On The Field, At Least, The Oakland Athletics Are Going Nowhere

All the talk surrounding the Oakland Athletics currently is concerned with their potential move to Las Vegas. Of course it is; the threat of the move, one creeping ever closer, overshadows the entire long-term prognosis of the franchise.

Compounding this, however, is the fact that nothing that is taking place in the short term on the field feels any better.

28 games into the 2023 MLB season, the 5-23 A’s find themselves with not just the worst record in their division, nor just in the American League, but in the whole of baseball. After a 2022 season in which they lost 102 games (the losingest season in 122 years of franchise history) with both one of the worst offences and pitching staffs in the whole of baseball, the A’s since then have traded their best position player and somehow took fourteen further steps back on the mound.

Oakland’s team ERA of 7.86 is not just on pace to be the worst single-season mark of any team in MLB history; it is set to be the worst by miles. Coming in at more than 1.1 points higher than the 1930 Philadelphia Phillies’ current record-setting 6.71 team ERA, the A’s are also so far behind the second-last 5.65 team ERA of the Chicago White Sox in 2023 alone that you could fit much of the league-leading 2.80 ERA of the Tampa Bay Rays into that gap.

The gap between the first-placed Rays and the 26th-placed Boston Red Sox is smaller than the gap between those same Red Sox and the Athletics. They really are that far adrift, and are muddling roughly a sixth of the way through what figures to be a historically bad season.

This focus on ERA is not to say that everything is fine with the offence. Far from it. The Athletics are scoring 3.86 runs per game, only 24th in the majors, and less than half of the 8.07 they are conceding. They are 23rd in on-base percentage, 21st in strikeouts, and 24th in slugging percentage. They give up a ton, and score only a few.

There are, at least, a couple of reasons for optimism in the line-up. Catching prospect Shea Langeliers – acquired from the Atlanta Braves as the major part of the trade package for Matt Olson last March – has shown a good power stroke on his way to a .786 OPS thus far, and although outfield prospect Esteury Ruiz has scant little power, he is at least getting on base (as the league’s leader in being hit by pitches) and stealing his way into scoring position (11-11 on steal attempts thus far). Whereas last year’s A’s line-up showed scant little in the way of offensive prospects, all the sell-offs of the past couple of seasons have returned at least a couple with immediate benefits.

Beyond those two, a couple of less-heralded pick-ups are proving to be the crux of the current line-up. Rule 5 draft pick from the Los Angeles Dodgers Ryan Noda has looked accomplished in his first MLB experience, hitting for some power and showing his prodigious walk rate in the minors will carry over to the majors (already top 10 in walks despite only 83 plate appearances thus far). And one of the last players on the roster, November-time waiver claim Brent Rooker, has been a revelation in the middle of the line-up, pouring in a monster 244 OPS+ through the season’s first month.

The monumental collective struggle of the pitching staff, though, has been terminal to any sort of hope.

Be they new additions or the returnees from last season, Oakland’s entire pitching line-up, bar maybe three, has been in constant trouble all year. Newcomer Richard Lovelady has yet to give up a run in six outings, holdover Zach Jackson has countered a spiking walk rate with plenty of strikeouts, and Sam Moll has given up only a .069 batting average in 13 outings. After that, though, everyone else has been just different shades of poor.

The trouble begins with the starters, and a top of the rotation that was supposed to be the promising part. Kyle Muller (acquired from the Atlanta Braves in the aforementioned trade of Sean Murphy), Ken Waldichuk and J.P. Sears (both acquired from the New York Knicks in last season’s trade of Frankie Montas and Lou Trevino) have all been knocked around, and 29-year-old Japanese star Shintaro Fujinami’s first American experience has seen him be moved to the bullpen after only four starts. Fifth starter James Kaprielian went one step further, being optioned to the Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas Aviators already; it would be one thing if the Aviators were replete with candidates ready to take his role in the majors, yet, in sporting a 6.13 ERA themselves, this is far from the case.

Not detailed above is quite how uncomfortable the bullpen makes even the slightest lead feel, nor how anaemic at the plate the entire non-first base infield has been at the plate, with the bottom of the line-up looking like an easy 1-2-3 inning to opponents on a nightly basis. The A’s, as things stand, have nothing on which to hang their hat, nothing to identify themselves on the field, nothing to take much solace from. They’re just out there, getting through the innings.

Of the 26 spots on the roster, you could make an argument that perhaps two are comfortably decided going forward. Everything else is in flux, not because there are too many worthy candidates, but because there are far too few. There may be some help for the line-up coming soon, in the forms of JJ Bleday and Tyler Soderstrom in particular. Yet the team should be going places, and the franchise going nowhere. For now, the Oakland Athletics have gotten it the wrong way around.