A’s: Chapman expects underdog A’s to exceed expectations this season
The Oakland A’s success this 2021 season will rest primarily on its core performing to its high caliber capabilities.
This means third baseman Matt Chapman, the face of the A’s, will be tasked with anchoring the team as they make an attempt at a fourthstraight postseason run. And he’ll have to do it six months after surgery on a partially torn right labrum ended his 2020 season early.
His A’s teammates feed off Chapman’s confidence and positivity. He had all that in spades as he spoke with media on Wednesday. Chapman’s put up some lofty goals that, for him, seem entirely in reach. He wants to earn his third Platinum Glove (awarded to the
top defensive player in the league), top his 2018 and 2019 numbers at the plate and capitalize on another year of experience with Oakland’s core of players. Chapman thinks he can be better. He thinks the team can be better, too.
“I want to repeat what I did in 2018 and 2019, I know I’m better than I was then,” Chapman said. “I think I can put up better numbers. I don’t want to put up cap numbers on myself to put pressure on myself, but I know I want to get another Gold Glove and I want to get back to being the player I feel like I am.”
Despite a promising first few Cactus League appearances, Chapman had a relatively slow spring, hitting .179 with seven hits, including three home runs. He led both leagues in walks with 14. But Chapman said he locked in during the final week of camp.
“I feel a lot better,” he said. “Definitely early in camp I was getting my feet under me, the biggest thing was building up the endurance and getting used to playing every day again. Getting through initial aches and pains. But I feel great. I feel like the last week of Cactus League it started to click for me, and physically I started to feel the way I wanted to feel. I was making plays that didn’t hurt. At the end of last season my back was locking up, and now I’m feeling free and easy.”
Defensively, Chapman looks like he hasn’t missed a step coming off surgery that cost him the final month of the regular season and the A’s two playoff series. He flashed his glove in his first spring start at third against the Los Angeles Angels when he made a leaping grab off a Kurt Suzuki drive with a sharp hop, making the athletic 5-3 putout.
“I surprised myself a little there,” Chapman said. “In spring training, you’re going out there and feeling it out. Not that you’re not locked in, you are. But it’s a different feel, it’s hard to explain. So for me to make a diving play without thinking about it, just getting up and making the play and it felt normal and I wasn’t sore and it didn’t hurt. For me, that was like, OK, I can eliminate that doubt from my mind and know that I am physically able to do that. It was like, OK, let’s continue to work. I wasn’t questioning whether I could do it. It’s a matter of repeating it.”
With Chapman back in action, he expects this A’s team to be better than the 2020 squad — despite losing DH Khris Davis, SS Marcus Semien and closer Liam Hendriks. With bullpen additions Sergio Romo, Trevor Rosenthal and Adam Kolarek along with Elvis Andrus and Mitch Moreland, Chapman asserts the A’s are being underestimated.
Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projections have Oakland finishing with 83 wins, third in the AL West behind the Houston Astros and Angels. Chapman said he wouldn’t be surprised to see this team win 100 games.
“We like being the underdogs,” Chapman said. “That just means we’re playing with house money. We’re not expected to do anything, so everything we do is great. But I know it’s a different vibe in this clubhouse. We’re expecting to win the division.”
The A’s are coming off their first division title since 2013, albeit one that came in a 60-game season. They thrive as underdogs, and feel that the three years of postseason experience they’ve accumulated can only make them a stronger team. Chapman said he considers the Houston Astros their toughest competition in the division this year.
“Our core group of guys are getting better and experience,” he said. “Our returning guys are used to playing with each other. We’re comfortable and more of a team. The guys we brought in fit right in. We got Mitch Moreland. He’s a great clubhouse guy, good lefthanded bat and can play first base if Oly (Matt Olson) needs a day off. We picked up some good bullpen arms. Our bullpen has the ability to shorten games which is something we feed off of big time. All our starters proved they can pitch really well at this level, and they’re only getting more mature.”
MELVIN’S CONTRACT TALKS >> General manager David Forst and the Oakland A’s brass approached manager Bob Melvin this offseason to discuss his soon-to-expire contract, Forst said. The conversation was brief.
“His option at this point is more a function of what he wants to do rather than what we want,” Forst said. “He’s earned that right. So that will be the conversation we have going forward.”
Melvin’s contract ends after the 2021 season, but he holds a club option for the 2022 season. At age 59, Melvin is currently the longest-tenured manager with any Major League Baseball team. He took that title on when San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy retired after the 2019 season.