Blackburn (forearm) will be activated from the disabled list to start Thursday's series opener against the Royals, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
This confirms why Blackburn was scratched from his scheduled rehab start with High-A Stockton on Tuesday. The right-hander hasn't thrown more than 50 pitches in a rehab outing, so he'll be limited to around 75 pitches in his 2018 big-league debut. Blackburn, who has been sidelined all year with a right forearm strain, posted a 3.22 ERA and 22:16 K:BB across 10 starts (58.2 innings) with the A's last season.