ABRUPT ENDING
Melvin, A’s see another stellar season come to a halt in disappointing fashion
OAKLAND » As the Oakland A’s rolled through series after series en route to a second consecutive 97- win season, it felt like an endless summer for manager Bob Melvin.
Baseball’s longest- tenured manager is celebrated for his ability to do more with less and as the A’s raced toward the playoffs this year, time practically stood still for a team that proved its 2018 season was no fluke.
But when the Tampa Bay Rays arrived in Oakland and landed a crushing jab to the A’s jawbone on Wednesday, the clock began to tick.
When the Rays left a crowd of 54,005 fans stunned and silent at the end of a 5- 1 game, the ticks grew louder with each passing second.
Is time almost up for Melvin in Oakland? It’s a question that no one has dared to consider this season, but one that is no doubt on the mind of some A’s fans who will note that Melvin hasn’t won a postseason series since his Diamondbacks swept the Chicago Cubs in the 2007 NLDS.
In parts of nine seasons as the A’s manager, Melvin has exceeded expectations on an almost annual basis, taking a franchise that consistently fields a roster with one of the sport’s lowest payrolls to the postseason five times.
The A’s have won at least 94 games in four of Melvin’s eight full years on the job, an accomplishment Bruce Bochy’s San Francisco Giants achieved just once during his 13- year tenure. Bochy is heralded as a hero across the
Bay for navigating the Giants through challenging playoff brackets to three titles, but Melvin’s legacy is far more complex as he has yet to win a postseason series in Oakland.
In each of his team’s last three playoff appearances, Melvin’s A’s have suffered wild-card defeats that ended a bid at an October run before Oakland took its first full step. The franchise has now lost nine straight winner-take-all games.
“We’ve won a lot of games the last couple of years,” Melvin said. “What we probably need to do is win the division if we want to play a longer series.”
The A’s entered the 2014 and 2018 wild- card games as underdogs, but it didn’t make either of the defeats any less demoralizing. Against the Royals in 2014, the A’s blew a 7- 3 seventh- inning lead and an 8-7 11th-inning lead to fall to the eventual pennant- winners. Against the Yankees in 2018, the A’s used opener Liam Hendriks in the first inning to gain an advantage against a powerful New York lineup and fell behind 2- 0 in a game that ended in a 7-2 blowout.
The 2019 wild- card loss might sting the most.
“It’s frustrating, it’s very sudden,” Melvin said. “In baseball usually you have a series to have a tomorrow and then come back and win a game.”
The A’s secured a coveted home-field advantage and promptly fell behind 1- 0 when Rays leadoff hitter Yandy Díaz blasted the first of his two home runs over the right center field fence. Lefty starter Sean Manaea failed to record an out in the third inning and Oakland never recovered from an early deficit that sucked the energy out what promised to be a lively Oakland Coliseum on Wednesday.
Melvin won’t publicly pin the decision to start Manaea over veteran righthander Mike Fiers on the A’s braintrust of Billy Beane and David Forst, but it’s Oakland’s top executives who make those types of judgments. There was little Melvin could do to alter the A’s fate after the club fell behind 4- 0, but that won’t change the fact his name is attached to Wednesday’s loss.
“We felt like we had two good options to pitch,” Melvin said. “Manaea and Fiers.”
A loss to the Rays won’t change the fact Melvin is under contract through the next two seasons or the popular belief throughout baseball that the A’s have one of the brightest futures of any franchise, but it’s fair to wonder how the organization will handle its latest heartbreak.
Changing leadership is increasingly common in baseball and with six teams currently looking for new managers, it won’t come as a surprise if some inquire with the A’s regarding Melvin’s potential availability.
When the Giants hired Bochy away from the Padres in November 2006, San Diego was coming off back- to- back playoff appearances and back- toback first round exits. Bochy still had two years left on his contract, but San Francisco received permission to speak with him anyway before ultimately hiring a manager who never led the Padres to the heights where they believed they could soar.
In an era in which many franchises are increasingly focused on slashing manager salaries, Melvin’s annual income of roughly $3.5 million ranks among the largest in the game. If a team such as the Giants lobbies to speak with Melvin, would Beane and Forst entertain the idea there’s someone more capable — perhaps within the A’s organization — of taking the A’s beyond the wild card?
It’s been six seasons since former Tigers ace Justin Verlander stood in the way of the A’s dreams for the second straight year with a dominant effort in Game 5 of the 2013 American League Division Series. Oakland hasn’t ventured beyond the wild card since that loss and after Wednesday’s defeat, the A’s won’t have a chance to meet Verlander in Game 1 of this year’s ALDS in Houston.
There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that Melvin, who is more than 70 games over .500 during his tenure in Oakland, is one of the game’s best managers. He’s guided young teams through ups and downs, sorted out pitching shortages on the fly and convinced a clubhouse full of big leaguers that the unconventional path to success is often the most effective.
It’s possible the A’s won’t give the idea of letting Melvin go elsewhere a second thought. Many front offices that know they have it this good wouldn’t consider doing so.
But there’s also the never- discussed idea that if another team picks up the phone, this might be the end for Melvin and the A’s. If it is, it will always be remembered as the era of what-ifs.