Henry Bolte plates lone run in loss to Tigers

Bolte’s homer was a 108-mph, 411-foot blast off Tarik Skubal, giving the A’s their lone run in five innings against the two-time Cy Young Award winner. Kind of surprisingly, Bolte was dropped to ninth in the order tonight. He entered with a .370 OBP and he’s led off several times recently, but the A’s had Zack Gelof in the top spot tonight. Bolte’s homer was his third in 186 plate appearances since being called up. He’s not taking advantage of his power while hitting the ball on the ground about two-thirds of the time, but it is there, waiting to come out.

Bolte finds himself in the leadoff spot for the sixth consecutive game during Monday’s series opener at Dodger Stadium. The 22-year-old rookie’s staggering 66 percent groundball rate is a real cause for concern, but he has a chance to be an extremely impactful fantasy contributor if he starts getting the ball in the air with greater regularity. He’s hitting .299/.385/.388 with two homers, 12 RBI and 10 steals in 157 plate appearances over 42 games since ascending to the big leagues.

Twenty-two games into his career, Bolte had still been searching for his first major league home run after crushing 12 over 22 games in Triple-A. He finally got on the board with a two-run blast off Robert Gasser in the second inning, a 106.9 mph shot at 446 feet. The 22-year-old outfielder has otherwise performed well, hitting .295/.371/.385 with seven runs scored, seven RBI, and four steals across 89 plate appearances.

It appears to be nothing more than a routine day of rest for the 22-year-old outfielder. Lawrence Butler will start in his place in center field and will bat sixth for the A’s against Astros’ right-hander Mike Burrows.

Bolte was hardly a sure thing as a 22-year-old callup last month, but he’s hit .328/.397/.391 through 73 plate appearances. His .457 BABIP is surely something of a fluke, and his contact numbers are worse than his 26 percent strikeout rate might suggest. However, he’s hitting the ball plenty hard — he had an 111-mph single and a 112-mph double tonight — and his defense should help keep him in the lineup. He really just needs to start getting the ball into the air more often in order to ensure that he sticks around.

Bolte has begun ceding playing time to Lawrence Butler on a more regular basis 286/.369/.321 with zero homers, four RBI and four steals in 18 games since being called up from Triple-A Las Vegas last month. He’s sat in three of the club’s last seven games. Fantasy managers were probably expecting more production from an over-the-fence power standpoint based on his minor league breakthrough earlier this season. It hasn’t happened so far.

Bolte has started 11 of 15 games since being called up from Triple-A Las Vegas earlier this month. The 22-year-old rookie has held his own at the plate, hitting .282/.370/.333 with three runs scored, zero homers, four RBI and three steals in 46 plate appearances over 12 games. It’ll be Lawrence Butler getting a turn in center field on Tuesday night.

Bolte worked Walker Buehler for a one-out walk in the second inning but wound up getting stranded at second base. He then delivered an RBI single in the fourth inning that gave the A’s a 3-2 lead before getting caught trying to steal second base. He also reached on an infield single in the sixth inning. The 22-year-old outfielder has impressed in his limited action with the A’s so far, slashing .310/.382/.345 with three RBI and three stolen bases (in five attempts) through his first 34 plate appearances.

It’s a tough break for the 26-year-old defensive wizard who was nearing a return from a bone bruise that had him shelved since April 22. He won’t be re-evaluated until after the All-Star break which means he’s going to be out for a while. If there were any concerns about the playing time for Henry Bolte once Clark returned, the runway has now been cleared.

Cortes has cooled off of late, but he’s still hitting .343/.400/.556 overall with just 10 strikeouts and fine EV numbers in 110 plate appearances. He has about 300 points of OPS on Tyler Soderstrom and 400 points on Lawrence Butler, the two guys flanking Bolte in center tonight. What he doesn’t have, however, is a long-term contract guaranteed through 2031 or ’32.