A’s get a lot of bang for their buck
Remember how embarrassed Blue Jays fans were in May when the Oakland A’s swept a four-game series at the Rogers Centre, outscoring the home side 27-12? The A’s arrived with a 21-22 mark, while the Jays were 22-21 after a fast start in April. The Jays were looking to rediscover their winning ways against a team presumed to be also-rans in the AL West.
Well, Jays fans, be embarrassed no more — at least for the sin of losing to the A’s. Since their team charter touched down in Toronto two months ago, Oakland has posted a 36-21 record and has the sixth best mark among 30 major-league teams — behind only the Red Sox, Astros, Yankees, Mariners and Cubs.
The difference in those six teams? The five teams ahead of Oakland are all spending $157 million-plus on payroll, while the A’s sit at a modest $66 million. Only DH Khris Davis earns more than $8 million for the A’s.
The Jays, with a humble record of 46-52, boast a top-10 payroll of $162 million, with seven players earning more than $8 million and three players combining for $56 million currently sitting on the disabled list.
The A’s faced the San Francisco Giants this past weekend in the back end of home-andhome series surrounding the all-star break, the unofficial Battle of the Bay. The A’s walked off the final two games, Saturday and Sunday at the Coliseum, won four of the six games, drew an astonishing 146,290 fans to their threehome games at a horrible ballpark, and moved to within three games of Seattle for the second wild-card spot in the AL. This is one of Atheltics president Billy Beane’s best efforts.
At a time on the baseball calendar when the A’s are normally perceived as sellers, expected to rid themselves of expiring contracts and players that have become too expensive for a team that usually ranks near the bottom in home attendance, the A’s just added pricey reliever Jeurys Familia from the Mets, adding to an already solid bullpen, one of the areas that makes them contenders.
It’s not like the A’s are taking advantage of a weak division: They play in the strong AL West, a group that entered Monday 48 games above .500. The always-powerful AL East is 19 games above .500. The AL Central’s first-place Indians are taking advantage of a whole lot of tanking going on, with the Royals, Tigers and White Sox. The Central is a pathetic 84 games under break-even.
The outside perception of an organization contending a budget is that it must have rebuilt using wise draft picks and a blossoming farm system. Such has not been the case in Oakland. Only four players on the current 40-man roster were signed and developed within the system —first baseman Matt Olson, third baseman Matt Chapman, utility man Chad Pinder and talented reliever Lou Trivino.
The starting rotation consists of three unwanted free-agent castoffs — Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill and Edwin Jackson — plus an emerging 26year-old lefty, Sean Manaea, acquired in a 2015 trade with the Royals. The A’s stout bullpen consists of six pitchers acquired in trade, including closer Blake Treinen, one draft pick (Trivino, 2013) and one six-year free agent, Yusmeiro Petit.
The truth is that the A’s tend to rebuild every few years. They are like an NCAA college program where three years of control leads to arbitration and, eventually, players pricing themselves out of a small market and Beane finding replacements.
Back when the A’s emerged as Moneyball darlings in the early 2000s, the hype overlooked the fact they were led by a trio of homegrown starting pitchers, Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder, who in 2001-02 combined to go 113-46.
The A’s won 100-plus games each of those seasons, but failed to get past the ALDS. In fact the A’s have advanced to the playoffs eight times since 2000, losing six times in the ALDS and once in the wildcard game. They advanced to the ALCS in 2006, losing to Detroit. There seem to be performance limits on low payroll.
Oakland is on pace to win 92 games this season and miss the playoffs. But they have a chance if they make wise deadline moves and are patient. Importantly, they are an example to the Jays — that a rebuild does not have to be long and painful if there’s a plan. Jays fans are not a patient bunch.