LOSS OF HEART
How will A’s fare in postseason without leader Chapman?
The day after the Oakland A’s officially clinched a playoff berth, manager Bob Melvin gave Matt Chapman a call over FaceTime.
The way Oakland won its first American League West title since 2013 didn’t call for immediate celebration. It came on an A’s off day when Houston lost. COVID-19 restrictions prohibit boozy celebrations and excessive contact, so there was no party, either. Instead, the A’s celebrated by gathering for a team meeting.
Chapman, sidelined after season- ending hip surgery, joined virtually.
“We think about him a lot,” Melvin said. “Even though he’s not with us on the field, it would be great to have him with us because he’s such an emotional leader on this team. We miss the dynamic too. In a different scenario, we probably have him with us rehabbing here and have his voice and enthusiasm.”
Clubhouse limitations because of the pandemic will keep Chapman away from the A’s as they venture into a third consecutive postseason. It’s hard for the team to digest, really, that its emotional epicenter, the clubhouse DJ, the acrobatic, yet powerhouse third baseman with a strong arm and equally explosive bat won’t be on the field or in the dugout as this team attempts to win its first postseason series in more than a decade.
“It’s hard not to have that because he’s meant so much to this team on and off the field,” Melvin said.
The team will miss him, but can they survive the postseason without him?
Chapman is a back-to-back platinum glove winner who didn’t quite seem right this year. Before his surgery, the 27-year- old said his hip had been bothering him “basically all year,” and particularly on defense. That might explain the five errors he incurred over the 36 games he played. To put that in perspective, he had nine all last season.
Put simply, a postseason without Chapman’s glove strips the A’s of one of the team’s unique advantages.
“The place that you may miss Chapman the most will probably be defensively,” said former A’s ace Dave Stewart, who won a World Series with Oakland, the Dodgers and the Blue Jays. “Because in a short series, quite frankly, it comes down to defense and not necessarily hitting.”
Former A’s pitcher and current TV analyst Dallas Braden offered a more granular idea of how a defender with Chapman’s abilities can alter a game.
“I can eliminate an offensive approach,” Braden said. “Guys think twice about putting that ball down on the ground, towards the third base side.”
That’s because Chapman plays third unlike most any
other player in the game. He plays far back on the dirt, almost as a tease to opposing hitters feeling good about a drive down the line. He can eliminate hits no problem from back there on any tricky hop. He does this because he can charge grounders hit at any speed. A soft dribbler or bunt down the line is Chapman chum.
“That’s what kind of impact he has,” Braden said. “You just want a defender that can eliminate an offensive approach just by his presence. That does wonders for a pitcher, not to mention it gives you the confidence to pitch to contact in situations where otherwise you might be trying to nitpick, maybe go for a strikeout.”
With Chapman out, the A’s signed Jake Lamb, an All-Star who’d scuffled enough that Arizona released him. Lamb is not in Chapman’s class defensively — there are only a handful of gloves, say Nolan Arenado and Alex Bregman, who can even compare.
“When you talk about guys who can completely change the selection of a game, just by them being on the diamond, it feels like there’s only about two or three guys going in the game right now,” Braden said. “And I think that Chapman is one of those.”
While Chapman’s absence would hurt any club, Lamb has demonstrated All-Star-type play since signing with the A’s, starting with a seven-game hitting streak and playing solidly at third.
Lamb’s presence also has been a boost to the clubhouse. His new teammates are pleasantly surprised that the A’s could pick up a player of his caliber so late in the season.
“He’s been incredible for us,” pitcher Chris Bassitt said. “Big hit after big hit. Super athletic guy. I don’t know how we got him, honestly. I’ve heard other guys play with him, play against him, and say if he’s healthy he’s an All- Star. And, dang, does he look healthy. So I think we got a steal out of him, to say the least.”
Even so, Chapman’s injury
could be felt as the stakes rise. He leads with emotions that ebb and flow with the ups and downs of baseball. He’s the clubhouse DJ, which sounds frivolous but is an entirely important detail. Chapman was a guy who set the tone.
“We know that teams can have their own little celebrations or things that they like to do after a victory,” Braden said. “There’s usually somebody who’s spearheading that. When we were allowed to throw pie in each other’s face, there’s a guy who’s typically leading that charge and that’s what a spirited clubhouse presence does. He reminds everybody that you’re just an overgrown child playing a game, wearing a costume, having fun.”
Stewart recalled when the A’s lost third baseman Carney Lansford for nearly the entire 1991 season because of injuries from a snowmobile accident.
“That may have played a factor in us not making it to the playoffs that year,” Stewart said.
Stewart can say that now. Back when he played, his A’s teams didn’t think too much about injuries.
“I mean, I don’t mean to sound cocky, but we were good,” Stewart said. “Very, very good. We never thought about health. We were focused on what was in front of us and beating the teams that we had to.”
News of Chapman being out for the season barely registered at Las Vegas’ sportsbooks. The A’s title odds crept from 5-in-1 down to 7-in-1 without Chapman for the postseason.
“Now, if it’s Aaron Judge? That’s a different thing,” Raphael Esperaza of Doc Sports Service said about the Yankees star.
Even if the Chapman news didn’t cause a stir in Las Vegas, reverberations are still rippling in Oakland, though Stewart threw out what amounts to a challenge to the newly crowned AL West champs.
“If you lose your morale because you lost one player, what kind of team are you anyway?” Stewart asked.