He lays huge eggs and bounds around the garden hiding them while trumpeting loudly and splashing in the water from the nearby sprinkler. Yes he’s the famous and beloved Easter Elephant and the A’s are but 2-6 as the calendar hits his special day.
Let’s go inside a couple numbers to see why or how the A’s have stumbled so mightily out of the gate. Some primary culprits include…
Jacob Wilson
It’s not often a player ranks in the 1st percentile in 4 different Statcast categories out of the 13 listed, but
Fidgety Guy is an extremist. As in last season his batting average was extremely high but this year his slash line is a putrid .212/.212/.303 for a reason.
It’s not necessarily alarming for Wilson to be in the 1st percentile for “bat speed” as he ranked exactly there in his superb 2025 rookie season. Wilson’s “barrel rate” is also 1st percentile — last year it was 6th percentile. What’s concerning is that his “chase rate” was 22nd percentile last season and so far this year it’s … 1st percentile. And then there’s “BB percentage”. Hard to get lower than 0%, which lands Wilson in the 1st percentile in yet another category.
Wilson is going out of the strike zone more than anyone in the league and it’s a big part of why his “whiff %” is down to the 79th percentile. That may sound good but last year it was truly elite: 99th percentile. The cure for ails Wilson is pretty straight-forward: he needs to stop swinging at pitches out of the strike zone at unparalleled rates. It is making him an easy out leading to a .515 OPS.
If I had to pick a single phrase to describe what the A’s mantra should be moving forward, it would be “swing decisions” and it starts with the A’s shortstop.
Luis Morales
I am dead set against fast, knee-jerk reactions to small samples as not only is it a statistically flawed way to react to numbers it risks creating performance issues with peers who press when faced with a reality that a few plate appearances or innings can define their status.
But what we are seeing with Luis Morales is not new: he simply does not currently have the ability to throw the ball where he wants to, leading to a lot of walks, high pitch count innings, hanging sliders and centered fastballs that are crushed, and an alarming amount of hard contact overall. We saw it throughout spring training and nothing shifted in his first 2 starts of the regular season.
Morales is a “stuff” guy with his 96.4 MPH fastball and crackling slider. So it’s disconcerting to see some of his more negative stats in the context of him boasting stuff that is raw but supposedly hard to hit.
After 2 starts Morales ranks in just the 32nd percentile in average exit velocity against. His “whiff rate” is in just the 12th percentile, leading to merely an 11th percentile K rate, and he is in only the 18th percentile in preventing hitters from barreling him up.
According to Fangraphs here’s how bad a start Morales is off to: last year his fastball value was -0.7 but so far this season it’s -4.9. His slider showed up at +1.5 last year but is off to a -2.3 start in 2026. His changeup is even down from +1.8 to -0.3. Much of this can reasonably be attributed to the small sample of 2025 and the tiny sample of 2026, but the trends are clear and probably not noise — they match the eyeballs, not just the results.
I think the A’s should, for the sake of both Morales and the team, option him to AAA to refine his command and approach, basically to try to gain some at all. He is not ready for the big leagues despite his “big arm” and it is not serving anyone but opposing hitters to have him continue to make big league starts right now.
I would option him and call up a reliever until Morales’ next start comes up on Friday, then option a reliever (be it same one or one of Michael Kelly and Elvis Alvarado) and call up Kade Morris to start Friday’s game. Morris doesn’t have Morales’ “stuff” but what he has is the ability to command the stuff he does have. He throws a lot of strikes, keeps the ball on the ground well, can change speeds with his fastball, slider, changeup, slow curve combination, and is far more polished.
Morris has done something few can boast: he has pitched well in the PCL where balls fly and ERAs soar. In his last 5 starts (September, 2025 and 2 starts in 2026) his AAA line is: 3-0, 1.93 ERA, 28 IP, 21 hits, 10 BB, 29 K. He had just over a 50% ground ball rate at AAA last season and is at 60% to start 2026.
Just getting Wilson to control the strike zone a tad and slotting in Morris to give Morales the AAA time he needs would improve the lineup and rotation significantly overnight. Calling up Wander Suero (who impressed me in spring training and is off to a solid start at AAA) and/or Jack Perkins to fortify the bullpen could help too.
We’re not talking about “wholesale changes” after 8 games but we are talking about essential tweaks for a team that opened the season with a flawed roster and is paying the price in spades. I would like to think that even if his bonnet is a bit tight around his large ears, the Easter Elephant would agree that these changes are needed.
