A’s trade for bullpen help in Cubs’ Chafin
The A’s have primarily sought pitching at the trade deadline for several years now, going back to the 2014 all-in trades for Jeff Samardzija and Jon Lester. They just agreed to a deal — pending physicals — to acquire reliever Andrew Chafin from the Cubs, solidifying the bullpen. But the A’s front office must not ignore their struggling lineup this trade season.
Despite skittering to a July record of 8-11, the A’s are right in the thick of a playoff push. They sit 5.5 games back of the Houston Astros for first place in the American League West and 1.5 games ahead of the Seattle Mariners for the AL’s second wild card spot.
The A’s should be serious about adding more pieces to their roster to bolster their postseason run. Expect them to add some bullpen depth, at least. But this month, it’s clear that the A’s underperforming offense could use a spark.
An underperforming offense — Matt Olson is arguably putting together a season worthy of MVP consideration. The rest of the A’s offense hasn’t been able to find its footing, a few key contributors in particular.
Matt Chapman is allowed a grace period after returning from his hip surgery last September, but he’s tumbled into far more cold streaks than hot ones. He leads baseball with 125 strikeouts, a statistic that doesn’t spell disaster when many hitters are sacrificing their strikeout rate to swing for power. But Chapman isn’t hitting for much power. He’s slashing .218/ .313/.372 with a .685 OPS and 12 home runs in 98 games. Chapman isn’t chasing out of the zone, but he’s struggled with pitches up, including a 40% swing-and-miss rate on pitches up in the middle of the plate. In other words, his timing still looks off and, at times, his at-bats aren’t as competitive as they have been.
Ramón Laureano flip flops between hot and cold, too, but he’s maintained a .242/.314/.439 slash line and a .753 OPS. He bounced from a treacherous June, with an injury mixed in, in which he batted .204 to a more productive July in which he’s batting .231. Both sit in contrast to his .292 average in May. Like Chapman, the strikeouts have been adding up. While he doesn’t chase and he’s not missing much in the zone, his 25% strikeout rate ranks in just the 27th percentile of MLB.
The A’s 102 wRC+ is slightly above average, but a few points below other contenders such as the Astros (117), Toronto Blue Jays (112), Chicago White Sox (111) and Boston Red Sox (104). The struggle translates to the traditional numbers, too. The Astros (.265), Blue Jays (.264), White Sox (.256) and Red Sox (.257) all rank among the top ten in batting averages while the A’s rank 25th at .233.
This is all to highlight that the A’s offense has been good, but not as good as it could be.