva, at 1.2 percent. Colon now sits at 0.6 percent.
14. Grant Balfour ↑ Balfour only threw one inning this week (and added another walk), which is about what you expect when the team is in these kind of doldrums. Closers don't pitch in losses.
15. Daric Barton new entry Barton's only batted 12 times, but he did hit a homer and draw a walk in those trips. There's not a lot to say about 12 plate appearances. Sorry.
16. Dan Straily ↓ When you've only made four starts, it's easy to yo-yo around in a ranking like this with one bad start, and six runs in five innings to the Mariners on the 10th was a bad start.
17. Jesse Chavez reentry Chavez was 25th the last time he was on this list but some poor performances in his absence have allowed him to climb without really pitching. Here's my analysis: he's Jesse Chavez. He's okay.
18. Eric Sogard ↓ Sogard's still hitting the same thing he was last week (basically), and there's a point at which you run out of things to say. Imagine if I did this daily?
19. Pat Neshek ↑ He's still got that 9:8 strikeout to walk ratio. You know what's weird? And about which I had no idea? He's an extreme fly-ball pitcher. Huh.
20. Luke Montz new entry Montz has three extra-base hits in 17 trips to the plate along with no singles and no walks. I don't know that an allergy to first base is a good approach for a hitter.
21. Chris Resop ↑ He's pitched badly and it doesn't matter.
22. A.J. Griffin ↓ Griffin has a good ERA but a homer every six innings will catch up to him and while his walk rate is as good as ever, the strikeout rate is ugly. What'd I say about believing in him?
23. Nate Freiman ↓ Still tall.
24. Michael Taylor ↓ Somehow fell from 23rd last week. He's batting .063/.063/.063.
25. Jarrod Parker ↓ Josh Reddick being on the disabled list isn't the only reason Parker falls to 25th: since the last Power Ranking, Parker threw 11 1/3 innings, 10 hits, seven runs, six walks, 12 strikeouts, and five homers. It says a lot about his season that his barely quality start on Saturday (6 1/3, three runs) is a highlight game for the year so far. I don't know if Parker needs a DL stint or a Triple-A trip to work out some mechanical issues sans pressure or what the hell is going on, but something has to change.

Riser of the week: Ryan Cook, from 17 to 10
Faller of the week: A.J. Griffin from 12 to 22

See you back here next week.

Josh Reddick's wrist is going to cause him to miss enough time that the A's made a roster move today, calling up Daric Barton from Sacramento. Reddick apparently doesn't need all 15 days, but isn't going to miss only a game or two, either, leaving the A's in that limbo where they could have a 24-man roster for a week. Rather than live with that, Billy Beane filled Bob Melvin's bench.

Daric Barton, as you may recall, was removed from the 40-man roster a ways back, so the A's had another move to make to add him. Faced with another opportunity to designated Jesse Chavez for assignment, Beane decided instead to flat-out cut Jordan Norberto. Readers of the blog will know I'm not the biggest Norberto fan, mainly due to my bias against guys who can't throw strikes. Still, the lefty averages better than 93 mph from the left side with his fastball and whiffed 46 in 52 innings in the bigs in 2012. Unfortunately, since August of last year he's been dealing with arm injuries and he's pitched just 1 1/3 innings in 2013, with his last appearance coming on April 10th.

All of this means that you might think the A's could have waived Norberto, hoped he went unclaimed because of his injuries, and kept him in the organization. And in fact there's talk that the team might try to re-sign him to a minor-league contract now that he's been released. But the word, both from Susan Slusser on Twitter and via email from Bob Rose, A's press maven, is that you cannot request waivers on an injured player. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out where this rule comes from after a quick look at both the Major League Rules and the Collective Bargaining Agreement. There are rules about designating for assignment players on the Major League Disabled List, but unless I'm missing something, Norberto wasn't on that list, because why would he be? He was optioned to the minors, then got hurt—there's no need to clear a 25-man roster spot because he's not on the 25-man roster.

I don't disbelieve Slusser and Rose, by the way, and the fact that the A's appear to want to keep Norberto supports the theory that they didn't actually want to release him—I'm basically just begging for help. Can anyone find any textual support for the rule that you can't request waivers on an injured minor-league player?

With that out of the way, and noting that Daric Barton was the starting first baseman tonight against the extremely right-handed Justin Masterson, and further noting that he walked in his first trip to the plate and then made a fine defensive play that was nearly a double play in his first chance in the field, here's what I guess the lineup looks like now:

v LHP

C: Norris
1B: Freiman
2B: Lowrie
SS: Rosales
3B: Donaldson
LF: Taylor
CF: Cespedes
RF: Moss
DH: Montz

v RHP

C: Norris
1B: Barton
2B: Sogard
SS: Lowrie
3B: Donaldson
LF: Smith
CF: Cespedes
RF: Moss
DH: Jaso

Tonight's lineup did not look like this, with Jed Lowrie at designated hitter and Eric Sogard at second, but if this roster were the A's roster for more than the next 10 days or however long it takes for Chris Young to get back and push Luke Montz or Michael Taylor back to the minors, I'd expect the above to be the basic lineup from which various variations arise.

I could be overrating Montz's place on the team, but it strikes me as entirely pointless to have Montz, Freiman, Moss, and Barton all on the squad if Montz isn't going to play sometimes. The above basic lineups have the virtue of making all 13 position players starters. Assuming that is a virtue.

It does, by the way, since I mentioned it, sound like Young will be the first back from the disabled list, as he's a tad ahead of Coco Crisp. I think he'll replace Taylor directly as it's not clear when Taylor would ever play once Young is back. Montz at least still has notional value in that case as a backup catcher when Jaso is DHing. I suppose in theory we could see Hiroyuki Nakajima make an appearance, but that likely depends on Bob Melvin's comfort with not having a backup infielder on the nights that Lowrie DHes versus not having a backup catcher on the nights that Jaso DHes. If Jaso is the default DH against righties, as I have him above, it probably makes sense to keep Montz around. Lowrie, by contrast, is presumably an occasional DH, not the default.

Now I might be mixing predictions of the A's approach with my own predilections and hopes, but that's always been more or less my mode around here, so why change now?

What do the A's do if Jarrod Parker goes on the DL, something Bob Melvin has said isn't likely to happen but about which really youneverknow? Susan Slusser tweeted that she heard that Sonny Gray is the favorite to replace Parker, which is interesting because Andrew Werner is a starting pitcher (eight starts for San Diego last year, seven for Sacramento this year, no relief appearances in his career) is already on the 40-man roster, though his 8.54 ERA might be giving the A's pause. Having to make another 40-man move with Norberto already gone could prove tough.

That said, perhaps Jesse Chavez's time would be up if Gray were to be his replacement. You can understand the A's unease with cutting Chavez for the sake of Barton—if a reliever were to get hurt, they'd be left with Werner, Pedro Figueroa (7.62 ERA himself), or ... well, no, it's just those two pitching at Triple-A and on the 40-man roster. I'm a Michael Ynoa fan, but I don't think he's ready.

But if you're adding Gray to the 40, then dumping Chavez leaves you where you started, rather than short an emergency reliever, assuming, of course, that Parker were only hurt for a short time and that Gray would go back to the minors thereafter.

I don't have strong feelings about Chavez, so I don't think he needs to go so much as I think it's weird that he's survived this long and figure there's no way he'll last the year on the roster given Mike Ekstrom and Hideki Okajima and Gray and Bruce Billings and even Danny Otero all waiting around in Sacramento for a shot and none on the 40-man roster. At least if he's removed for Gray, Chavez can say he was booted by a legit prospect.

In the seventh inning last night, Derek Norris led off with a double to left-center (which he crushed, by the way), bringing the tying run to the plate. With lefty Nick Hagadone on the mound, Adam Rosales pinch-hit for Eric Sogard. After he flew out, Bob Melvin sent Luke Montz out to hit for John Jaso, which caused Tito Francona to relieve Hagadone with righty Bryan Shaw.

Given the relative merits of Jaso and Montz (as opposed to Rosales and Sogard), it seems likely that Melvin had the ball in his court: he could choose Jaso vs. the lefty or Montz vs. the righty. He was never going to get Montz vs. the lefty.

Because I wasn't sure about that choice at the time, and still wasn't sure when I woke up this morning, I thought I'd throw out some numbers so we know what Melvin was working with.

Here's Jaso v. LHP in his career: .176/.308/.237 in 162 plate appearances.

Here's Jaso v. RHP in his career: .269/.367/.415 in 984 plate appearances.

Jaso's not good against lefties. He was actually worse against them in 53 trips last year: .119/.250/.143. The best you can hope he'll do is eke out a walk.

Baseball Reference recently added minor-league splits back to 2008, though it does not appear that they are yet aggregated, so here is Montz year to year against lefties and righties:

There's no such thing as a sample size big enough to make me happy, but Montz has made his living the last two years, and in his career in general, roasting lefties. His performance against righties has sometimes been adequate and sometimes been awful—and remember that the 724 OPS he put up against righties last year came in the Pacific Coast League, a place not well known for its run-suppression.

There are other factors at work besides Montz and Jaso, of course, including how tired Hagadone was, how fresh Shaw was, how the two hitters match up against those two particular pitchers, not just as righties and lefties but as players with specific arsenals and sequencing routines, how Jaso and Montz were feeling that day, and, not least, the small possibility that Francona might lose his mind and leave Hagadone in to face Montz.

I don't have answers in any of these areas, and Melvin, even to the extent he had answers, didn't have an hour to sit around and think about it. So I don't know if he was right, but I do know he wasn't wrong.