A’s retain core, how can they get farther in the postseason?
SAOTTSDALI, ARIZ. » It won’t be long until the Oakland A’s are squaring up to face their American League West rival Houston Astros on April 1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Less than two weeks remain in Cactus League play, and this team doesn’t have too many questions to answer regarding the roster, but they do have a lot to prove.
This core has made three straight postseason trips with exactly one series victory to show for it. Now this club has the same core back for a fourth year — with some intriguing new additions. What needs to happen for the A’s to repeat their success and chances at getting further in the postseason this year? Here’s a breakdown of just a few keys.
Trevor Rosenthal can replicate Liam Hendriks’ production
That’s a tall task, and maybe slightly unfair. Hendriks was arguably baseball’s most dominant closer in 2019 and 2020, posting a 1.78 ERA and 1.80 ERA in each season respectively. He only seemed to get stronger as he walked fewer batters and seemed to throw harder. He also was the team’s clutch-est pitcher in the 2020 postseason.
The good news for the A’s is that if any closer can get close to that kind of production, Rosenthal is the guy. The two profile similarly.
The 30-year-old righthander can hit 100 mph on his fastball, averaging 97 mph, with a devastating slider. When right, he has a Hendriks-esque ability to not only miss bats, but embarrass hitters. Also like Hendriks, when he’s not right and he’s leaving anything up, he gets hit hard and succumbs to some frustrating walks. Simple enough.
What also made Hendriks valuable is as a surefire book-end to the bullpen. The stability of a dominant closer let manager Bob Melvin mix and match in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings over the last two seasons. With more variance of looks in the bullpen this year, the mixing-andmatching could be even more dynamic with Rosenthal on call for the ninth.
What could stop Rosenthal from filling Hendriks’ shoes: Injury. Because of a slight groin strain, Rosenthal didn’t pitch until Wednesday’s game against the Kansas City Royals. In general Rosenthal has been on and off the radar, throwing heat in the World Series one year for the St. Louis Cardinals and out of sight and struggling with a Tommy John rebound in 2018 and 2019.
He slid back on the radar with the San Diego Padres last year and chose the Oakland A’s as a contender best suited for his closer services. Hendriks left a large hole to fill, but a slightly underrated Rosenthal could capture the same spirit.
The Matts have a redemption year
The A’s have a powerful offense, but it could really sing if both Matt Chapman
and Matt Olson can have an offensive renaissance at the plate in 2021.
They’re both hitting well so far this spring — take that with its typical spring-training-doesn’tmatter grain of salt. But Olson is 13 for 32 with 4 doubles and five home runs. Chapman is batting 5 for 29 with two home runs and a double.
Olson’s spring numbers are a positive sign because he made a mechanical tweak in his swing over the offseason in hopes of shoring up the porous one that got him into a 31.4% strikeout rate in the 2020 season. Chapman missed the second half and postseason after undergoing hip surgery on a partially torn labrum.
With left-handed-hitting Mitch Moreland aboard, Melvin has placed Olson in the three-spot and Chapman batting cleanup for the most part when the trio play together. He’s indicated that should stick to break up Olson and Moreland in the lineup, both powerful left-handed bats. As the nucleus of the A’s offense (and defense), success will hinge on their production. They could soar if they both soar.
Rebound years for Montas and Luzardo
Jesus Luzardo and Frankie Montas could be the Olson and Chapman on the pitching side. Both partially anchor the pitching staff, and both have the talent and repertoire to make the rotation sing.
That’s not to take away from their rotation-mates. The rotation can improve if Sean Manaea’s velocity can stay at 93 mph this season and he keeps that competitive dog alive inside him all year, if Chris Bassitt can repeat his 2020 season.
But the ceiling can rise to another stratosphere if Luzardo can find some consistency and learn to attack hitters twice through the order and Montas can stay healthy.
At this point we know they both have “stuff” that can dominate any and all hitters. It’s flashed so far this spring in a handful of showings. Montas, a latearrival due to a bout with COVID, hurled his turbo sinker 98 mph and a splitter. He tossed two shutout innings with two strikeouts in his first outing this week.
Luzardo dominated his first outing, but was shaky in his second on Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. That’s been a trend in the 23-year-old’s big league debut thus far. The good news is that he’s more comfortable with — and has even added a few variations — of his breaking ball. He’s working a slow curveball and different variations of his slurve/curveball. Getting back to his breaking ball should be the foundation for Luzardo to blossom; remember that he had 64 total minor league games and 266 total innings before his call-up in 2019. In a sense, he’s learning on the fly against the best hitters he could face, the A’s believe that, with his maturity and ability, that’s the best way for him to get acclimated.