USA TODAY International Edition
Stunning turnaround puts A’s in the race
Underdog roster shakes up AL West
No, it isn’t a sequel. Yet what the Athletics are doing feels awfully familiar.
A team that lost 87 games in 2017, began 2018 with a major league-low $62 million payroll and still calls baseball’s most utilitarian facility home has climbed to the American League West summit, shoulder to shoulder with the defending World Series champion Astros.
After winning their weekend series against Houston despite losing Sunday’s game 9-4, the A’s look bound for a playoff return four years after a trade of their franchise player kicked off what seemed an endless rebuild.
Yet where Josh Donaldson once roamed, another budding MVP patrols third base.
A gaggle of odd-fitting items from myriad scrapheaps and low-key trades populate the rotation and lineup.
And presiding over it all again is club President Billy Beane.
Yet this is 16 years and dozens of tired Brad Pitt references removed from “Moneyball,” the book and film that chronicled Beane’s executive brilliance, lending both understanding and misconceptions to how the A’s go about their business.
Saturday, the A’s honored the “Moneyball” A’s in a pregame ceremony and then won for the 39th time in 52 games, erasing what was a 12-game Astros advantage.
The timing seemed apropos, as another underdog bunch threatens to upset an AL hierarchy that seemed ironclad as recently as one month ago.
So, how are these Athletics doing it? Can it be sustained?
And will Pitt and Jonah Hill return for the sequel?
An answer to some of those questions.
Starters from the bottom
The A’s had a virtual casting call of starting pitchers to start camp this spring, with eight to 10 viable rotation candidates. Just one — 11-game winner Sean Manaea, who no-hit the Red Sox in April — has been both healthy and effective enough to stick.
March 19 is not typically considered a day playoff berths are won, but the A’s might look back at that day fondly; that’s when they dug into the considerable bin of remaining free agents and signed old friends Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson to low-risk deals.
Cahill was guaranteed just $1.5 million and Anderson virtually nothing, settling for a minor league contract after making just 16 starts the previous two seasons.
Talk about bargains: Cahill has delivered a quality start in eight of his 15 outings and has dominated at times, such as his seven-inning, one-hit, sevenstrikeout beauty against the Astros on Saturday. Anderson didn’t make his debut until May 2 and hasn’t been as consistent but has pitched to a 3.90 ERA and delivered surprising length, completing at least seven innings in two of his past three starts.
And lest we forget, the A’s became the 13th club to employ Edwin Jackson after they signed the 34-year-old right-hander on June 6; Oakland has won eight of his 10 starts and Jackson has posted a 2.59 ERA and 1.06 walks and hits per inning (WHIP).
For less than $5 million, that’s a pretty efficient rotation backbone.
Nonstop relievers
So perhaps the retread starters won’t sustain their success. Those matters aren’t as pressing when the A’s have seemingly collected every reliever west of the Mississippi.
The rebirth of Blake Treinen, who has 45 saves in 52 chances since a July 2017 trade to Oakland, created a solid bullpen foundation. The emergence of rookie Lou Trivino, who boasts a 98-mph fastball and a 0.94 first-half WHIP, deepened the group. And the July and August trades for former closers Jeurys Familia (Mets) and Fernando Rodney (Twins) took the pressure off a struggling Trivino and gives the A’s a daunting late-inning look.
Unsurprisingly, they’re 51-0 when leading after seven innings, 26-10 in one-run games and have the AL’s best bullpen ERA (2.55) since July 3. This, perhaps more than any factor, should worry the Yankees or any club that slots into a one-game wild card against the A’s.
Views
Those who thought “Moneyball” was merely about on-base percentage would be disappointed in these A’s; they rank in the middle of the AL pack with a .321 OBP. Still, the lineup can be treacherous for opposing pitchers, as four A’s — Matt Olson, Jed Lowrie, Marcus Semien and Matt Chapman — rank in the AL’s top 20 for pitches per plate appearance.
Despite their homer-unfriendly ballpark and middling payroll, the A’s have hit 163 home runs, trailing only the Yankees, Angels, Red Sox and Indians in the AL; DH Khris Davis has ripped 36 home runs, including two Sunday off Justin Verlander, to rank third in the AL.
These A’s, then, have power and a dose of patience but are far from passive.
Jumpman
Beane’s trade of Donaldson after the A’s 2014 wild-card loss was a bridge too far for many A’s fans who previously accepted such broadside blows from costconscious management. Donaldson won the 2015 AL MVP with Toronto; attendance in Oakland plummeted to 1.47 million in 2017, an eight-year low.
That deal seemed to come full circle when Chapman, drafted six months before the Donaldson trade, pleaded with fans in a live TV interview to come to the Coliseum for big games this week with Seattle and Houston.
Now, Chapman is the club’s marquee attraction, a certain Gold Glove winner at third base and a developing force with the bat.
He’s also not eligible for free agency until after the 2023 season, by which time the A’s — stop if you’ve heard this before — hope to show off a new stadium.