TAMPA -- For a player like Shea Langeliers who, prior to last month, had never really missed any real extended amount of games as a professional, his first career stint on the injured list was as much a mental break as it was a physical one.
“Nobody wants to get hurt and go on the IL and miss time,” Langeliers said. “Looking at it positively, I used it as a mental reset. A time to reflect and come back stronger. I feel like myself again. More energy and just better energy in general. I was excited to get back with the boys again.”
The Athletics have won each of Langeliers’ first two games back from the IL, and the catcher has had his fingerprints all over both of those victories. After slugging a three-run blast in his first at-bat back on Monday night, Langeliers impacted Tuesday night’s 4-3 win over the Rays in 10 innings at George M. Steinbrenner Field in a multitude of ways.
Offensively, Langeliers went 2-for-4 with a homer and a double. Behind the dish, he nabbed speedster José Caballero twice in critical moments, including an 84.5 mph seed for a caught stealing at second base to record the first out of the bottom of the ninth after Caballero led off with a single.
“That was huge,” said Langeliers, who also picked off Caballero at third base in the second inning. “It’s so humid here that the sweat is dripping down my arm and soaking my hand. It’s been tough these past couple of days with so many steals, but I just don’t want to sail it. I’m pulling it down and trying to use the long hop. Eventually, in the ninth, I finally got one, and it was big.”
That throw generated some momentum that transferred to the offense in the 10th, which saw a pinch-hitting Austin Wynns deliver the go-ahead run with a sac fly to left. That led to another save opportunity for Mason Miller, who for a second straight night shut the door on Tampa Bay with a scoreless bottom of the 10th and revved his fastball up to 103.7 mph to secure his 17th save of the year.
It was the second consecutive tightly-contested contest between these two clubs. Both wins required a supreme amount of focus by the A’s to come out on top, something manager Mark Kotsay believes correlates with the return of a team leader in Langeliers.
“When he was out, we missed his presence,” Kotsay said. “Not just behind the plate and in the batter’s box, but in that locker room. Since he’s been back, there’s a new type of energy. You can see the guys having a little more fun.”
Langeliers has been a mainstay behind the plate for the A’s since debuting in 2022. At the time of his 10-day IL placement on June 7 with a strained left oblique, the 27-year-old backstop had appeared in 305 games at catcher for the A’s since the start of the 2023 season. He has been one of the top power-hitting catchers in baseball with 63 home runs over the past three seasons -- including 12 through his first 58 games of '25 -- in addition to being lauded by A’s pitchers for his game-calling.
Durability has been a strength for Langeliers. The last time he recalled missing any long period of time was in 2019, when he broke his hamate bone in college as a junior at Baylor University.
To put it simply, Langeliers didn’t quite know what to do with himself in his time sidelined from baseball activity. Once he got on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Las Vegas in late June, though, he became somewhat reinvigorated by mingling with the youngsters down in the Minors and crushing Triple-A pitching, going 8-for-13 (.615) over three rehab games.
Now, Langeliers is back and feeling ready to spark an A’s club eyeing a second-half improvement, now 13-12 over its last 25 games.
“I wasn’t a fan,” Langeliers said of missing time. “But it gave me a different perspective not being able to get in the game and just watch the games and be there for the guys at home. It definitely sucked when they went on the road and I wasn’t able to go with them. But I just tried to stay positive through that and use it to my advantage to come back stronger.”