Lineup is on track to be historically bad
After being held to just three hits over the first eight innings in Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Angels on Saturday, a double, a walk and a stunning walk-off home run from rookie Luis Barrera powered the A's to a comefrom-behind 4-3 win.
To anyone who has watched Oakland's lineup closely this season, the four-run output qualified as an outburst.
Expectations for the lineup were already low after Oakland traded corner infielders Matt Chapman and Matt Olson this spring, but through the team's first 37 games, the A's offensive production has dipped into historic territory.
With a .200 batting average, .270 on-base percentage and .579 OPS, the A's offense is on pace to be the
franchise's worst since at least 1908 and is in contention to be its worst of alltime.
Baseball has changed dramatically since Connie Mack was managing the team — the A's 22 homers this season are one more than the 1908 team hit all year — but on many days, the lineup Mark Kotsay is writing out is simply non-competitive.
Of the six A's with more than 100 plate appearances this season, two —rookie Cristian Pache and first baseman Seth Brown— have averages under .160 and onbase plus slugging percentages that are at least 35% worse than league average.
One of Oakland's biggest concerns is that despite the discouraging teamwide numbers, three regular members of the team's lineup are actually performing reasonably well relative to spring expectations. Infielder Sheldon Neuse has a .734 OPS that's 25 percent better than the average major league hitter while utility man Chad Pinder's .662 OPS is exactly league average. Catcher Sean Muprhy is capable of producing at a higher level, but his .654 OPS is only two percent worse than league average.
There's no question the A's have plenty of room to improve at the plate, but there's significant reason to doubt whether they actually will.
The A's appear committed to giving Pache an extended opportunity to develop at the big league level, and he went hitless in four games this weekend against the Angels. Pache is just 3-for39 in May and hasn't had a multi-hit game in more than a month.
Pache entered the year as an inexperienced player in need of consistent at-bats, but on the other end of the spectrum, 14th-year major leaguer Elvis Andrus isn't faring much better. The shortstop was one of the worst qualified hitters in the majors last year and is continuing to struggle in 2022 as he's posted a .594 OPS that's 16 percent worse than the league average.