Then again, it’s not every day a guy batting .429 with a 1.232 OPS (albeit over seven at-bats) gets told he’s not good enough to play on a team that lost a franchise-record 112 games a year ago.

Ruiz, who had seen spot duty through the first week of the season after setting an AL rookie record with 67 steals last year, is being sent to Las Vegas to work on his on-base skills. The 25-year-old had a below-average on-base percentage of .308 a year ago, something A’s general manager David Forst said needs improvement.

“The reality is, to use his skills, he needs to get on base. He needs to be able to do that on a consistent basis,” Forst told reporters in explaining why Ruiz was sent down to make room for utilityman Tyler Nevin, claimed off waivers Sunday from Baltimore. “I’m hoping with everyday at-bats in Triple-A, it’s not a long stay for him down there.”

His inability to get on base consistently in spring training seemed to be a precursor to Monday’s move, since Ruiz had just a .295 on-base percentage over 61 at-bats in Arizona.

The 26-year-old Nevin, Ruiz’s roster replacement, is the oldest son of former big-league player and manager Phil Nevin. The younger Nevin was a 2015 first-round draft pick by Colorado and made his big-league debut with Baltimore in 2021. Nevin can fill in at first base, third base and the outfield.

Not only did Murphy help the Braves win the NL East, he had career-high of 21 homers, 68 RBIs and .844 OPS. Meanwhile, the A’s got Contreras from Atlanta and flipped both he and suddenly top-notch reliever Joel Payamps to the Brewers to acquire Ruiz.

All Contreras did was become what many believe is the majors’ best catcher while earning an All-Star berth and winning the NL’s Silver Slugger award in 2023, while batting .289 with 17 homers and 78 RBIs.

It looks even worse when you consider Contreras has done all that and will still make just $22,000 more than Ruiz’s $745,000 contract with the A’s this season.

Andujar, who’s been one of the top hitters in the Cactus League while hitting .357 with five home runs with a 1.110 OPS, suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee. He’ll undergo surgery on Wednesday, a procedure the A’s hope will allow him to return to the team sometime in May.

“We can’t tell until (the doctors) get in there what the repair has to be,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay told MLB.com. “If it’s minimal, it could be a 4-to-6 week timeframe. If it’s more than that, we could be looking at a longer timeframe.”

Andujar, the 29-year-old former runner-up to Shohei Ohtani in 2018 while with the Yankees, was expected to alternate between left field and designated hitter with Oakland. The A’s claimed him off waivers from Pittsburgh four months ago.

Knee troubles will also send Sean Newcomb to the injured list, the team announced Saturday. Newcomb was set to replace ex-Giant Scott Alexander as the A’s top lefty in the bullpen while Alexander’s recovered from a left rib stress reaction. Those injuries leave Kyle Muller, last year’s Opening Day starter, as the lone lefty currently on the roster.

Oakland’s left-handed options include 27-year-old Easton Lucas, acquired from Baltimore last year in the Shintaro Fujinami trade. The A’s could also explore adding another former Giant in Amir Garrett, who was released this week after a rough spring. Veteran Joely Rodriguez, 32, is also available after opting out of his minor league deal with Boston on Friday.

Saturday’s injury news comes one day after right-handed setup man Trevor Gott, a fringe free-agent signing in the offseason, was booked for Tommy John surgery next week after suffering a fully torn UCL ligament.

Andujar’s injury opens the door for utilityman Hoy Park to break camp with the A’s. Park, 27, continued his torrid hitting while going 2-for-2 with a double during Oakland’s 11-5 spring win over the Angels Saturday. The lefty hitting Park has a spring slash line of .488/.489/.674.

The veteran right-hander was scintillating while no-hitting the Chicago Cubs for six innings and allowing just one runner Wednesday, helping the A’s snap a seven-game spring training winless streak.

Blackburn teamed with Sean Newcomb and rookies Stevie Emanuels and Grant Holman on a one-hitter in Oakland’s 3-1 win at Hohokam Park in Mesa, Ariz.

The lefty Newcomb, who has no remaining options but has virtually locked up a bullpen role, gave up Chicago’s lone hit — a two-out, seventh-inning home run by Cubs prospect Ezequiel Pagan. The former Cal star Holman closed out the A’s first victory since March 12 by striking out the side in the ninth.

The A’s had tied their previous three games after losing four straight in the desert.

The former All-Star Blackburn needed just 64 pitches to get through his longest stint of the spring as he walked one batter and struck out three while facing the minimum 18 batters. One pitch after walking Alexander Canario on a close 3-2 pitch in the third, Blackburn induced an inning ending double play from David Bote.

Blackburn, who’ll be Oakland’s No. 4 starter this season, lowered his spring ERA to 2.84.

All of the A’s offense came via the home run in the third inning. Nick Allen hit his first homer of the spring off Cubs veteran Hector Neris, followed by hot-hitting Brent Rooker’s two-run blast off the former Astros reliever.

After a slow start in Arizona, Rooker is beginning to resemble the guy who hit 30 home runs and made the All-Star team last year – he’s 5 for 9 with two homers and a double, with five RBIs in his last three games.

Stripling, 34, didn’t give up a lot of hard contact against the Arizona Diamondbacks while permitting three runs in what turned out to be Oakland second consecutive 3-3 tie.

The A’s projected fourth starter to begin the season, Stripling looked much better than his previous two starts when he got roughed up for 14 runs over 7 1/3 innings to push his ERA over 10. He had one walk and three strikeouts Monday during his longest spring start.

Davis, batting second as the designated hitter in his second A’s game, had two hits against Merrill Kelly, one of Arizona’s aces who struck out seven in his 3 1/3 innings. Davis, who is hitting .450 overall, has three hits in five at-bats since joining the A’s on Friday following his release by the Giants.

Oakland rallied for three runs in the eighth inning to tie the game, thanks to RBI hits from Esteury Ruiz and minor leaguers Drew Lugbauer and Logan Davidson.

Mitch Spence, the No. 1 pick in December’s Rule 5 draft, kept the game tied while turning in the most impressive of his five spring appearances. The former Yankee his spot as Oakland’s long reliever with two hitless, shutout innings featuring five consecutive strikeouts. Spence has a 3.60 ERA over his 15 innings of work, which includes a team-leading 19 strikeouts.

With 10 days left before their March 28 season opener, the A’s biggest remaining position battle is at shortstop, where Nick Allen (back) played for the first time since March 1. Allen, who is facing strong competition from 22-year-old rookie Darell Hernaiz, batted leadoff and went 0-for-2 with a walk.

Davis, who signed with the A’s Friday after being unceremoniously released by the Giants earlier in the week, looked comfortable in his green No. 5 Oakland jersey. He handled his only chance at third base and went 1-for-2 while batting sixth against the Chicago White Sox in what ended as a 3-3 spring training tie.

Davis hadn’t played since getting two hits and two RBIs for the Giants on March 4, but he looked in midseason form while unloading on San Jose-born Chicago starter Nick Nastrini’s 1-0 fastball for a double. Davis, who hit .400 with two home runs in 15 at-bats with the Giants, grounded out in his only other at-bat as he played just five innings before getting the rest of the game off.

The A’s salvaged a 3-3 tie when Will Simpson, a 22-year-old first baseman and their No. 30 ranked prospect, launched a solo home run to left to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Chicago had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the inning when Gavin Sheets homered off A’s reliever Gerardo Reyes.

Oakland starter Alex Wood turned in his finest outing of the spring, going five innings while allowing four hits one earned run, no walks and six strikeouts. Former Cal catcher Korey Lee, a first-round pick of Houston in 2019, homered off Wood in the fifth inning.

Nastrini, 24, who was born in San Jose but grew up in San Diego, threw four shutout innings and lowered his spring ERA to 0.82.

A’s catcher Tyler Soderstrom, whose RBI groundout in the fifth tied the game, was among five cuts by Oakland after the game. Soderstrom, who was battling Carlos Perez and Kyle McCann for the backup spot behind starter Shea Langeliers, was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Oakland also reassigned four non-roster invitees to minor league camp: infielders Max Muncy and Armando Alvarez, and outfielders Daz Cameron and Max Schuemann.

Davis, who finalized his $2.5 million, one-year deal with the A’s on Saturday, was cut by the Giants, who utilized a contractual loophole to part ways with the 30-year-old on Monday after he beat the team last month in arbitration.

“It was a punch to the gut,” Davis told MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos. “You’re getting the rug pulled out from under you in a way where you’re not expecting that entirely. … It’s just part of the business of baseball. But to have that happen, I definitely had some lows in there.

“However, this opportunity over here seems a little bit better than what it was over there, so I’m grateful for it.”

Although Davis was awarded a $6.9 million salary after an arbitration hearing, under baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, arbitration-eligible players’ contracts are only guaranteed if they’re not decided by an arbitration panel. The Giants began the process of releasing Davis not long after signing free-agent third baseman Matt Chapman.

Davis, who received $1.1 million from the Giants in termination pay rather than the full $6.9 million he “won” at his hearing, can earn an additional $1 million from the A’s through performance bonuses. Davis’ new contract calls for bonuses of $100,000 for hitting the 250- and 350-plate appearances plateaus, as well as $150,000 each for 400 and 450 plate appearances, and if he makes 500 and 550 trips to the plate, he’d earn $250,000 each time.

Ironically, another cruel part of the game’s business created room on the A’s roster for Davis when right-hander Angel Felipe was designated for assignment. Felipe will miss the 2024 season after he underwent Tommy John surgery on Friday.

Davis, who hit .248 with 18 homers and 69 RBIs last year with the Giants, will be the A’s everyday third baseman when not making an occasional appearance at first base, A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.

Davis will make his spring training debut with the A’s on Sunday in Mesa against the White Sox.

Meanwhile, Saturday was a rough day for two A’s pitchers battling for the fifth spot in the rotation. Leading contender Joe Boyle continued his wild ways, walking four in four innings during an 11-4 loss to the Brewers. Boyle has walked nine batters in seven innings over his last two starts. Left-hander Kirk Muller, last year’s Opening Day starter, wasn’t as wild in his split-squad start in an 11-9 loss against the Rockies, but he was also ineffective. Muller gave up nine hits and six runs in three innings.

Imanaga, who the Chicago Cubs signed to a four-year, $53 million free-agent deal, baffled A’s hitters with his mix of a mid-90s fastball, a splitter, slider and curveball while striking out nine of the 16 batters he faced in a 3-1 victory.

If it’s any solace, the A’s aren’t alone in their inability to solve the 30-year-old Imanaga, who has now struck out 19 of the 41 hitters he’s faced this spring – an unheard of 46.3% strikeout rate.

Shōta Imanaga's 9 Strikeouts in 4.1 innings. pic.twitter.com/tgQSWIi9ha

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 14, 2024

Zack Gelof, Oakland’s top hitter and owner of the second-best OPS (1.209) of any hitter in baseball this spring, struck out all three times he faced Imanaga.

The A’s, though, also got an impressive performance from their left-handed starter, JP Sears, who went five strong innings while allowing five hits and two runs. Sears retired nine in a row after allowing a first-inning RBI double by Seiya Suzuki, enabling him to lower his Cactus League-leading ERA to 2.08.

Major League Baseball has requested teams refrain from announcing their Opening Day starters until March 19, but it’s a pretty strong bet Oakland will at one point soon name Sears as its starter against Cleveland at the Coliseum on March 28.

Struggling on offense wasn’t the only concern on Thursday for the A’s, who had to deal with some unfortunate injury news about hot-hitting Miguel Andujar (calf injury), former Giants lefty reliever Scott Alexander (left ribcage) and bullpen hopeful Angel Felipe (right elbow).

Andujar, who is batting a robust .406 with a team-leading 13 RBIs, was scratched from the lineup with a right calf injury the team believes is minor.

Alexander was shut down after suffering a left rib stress reaction that team is calling a deep bruise. Alexander has been rocked for nine hits and eight runs in just 2 1/3 innings.

The news was worst of all for Felipe, a 26-year-old acquired from the Padres last season. The right-hander who appeared in 14 games for Oakland last year is now headed for season-ending Tommy John surgery.

The injury updates for shortstop Nick Allen and outfielder Seth Brown, both out the last two weeks with back troubles, were decidedly more optimistic. Allen did tee work Thursday and Brown got in about 50 swings in the cage and A’s manager Mark Kotsay is hopeful both can appear in a game this weekend.

It didn’t matter.

It’s not often a non-roster invitee borrowed from minor league camp elicits such good feelings among players and fans as Piscotty, who was making his first appearance in an A’s uniform since 2022.

Unfortunately, he got a good view of the Padres pummeling A’s starter Ross Stripling, who gave up 13 hits in just 3 2/3 innings as San Diego raced to an 8-0 lead on its way to a 12-11 win.

The 33-year-old Piscotty, who is ticketed for Triple-A as he tries to resurrect his career, was out of the game by the time the young A’s battled back to make things interesting. Jacob Wilson, the A’s No. 1 prospect, had two hits and drove in a pair of runs to spark the comeback. Max Muncy, Oakland’s No. 8 prospect, chipped in by belting his second home run of the spring.

Piscotty hasn’t played in the majors since August 2022, when the A’s released him to end his five-year run with the team he adored while growing up in Pleasanton. He was instantly beloved by fans across the major leagues when St. Louis traded him to Oakland before the 2018 season so he could be close to his mother, Gretchen, who was in the final stages of Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Wearing the same No. 25 as one of his A’s favorites, Mark McGwire, Piscotty had his best season that first year in Oakland, when he blasted 27 home runs and drove in 88 runs. His final four seasons with the A’s were marred by a myriad of injuries, and he was released in 2022 while batting just .190 through 42 games.

His attempts the last couple of seasons to make it back to the majors haven’t panned out, despite some Triple-A success with the Reds, Giants and White Sox, all of whom released him to allow him an opportunity to catch on elsewhere.

The A’s signed Piscotty to a minor league contract on Feb. 2 after he reached out to general manager David Forst, looking for one more chance.

“I’m fired up to be back with the green and gold,” Piscotty told the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea recently, while thanking Forst for the opportunity to continue playing, even if it’s in the minor leagues.

Not only would leaving the Giants and coming across the Bay allow him to become a starting pitcher again, but the 12-year veteran also relished the idea of becoming a mentor and leader on the young A’s ballclub.

“That part, I’m really excited about,” said Wood, who became the first A’s starter to work into the fifth inning during Oakland’s 4-2 spring training win over Seattle in Mesa, Ariz. on Tuesday.

In addition to Wood’s stressing the importance of hard work, focus and preparation to teammates this spring, he’s demonstrated to his fellow pitchers another way to stay grounded. The left-hander induced six ground outs and just one flyout – to go along with five strikeouts — among his 13 batters retired in 4 1/3 innings.

That’s no small deal for an A’s club that was dead last in the major leagues in getting ground balls last season. Conversely, Wood’s career ground ball percentage of 48.6% is just a shade lower than San Francisco’s major league-leading ground ball rate of 48.7% last season. You can connect the dots.

A’s second baseman Zack Gelof, who should be gobbling up plenty of grounders from Wood this season, picked up two more hits to pace the offense for Oakland (10-8). Gelof, batting a robust .412, belted an opposite field, two-run home run off Seattle starter Bryce Miller to give the A’s the lead for good in the third inning. It was his fourth home run in Arizona.

Left fielder Miguel Andujar, another of the A’s hot hitters, belted an RBI single to open the scoring. The former Yankees phenom is now hitting .406 with 13 RBIs, just one behind Dodgers’ star Freddie Freeman for the spring training lead.

Before the game, A’s manager Mark Kotsay revealed that infielder Aledmys Diaz will likely start the season on the injured list. Diaz suffered a setback during his rehabilitation from a groin injury on Monday when he strained his calf while running the bases, MLB.com reported. Diaz injured his groin two weeks ago.

The 6-foot-7 Boyle only allowed one run in three innings by relying on an upper 90s fastball — on that occasionally reached triple digits — to offset a wild streak that produced five walks at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.

Boyle, who seemingly is still ahead of fellow fifth-starter hopefuls Mitch Spence and Kyle Muller, struck out two and gave up just one hit as hitters continued to struggle against him. Boyle’s only hit permitted was an infield single to speedy star Corbin Carroll. The 24-year-old has now given up just four hits in 11 1/3 innings. Batters are hitting a cumulative .108 against Boyle, which is the lowest average against any major league pitcher this spring.

Joe Boyle's 3Ks…with 2 Swords. pic.twitter.com/7f9sXIpzIt

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 6, 2024

To illustrate Boyle’s performance may not just be a spring fling: He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Angels in the last of his three big league starts last season.

Top A’s prospect Mason Miller, another hard-throwing right-hander, also seems unhittable in the Cactus League while looking like a fit as the team’s closer. He pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning and has now thrown four shutout innings while giving up one hit, no walks and striking out seven while his fastball has reached speeds of 102 mph.

Oakland’s offense was paced again by emerging star Zack Gelof, who went 3-for-3 with three RBIs, including his third home run, a 417-foot blast to left off Arizona starter Ryne Nelson.

Miguel Andujar further strengthened his hold on a starting spot in Oakland’s lineup by doubling in a pair of runs. Andujar’s 12 RBIs this spring is second only to Dodgers star Freddie Freeman’s 14.

Two other things became more clear after Oakland’s 17th spring training game: 22-year-old Darell Hernaiz, the A’s No. 9 prospect, is on track to open as their starting shortstop and 27-year-old former Pirates utilityman Hoy Park is going to be hard to keep off the 26-man roster.

Hernaiz had a pair of hits to improve his average to .286 and also started a pair of double plays. (His odds of starting at short are aided by Nick Allen’s back issues). Park helped himself in his bid for a bench spot by lifting his slash line to .348/.360/.565 with a pair of hits.