Full of castoffs, A’s bound for playoffs
Oakland has pulled off an amazing feat with baseball’s third-lowest payroll
SEATTLE — The word “destiny” is thrown around way too often in sports. But when trying to comprehend the story of the 2018 Oakland Athletics, you can’t help using the word.
How else to explain it?
The A’s officially clinched a playoff spot Monday just as their American League baseball game against the Seattle Mariners got underway after the Tampa Bay Rays were officially eliminated from contention following a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees, marking the A’s first trip to the playoffs since 2014.
It makes no sense that a team expected to finish around .500 if everything went its way is headed to the playoffs despite having had everything go against them.
Had things gone the A’s way, Kendall Graveman would be living up to his status as the
No. 1 starter, Sean Manaea would be going strong as the No. 2 and Jharel Cotton would make three. Top pitching prospect AJ Puk might be here.
Instead, Graveman, Cotton, and Puk all went down with Tommy John surgery early in the year, while a torn labrum ended Manaea’s season last month. In fact, nobody from the starting rotation that came out of spring training is part of this current incarnation.
The A’s have used 14 starting pitchers this season, yet here they are, set to play in October thanks to castoffs such as Brett Anderson, Edwin Jackson and Trevor Cahill. Signed off the Major League Baseball scrap heap to serve as duct tape to a starting rotation in shambles, Anderson and Jackson will finish the season with ERAs under 4.00 for the first time since 2015, Cahill for the first time since ’13.
That doesn’t happen. Teams don’t go through 14 starting pitchers. The Texas Rangers have used 15 and they’ll finish last in the AL West.
It makes no sense for a second baseman to have a career year at age 34. But that’s what Jed Lowrie has done, earning his first all-star selection, hitting 21 home runs after never hitting more than 16 in a season and approaching 100 RBIs after never having produced more than 75. Lowrie also has a career-high 4.9 wins above replacement (WAR), according to Baseball-Reference.com.
It didn’t make sense when the A’s went into Cleveland and Houston, two teams that will meet in the playoffs, and took five of seven games just before the all-star break. Yet that was a clear signal to A’s GM David Forst that something special might be going on. He responded by making four trades for four pitchers — Jeurys Familia, Mike Fiers, Shawn Kelley and Fernando Rodney — in a span of 18 days. “We knew going into that stretch, that was gonna give us a real good sense of where we were,” Forst said. “The guys played great and we felt like they deserved an opportunity to get some help.”
It makes no sense that the Oakland outfield found stability in a kid who was let go by the Houston Astros and a 28-year-old rookie who toiled for seven years in the St. Louis organization without getting so much as a cup of coffee in the big leagues. But that’s the story of Nick Martini and 24year-old Ramon Laureano.
Yes, you need to have stars such as Matt Chapman and Matt Olson — both of whom have developed into consistent power threats and Gold Glove performers — and Khris Davis, the majorleague leader in home runs.
And it helps to have four guys in your bullpen with significant experience as closers, led by Blake Treinen, the major-league leader in ERA (0.81) who has put together the best season seen in these parts since Dennis Eckersley (0.61 ERA) in 1990. The others — Rodney (325), Familia (124) and Kelley (15) — have
464 saves to their credit.
Still, you don’t reach the postseason without a Laureano, who threw out eight baserunners in his first 42 games, or a Martini, whose .398 on-base percentage leads the team. That’s why manager Bob Melvin never misses a chance to sing their praises when asked what makes this team special.
“You need contributions from guys you don’t expect,” Melvin said. “You want your key guys to have good years or close to their numbers, but when you have guys that can come in that you didn’t expect, that makes your team that much better. It just seems like this team has gotten better and better as the season has gone along because of some unexpected players.”
So let’s say the A’s get past the Yankees in the wild-card game, a reasonable scenario given that anything can happen in a onegame playoff. Awaiting Oakland in the AL divisional series would be another beast in the Boston Red Sox.
It’s a club that has terrorized the league in building the best record in baseball with MVP candidates Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez and Cy Young hopeful Chris Sale.
It would make no sense if the A’s, with the third-lowest payroll in baseball, beat the Red Sox, whose payroll is the highest, and advanced to the ALCS and then the World Series.
And yet, considering the story of the 2018 A’s, it would make all the sense in the world.