(UPDATED 11:40 a.m. PT)

MESA, Ariz. – Sonny Gray had his chance to pitch in the World Baseball Classic for Team USA taken away when he couldn’t get insurance clearance to leave the A’s and join the national team.

Related Articles A’s Liam Hendriks bows out of WBC with Team Australia He said first learned this “unfortunate thing” to be a possibility a few days ago, and it became official Sunday when the A’s announced Gray would be remaining in the A’s camp rather than leaving in March for the tournament.

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It’s great news for the A’s, because now Gray doesn’t have to be rushed to get into shape for the WBC and can take his normal schedule to get ready. And the rest of the rotation doesn’t have to be manipulated to account for Gray’s departure. But the news didn’t have Gray turning cartwheels.

“It’s an unfortunate thing,” Gray said Sunday morning. “As much as I would have liked to have participated and represent the A’s and Team USA, it’s kind of one of those things. There’s nothing really I can do now but get ready for the start of the season.”

Major League Baseball and the WBC tried to get an insurance waiver to allow Gray to participate, and A’s GM David Forst said they “pushed hard.” However, players on the disabled list for more than 60 days in the previous season and players on the DL at the end of August have that count against them, as did the fact that Gray pitched just one inning in the final weeks of the season. The insurance company rules like to see a pitcher get at least 10 innings at the end.

“It’s not up to us or MLB, it’s up to the insurance company,” Forst said. “MLB pushed the issue and asked the insurance carrier to let him pitch, and they didn’t do it.”

Gray is the second Major League player to get bounced from the WBC by insurance issues. Toronto’s Russell Martin was told two weeks ago he wouldn’t be able to participate for Team Canada.

The one thing Gray, Forst and A’s manager Bob Melvin all agreed on is that Gray isn’t physically encumbered in any way. He spent two stints on the disabled list last year, the first for a right trapezoid problem and then for a right forearm issue. He pitched one inning the final weekend of the season just to have him get back on the mound.

“Coming away from this, I still feel great, there are no issues at all,” Gray said. “It just one of those things they have in place. Due to those things that happen to me last year, it’s not going to work out. There’s nothing I am worried about with myself. I’m going to get out there and compete when I take the mound in a couple of days and move forward.”

Melvin said while he is disappointed for Gray, this is a boon for Oakland heading into 2017. The club had been manipulating their list of starting pitchers in the early days of the Cactus League, but now they aren’t being forced to do that. As a result, scheduled Sunday starter Kendall Graveman was pushed to Monday and Gray will go Wednesday. Non-roster pitcher Daniel Gossett stepped in Sunday to start against the Angels.

“We were trying to kind of rush him a bit to get him on schedule for that,” Melvin said of Gray. “In turn it affected Kendall, too. That why he pitched just an inning the other day [in an intrasquad game] and had two days off. The important thing to do is to get Kendall an extra day and to get Sonny back on turn. So overall this works out better for them with us, but Sonny is disappointed because he really wanted to pitch in the WBC.”

Gray, 27, said he’s come to terms with his unexpected exit from the WBC as “one of those things” but would like to get a chance to pitch in the tournament in four or eight years.

“There are different rules in place, and it just didn’t work out for me,” he said.

I would have had a great time and I would have really enjoyed going and getting ready and trying to compete on a large scale this spring.

“At the same time it does allow me to get back on track and get a couple of more days here to get myself ready to make myself the best pitcher and perform for the A’s the best that I can.”

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