Stolen base needed? Fleet center fielder almost a sure thing
There was no waiting around. Second base sat open. Starling Marte stood at first after a thirdinning single. The A’s center fielder did not take a wide lead, his left cleat resting inside the arc described by a quartercircle carved into the grass near first base.
Blake Snell came set and paused. Just 10 runners had pulled off steals against the Padres’ lefthander all season. Snell uncoiled his delivery into a 94mph fastball. Matt Olson watched as it passed. Austin Nola rose and fired a throw to second base that had no chance.
Marte was halfway to second by the time the pitch reached Nola. His left hand found the bag with Jake Cronenworth still awaiting a onehop throw. Momentum nearly carried Marte past the base, but he kept contact for, at the time Tuesday, his fifth steal in five games for the A’s.
Recent A’s offenses have not relied on the running game. Marte, acquired last week from the Marlins for lefthander Jesús Luzardo, has added that dynamic. Marte has 27 stolen bases in 69 games, second most in the majors entering play Thursday behind the Royals’ Whit Merrifield (28 in 106 games). Marte has been caught just three times.
Marte, 32, has stolen 30 or more bases in five majorleague seasons. The last, though, was in 2018, when he stole 33 and was caught 14 times. Marte already has surpassed his total of 25 steals in 132 games in 2019. He had 10 on 12 attempts in 60 games last season.
“I’m trying to work hard every day and I take pride on stealing bags every single day, trying to get one or two,” Marte said through an interpreter Tuesday night. “And that’s why we are where we’re at right now — hopefully in the lead or close to it. But I take a lot of pride in that.”
Marte is covering 28.4 feet per second when he sprints, per Statcast, in the top fifth of majorleague players but a slight decline from previous seasons. He covered 29 feet per second two seasons ago. Yet his 90% success rate on stolenbase attempts would be a career best over a full season. A careerbest .409 onbase percentage also has afforded more chances to run.
“I’m trying to help the team as best I can in any way I can and I’m going to try to duplicate my numbers as best I can every year and try to get better every year,” Marte said.
The A’s have not had a player steal more than 20 bases in a season since 2017, when Rajai Davis had 26. Marcus Semien led them with 14 in 2018, Ramón Laureano had a teamhigh 13 in 2019 and Robbie Grossman paced them with eight in the short 2020 season. Laureano, with 12, leads players who have spent all this season with Oakland.
Their most prolific basestealer in manager Bob Mel
vin’s tenure has been outfielder Coco Crisp, who led the AL with 49 steals in 2011 — the year Melvin became A’s manager at midseason — and was 39for43 on attempts in 2012. Melvin cited Crisp as a comparison to what Marte has shown on the basepaths.
“There were times when Coco was in that mode but maybe not as consistently as this,” Melvin said Wednesday. “This seems like if (Marte) gets on base, it’s a couplestolenbase game waiting to happen. And it’s not like he’s doing it without any thought. You look at his stolen bases and his caught stealing, he knows when to go. … He’s got a great feel for it.”
Marte has slotted into the second spot in the A’s lineup, ahead of where Olson usually hits. Marte’s running habits could require Olson to choose at times whether to take a strike to give Marte a shot at an extra 90 feet, as in the
Snell atbat, but not always. In the 10th inning Wednesday, in a firstandthird situation, Marte broke for second on Tim Hill’s first pitch to Olson with eyes on negating a potential doubleplay grounder. Olson swung, anyway, and hit a walkoff tworun double.
“No, it doesn’t change anything,” Olson said of hitting behind Marte. “We’ve had guys, Ramón, (Mark) Canha, Elvis (Andrus), on base ahead of me and it doesn’t matter when guys run. It’s a good thing to have a guy who has that ability. Say it’s two outs and he’s on first and he’s able to steal second, a single scores a run. So it’s a good thing that he has that ability.”
Overall, the A’s haven’t totaled more than 57 stolen bases in a season since 2015. That could change this year, especially with Marte in tow. The A’s have 52 steals on an 82.5% success rate that was second highest in the AL
behind Cleveland (84%) through Wednesday. They had a majorsleading 15 steals of third base on 17 attempts.
“It makes it more fun to watch baseball games,” Melvin said. “Analytics has gone to where it’s a little bit more about just taking pitches and drawing walks and getting guys on base, and maybe not forcing the action as much. But I think that is a more exciting brand of baseball.”
Asked if Marte has a green light to run, Melvin said: “He can have whatever light he wants right now the way he’s going. There’s certain instances of, if you’re down by whatever (runs), a guy’s quick to the plate — but I don’t plan on putting any red lights on here anytime soon.”