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The Oakland Telegraph
6 October 2030
Disaster for A's as Dundee ruled out until 2032 season with torn rotator cuff
By O. M. Gee, news which is terrible in the context of only being about sport correspondent
Jaws dropped all round the Oakland organisation as the news spread. Chins scraped on the floor. Tumbleweed blew across offices populated by stunned, statue-like members of staff. On the penultimate day of what, up to this point, had been a uniformly fantastic season, things suddenly took a turn for the worse for Oakland after starting pitcher Brad Dundee suffered a horrendous injury.
With his turn in the rotation due up, Dundee took to the mound in yesterday's penultimate regular season game against Seattle. He looked in fine form as usual, throwing 6 innings for 1 run in what would end up being his 22nd win of the season, a mark that will be the best in the MLB this year, ties the Oakland franchise record (living legend Jose Fernandez also earned 22 wins in 2022), and is just one shy of the all-time Dynastic Era record of 23 wins set by Lucio Vargas during the 2025 season when he was with previous club Philadelphia. However, Dundee's and Oakland's day ended in awful fashion when he hurt himself throwing a pitch at the start of the 7th inning and came out of the game. Oakland's club doctor Walter Proofplasters diagnosed a torn rotator cuff, whatever that is, and said he expects Dundee to be out for 13 months, meaning Dundee will miss not just the upcoming postseason, but also the whole of the 2031 season.
Dundee, who has a career 67-25 record and 3.31 ERA, is still relatively young. He does not turn 28 until next May. But at this point in time there must also be considerable uncertainty over whether he can return to his current performance levels when he does next pitch for the A's at the start of the 2032 season. General manager Paulie Beane's policy of continuing to play all his starters after postseason qualification has been secured will surely now come under some scrutiny. Approached by reporters as the news broke, a teary Beane was clearly still coming to terms with the news and refused to comment. Insiders say Beane was forced to place an emergency order for a new iPad, as it seems his previous one was involved in an unexpected incident involving a drill.
With the final regular season game taking place later today, and Nathan Hamilton due to take the mound, the 112-49 A's did not make an immediate replacement for Dundee on the active roster. Karl Dickson, Vargas and Ramon Mendoza will now comprise the three-man rotation which Beane will probably use for the postseason campaign.
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