REASON TO HOPE FOR BETTER DAYS
With an experienced bullpen and good young starters, the A’s have the potential to be much improved this season, but after back-to-back lastplace finishes, they aren’t registering much as potential contenders.
That’s just how they like it. Oakland is always better in the underdog role — just ask Mariners general manager Jerry DiPoto, formerly GM of the Angels.
“If you think you can sleep on Oakland — you can’t do that, I’ve done that. I learned the hard way in 2012 and ’13,” DiPoto said this spring. “They’re a good team, better than they’re ever going to get credit for being. They find ways. They have a lot of interesting young players — more specifically, young pitching. If Sonny Gray shows up as Sonny Gray, plus Sean Manaea, that’s a pretty interesting rotation, and they’ve got a really good bullpen. That’s a good way to make life difficult for the other teams in the division.”
The experienced bullpen, featuring four pitchers who have served as closers, is a major strength, certainly, and the team’s best reliever might be second-year right-hander Ryan Dull, a groundball machine who can pitch in any situation.
With potential closers in Ryan Madson, Sean Doolittle, John Axford and Santiago Casilla, manager Bob Melvin can be flexible in how he uses the back end of the bullpen, so look for some creative moves late in games, even if Madson, the incumbent, is considered the closer in the traditional sense of the word.
Gray might be the key to the A’s season, but he’s already hurt, incurring a lat strain midway through the spring. He won’t be back until at least late April.
“The good thing is we have the depth to absorb it temporarily,” said Billy Beane, A’s vice president of baseball operations. “Look, it’s never a good thing when the guy who is supposed to be at the top of your rotation starts out the way he did. But the prognosis is good, and other than Sonny being severely irritated by the nuisance, hopefully it’s only for the first few weeks of the season.”
The catch-22 here is that if Gray comes back strong off the disabled list, he could be traded by the deadline unless the A’s are still in the hunt. Other potential players to dangle at midseason: second baseman Jed Lowrie, first baseman Yonder Alonso and any of the team’s possible closers.
The A’s have the potential to stay in contention a little longer this year than in the past two, however. Some of their young starters took promising strides last season, especially Kendall Graveman, Manaea and Jharel Cotton.
If the starters continue to progress, Oakland might be in decent shape, considering how little time Gray is expected to miss. Remember, too, that Chris Bassitt could be back in the rotation in mid-June after recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Offensively, the team also appears in better shape after adding Rajai Davis, Matt Joyce and Trevor Plouffe in the offseason. Davis gives the A’s a speedy leadoff man, Joyce usually has a terrific on-base percentage, and Plouffe is a solid all-around player looking for a good bounce-back year after injuries.
The A’s biggest offensive weapon, of course, is Khris Davis, who walloped 42 homers last year despite not hitting his first until April 21. Shortstop Marcus Semien, mostly batting near the bottom of the order, added 27 homers.
The area of biggest concern: the defense. It’s hard to imagine the A’s could be worse in the field than last year, when their 97 errors were second most in the league, but the outfield in particular is a potential trouble spot. Khris Davis played better in left than anticipated — he even had four assists — and Rajai Davis has great speed, but neither is an elite defender. Joyce makes all the routine plays but has limited range, and his arm strength has declined the past several years.
By the end of the season, the infield could have a different look if top prospects Matt Chapman, a third baseman, and infielder Franklin Barreto come up.
All things considered, the A’s should be at least a little bit better. They could surprise people, make things interesting and provide some good experience for the young players the club is building around.
“It’s frustrating people don’t give us a little more credit,” catcher Stephen Vogt said. “We know how good we can be if we’re healthy and the pitching does what they’re capable of. I think lineup is going to put up a lot of runs. Our bullpen is solid, and our starters have the potential to be consistently very, very good this year.
“We’re excited, and you try not to pay attention to everybody counting you out, but at the same time when no one’s talking about you, that’s when you can sneak up on some people and ruin some other team’s seasons.”