Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, A’s hottest hitter, undergoes emergency surgery for ruptured testicle
Cal Ripken Jr. may have ownership of the “Iron Man” nickname, but he might have to lend it to Athletics rookie Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, even for just one day. The rookie do-everything man underwent emergency surgery to repair a ruptured testicle last night, hours after fouling a ball off the region.
He managed to play through the injury, if only for an inning.
In the fifth inning of the Athletics’ series-opening 5-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, Kuroda-Grauer fouled a ball directly off his nether region, crumpling to a heap on home plate as a trainer and manager Mark Kotsay tended to him.
Unlike most foul-ball incidents, the ball did not ricochet off the ground before hitting Kuroda-Grauer. It was clean contact, through and through.
Kuroda-Grauer eventually rose to his feet, took a few practice hacks and completed his at-bat, notching a single.
Joshua Kuroda-Grauer left Monday’s game due to a testicular contusion.pic.twitter.com/Ow4a9jk3uB
— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) July 21, 2026
“It looks like he will come up with no balls and one strike,” A’s play-by-play man Chris Caray said in a now-viral call of the injury.
The next half-inning, Kuroda-Grauer returned to man third base, all with a ruptured testicle. He was eventually replaced at third in the bottom of the sixth, his night ending with a 2-for-3 line, including his first big-league homer and one major injury.
The former third-round pick out of Rutgers is “resting comfortably,” per a release from the club.
Just one month ago, New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. found himself in a similar situation, ultimately leaving mid-at-bat because of how unbearable the pain was. In Chisholm’s case, the ball ricocheted off the ground first, perhaps a saving grace for being able to avoid major injury.
Kuroda-Grauer’s injury joins a long line of similar testicular misfortunes throughout the annals of MLB history.
In 2009, Adrián Beltré infamously took a ground ball to his own lower half, and like Kuroda-Grauer, he played through the game, a 14-inning extra-innings affair, also with a serious injury.
“When I did it at first it really hurt and that’s when I started thinking … but then even if I wanted (out) we didn’t have an extra infielder,” Beltré said of his decision to stay in the game.
Not only did Beltré stick around, he also scored the winning run.
“When I look down, after the game, it wasn’t a pretty sight,” Beltré said then. “My testicle got the size of a grapefruit. Thank God it didn’t really damage anything. It took me two weeks. It was a tear. A lot of blood inside, but it didn’t damage anything.”
Beltré isn’t the only Mariner to find themselves on the receiving end of a cup check. Ten years after Beltré’s own misfortune, Mitch Haniger suffered a similar injury after fouling a ball off himself, also needing emergency surgery. The original progenitor of the injury is pitcher Josías Manzanillo, also a Mariner, who took a Manny Ramírez line drive to his privates but managed to get the out at first.
With Kuroda-Grauer on the IL, the Athletics recalled Max Muncy. Having gone 2-8 over their past 10 games, the injury to Kuroda-Grauer could not come at a more inopportune time. Over his first 16 games, Kuroda-Grauer posted a 175 OPS+, with a whopping 25 hits in 62 plate appearances.