A's Outright Seven Off 40-Man Roster

The Oakland A's began to reshape their 40-man roster by outrighting seven players on Friday afternoon. The A's also announced that Eric Chavez will be undergoing his second surgery in two months.

The A's sent seven players off of their 40-man roster on Friday: pitchers Jason Windsor, Shane Komine, Brad Halsey and Ron Flores, catcher Adam Melhuse, infielder J.J. Furmaniak and outfielder Dee Brown.

Windsor and Halsey missed much of the season with shoulder problems. Windsor had surgery during the season, while Halsey rehabbing his injury non-surgically. Both pitchers played significant roles on the A's 2006 AL West division championship team.

Flores, who has appeared in parts of the last three seasons for the A's, had a 3.57 ERA in 17 appearances for the A's in 2007. He made 40 appearances for the Sacramento River Cats and worked the ninth inning of Sacramento's Bricktown Showdown victory. Komine appeared in two games for the A's this season, his second season with a major league appearance with Oakland. He had a 4.70 ERA in 7.2 innings. Komine was in the River Cats rotation for the rest of the season, posting a 5-12 record with a 4.87 ERA. He won Game One of the PCL Championship series for Sacramento.

Both Brown and Furmaniak were on minor league contracts at the start of the season and were added to the 40-man roster when they were promoted to Oakland to help fill-in for injured players. Brown spent more than a month with the A's, but he only had three at-bats in eight games played. He hit .298 with 14 homers in 62 games for the River Cats and .293 with the 16 homers in 103 minor league games split between Sacramento and Triple-A Tucson (he was acquired from the Arizona organization in late May). Furmaniak was a minor league free agent signing this off-season. He played in 106 games with Sacramento and hit .292 with 15 homers and 21 stolen bases. He spent nearly two months with Oakland and appeared in 16 games, getting 17 at-bats. He had three hits and scored five runs.

Melhuse began the season as the A's back-up catcher, but he was traded to the Texas Rangers in June. He returned to Oakland in September as a free agent after being released by the Rangers in August. He did not appear in a game with Oakland in September despite being on the roster for the entire month. He appeared in 12 games for the A's earlier in the year and had six hits in 26 at-bats. For Texas, Melhuse had 14 hits in 68 at-bats.

The A's now have 41 players on their 40-man roster, although Shannon Stewart, Jeff DaVanon and Mike Piazza will come off of the roster once they declare for free agency.

The A's also announced that Eric Chavez would be undergoing back surgery next week. Chavez had shoulder surgery in early September and is reportedly recovering well from that procedure. He is expected to have a similar back surgery to what Mark Kotsay had at the beginning of the 2007 season. Kotsay had his surgery in March and was back on the field in May.

The A's also announced the promotion of Larry Davis to the position of coordinator of medical services, Steve Sayles to the position of head athletic trainer and Walt Horn to the position of assistant trainer. Horn had been the Sacramento River Cats' trainer for the past eight years.