Analyzing Bay Area teams’ outfielders
A’s: Grossman led group that started strong, but slumped in second half
It is telling in hindsight that Seth Brown, who made the A’s initial roster as a fifth outfielder, didn’t play an inning in the outfield in 2020.
The A’s played their 60game season plus two postseason series relying almost exclusively on a fourman contingent of — from left to right — Robbie Grossman, Ramón Laureano and Stephen Piscotty, plus the versatile Mark Canha. The unit’s understated production also helped to offset negligible output from designated
hitter Khris Davis.
Better for the A’s, that group is set to return mostly intact next season — albeit with a notable exception.
2020 review: In a down year for the A’s offense, the outfield had some key contributors.
Grossman led the A’s in on base plus slugging percentage (.826). Can haled the team in onbase percentage (. 387) and ranked second in RBIs ( 33) after first baseman Matt Olson ( 42). Piscotty ranked third in RBIs ( 29), driving in 26 of those in August.
Overall, the A’s outfield was fifth in the majors in FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement metric — among American League teams, only the Blue Jays’ outfield finished higher.
All the outfielders, though, experienced secondhalf dropoffs.
Laureano was batting .262 with 12 RBIs in 19 games before being suspended for his role in a benchclearing incident with the Astros. He hit .186 with 13 RBIs in 35 games after his return but defensively showed improved range in part because of better positioning in center.
Piscotty batted .289 with five home runs in August, then .154 with no homers and three RBIs in September — also missing time with wrist and knee injuries — and was benched for multiple playoff games. Canha, hitting .268 at the end of August, batted .215 in September after the A’s returned from a fiveday coronavirus layoff, and his power fell off from 2019.
Grossman had a .980 OPS before the layoff and a .641 OPS in September. Still, the 31yearold had something of a breakthrough season. After adjusting his swing to emphasize power and lift, Grossman hit eight homers in 51 games after totaling 11 in the previous two seasons combined. He also posted a careerhigh 15% walk rate. And he’s an impending free agent.
Rising prospects: One intriguing name for the A’s this spring was Luis Barrera, and after his time at their alternate training site, it appears that hasn’t changed.
Barrera, who turns 25 next month, was limited to 54 games in 2019 by a shoulder injury but hit .321 and slugged .513 at Double A Midland. He might have been an option for a callup in a normal 2020 season but spent it instead at the San Jose alternate site — where MLB Pipeline named him the A’s top position player prospect.
A lefthanded hitter, Barrera could compete for a job next spring if the A’s have to replace Grossman, who’s a switchhitter. Brown, Skye Bolt and Dustin Fowler are also minorleaguers with some bigleague experience who are lefthanded or switchhitters.
Austin Beck and Greg Deichmann, the A’s firstand secondround picks in the 2017 draft, are at the instructional league this fall, as is 18yearold Brayan Buelvas, an international freeagent signee who was also at the alternate site.
Lazaro Armenteros, the Cuban outfielder signed in 2017, is not at the instructional league and was not at the alternate site; he hit .222 with 227 strikeouts in 2019 at HighA Stockton.
Key question for 2021: Can Khris Davis regain his form?
Davis, a former outfielder, is grouped here despite being only a designated hitter now — and not even that for stretches of 2020.
After injuring his side running into a wall in Pittsburgh in May 2019, Davis’ secondhalf slump last year carried into this year as he started 1for21 and was hitting .155 at the end of August. He was relegated to starting only against lefthanders but perked up in the playoffs, going 6for24 with three home runs in six games.
“I was really encouraged with the way Khris started to swing the bat at the end of the year,” A’s executive vice president Billy Beane said after the season. “We saw some of the old Khris Davis there in the playoff series and a little bit at the end of the year, which is encouraging.”
Davis is set to earn $ 16.75 million in 2021 under the twoyear extension he signed in 2019, and the A’s would welcome the resurgence of a man who hit a majorleaguehigh 48 homers two years ago. If Davis could reclaim a regular DH role, the A’s would have to find another way to keep Canha — their onbase leader the past two seasons — in the lineup on a regular basis.
Potential free agents: The list of impending freeagent corner outfielders who had a higher FanGraphs WAR than Grossman in 2020: Marcell Ozuna, who appears headed for a big payday, and Michael Brantley, who had a $ 16 million base salary this season.
In other words, the A’s simply could try to bring back Grossman, who offers platoon flexibility and made strides in a smaller 2020 sample size — unless he prices himself out of Oakland’s range.
Otherwise, given their inhouse options and the potential of multiple vacancies opening in their infield and bullpen, the A’s could keep a lower profile on the outfield market.