In 2017, MLB teams spent more than $600 million in salary on players who were on the disabled list, according to spotrac.com. That number doesn’t include the immeasurable cost of lost development time for minor leaguers who land on the DL. Injuries are an unavoidable part of baseball. How effectively players return from their injuries often makes or breaks an organization.



Over the past eight years, the A’s have devoted an increasing amount of resources towards improving their injury rehabilitation program. The effort began in 2009, when the A’s named Garvin Alston their first minor league pitching rehab coordinator. He held the position through the 2014 season.



Alston took over as the A’s minor league pitching coordinator in 2015 and the team named former big league veteran and longtime A’s minor league pitching coach Craig Lefferts to the position



The A’s moved their minor league operations from Papago in Phoenix to Fitch...