Future still has promise for A’s
The A’s completed a twogame sweep of the Dodgers, assisting the playoff push of their cross-bay rivals.
Finally, they made a positive contribution to Bay Area baseball.
OK. Low blow.
It’s en vogue to rip the A’s, who have descended from World Series contender last August to already out of the playoffs this year. But obscured by their fall is the reality the A’s really do have a bright future.
More accurate: They currently have a few pieces, and some opportunities coming, that could lead to a bright future. This downturn doesn’t
have to last for long.
This miniseries against the Dodgers showed some sparks of the A’s potential. It doesn’t make up for the suddenness of their decline. But the sometimes-frustrating vision of general manager Billy Beane has become clearer over the course of this lost season.
The A’s have a top-notch pitcher to head their rotation in Sonny Gray. He’s proved to be much more than a flash-in-the-pan. Gray is the real deal, and he could end up with a Cy Young Award as proof at the end of the year.
After Gray is a cupboard of young, talented arms. The A’s are second in the majors in starters’ ERA and fifth in WHIP. Scott Kazmir, now with the Astros, was a big part of that. But there is no doubt the A’s rotation should be formidable moving forward. That stable could include A.J. Griffin and Jarrod Parker, if they ever fully recover from Tommy John surgery.
Granted, it’s a lot different from running out Gray with Kazmir and Jeff Samardzija and Jon Lester, which the A’s were doing last year. But that was an exception. This is the rule: a cast of cheap, burgeoning arms the A’s can milk until they get huge money.
In addition to the arms, the A’s have come up on some nice surprises in the field.
Sure, Billy Butler has been a swing and miss. He feels like Ben Sheets all over again.
Maybe Beane made up for it with Mark Canha?
Wednesday, one of the pleasant surprises hurt the Dodgers. Center fielder Billy Burns, who was 3 for 4 with three runs scored, looks like a quality successor to Coco Crisp.
Marcus Semien has the potential to be an All-Star. And the A’s already have one in Stephen Vogt.
On top of that, the A’s are looking at a top 5 pick.
Of course, no telling how long any of them stick around.
This is life with Beane, and Beane is good at this. Which is why the A’s are right back to being a promising up-and-coming squad.
It’s easy to rip Beane. His day-trader approach to assembling a team — though he is handicapped by a minuscule budget— didn’t work this time. It robbed the A’s of being contenders this year.
He earned some disapproval. That was part of the risk when he went for it. This is possible when you trade the two best players on the team (Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Donaldson) before Christmas.
It especially stings to watch Donaldson put up an MVP year in Toronto. For $4.3 million. More than $2 million less than Butler.
But all is not lost. Having taken a nose dive to the bottom of the American League standings, the A’s are back in a familiar position. Looking up.