These veteran shortstops have plenty left to give
Andrus has ability to contribute at plate, in field, through sharing knowledge
When the Oakland Athletics traded designated hitter Khris Davis to the Texas Rangers in exchange for 12year veteran shortstop Elvis Andrus, A’s manager Bob Melvin quickly saw an opportunity present itself.
Andrus, a career .274 hitter with 305 stolen bases, possesses the ability to contribute through his offensive and defensive production.
Perhaps more importantly though, Melvin saw another layer to Andrus’ potential offering. He sees him as someone capable of passing more than a decade of knowledge down to the A’s younger players.
“Having him as a resource is terrific,”
Melvin said. “He’s a veteran guy.”
Melvin’s view of Andrus’ prospects as a leader stems from his familiarity with the former Ranger infielder. Having both spent more than a decade in the AL West, Melvin has picked up on some of Andrus’ tendencies and he’s confident Andrus has honed in on some of the Athletics’ moves.
Melvin has Andrus on his side now. He sees a chance to improve his team as a result.
“Elvis has played against us for a long time,” Melvin said. “He’s seen our guys and he’s got some opinions. He may have some things that we didn’t know.”
Andrus is coming off a down year. Hampered by a back injury through the 2020 season, he hit .194 in 29 games, marking the first time in his career that his batting average dipped below .200. Defensively, Andrus struggled as well. In outs above average, which calculates the number of plays a defender made and the difficulty of them, Andrus ranked No. 219 of 244 players. Only five shortstops finished the season ranked lower than him in the category.
Melvin believes Andrus’ lack of offensive production can be attributed to the injury, though. The 32-yearold’s new teammates are confident he’ll be able to find his stride again in Oakland.
“We’re getting a bat, you know,” Laureano said. “He’s been in the World Series twice. He’s been in the playoffs a bunch of times. He already played with one of the best third basemen in the history of the game (Adrian Beltre) and he’s playing with one of the best current third basemen in the game (Matt Chapman).”
Before last season, Andrus had proven himself as a threat at the plate and on the basepaths. In 12 seasons, he’s stolen fewer than 20 bases in a year just twice, an aspect of his game that Melvin feels the team can capitalize on in the upcoming campaign.
“He’s a guy that not only is a good runner and a basestealer,” Melvin said, “He’s pretty aware of when he needs to steal and can pick up things for some of our guys.”
Baserunning is one of the areas Laureano has chosen to focus on in his conversations with Andrus over the course of the last week. The A’s center fielder is coming off his least productive season on the bases in his three-year career. With a proven base-stealer now in his locker room, Laureano believes he and his teammates can improve their own skill sets.
“We’re going to learn a lot from him,” Laureano said. “Not only defensively for the infielders but the whole group.”