Happy Thursday everyone! Friday is right around the corner.
Things have gone south of south recently for our A’s. Alone in first place in the American League West as late as May 26th, the club has since cratered. With how bad the AL was this year even hovering around .500 would have been enough to be playing meaningful baseball in September. Instead the club is the last team in the sport still looking for their 50th win as the Athletics own the worst record in the sport. Calling a minor league stadium
their home add insult to injury, and currently they’re hoping to avoid a four-game sweep to the Royals this afternoon.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The team had the bones of a good squad. The A’s were a darkhorse playoff contender in many people’s minds, but what happened? Let’s briefly look back at the fate of all of our Opening Day starters.
- Catcher Shea Langeliers: All-Star starter, now out for the year
- First baseman Nick Kurtz: All-Star “starter”, now out for the year
- Second baseman Jeff McNeil: 14% worse than league average, now playing first base part-time
- Third baseman Max Muncy: struggled, demoted, returned, demoted again, now learning the outfield
- Shortstop Jacob Wilson: took a step back this year, now injured and likely heading for shoulder surgery
- Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom: was having a solid season, now out for the year with hip surgery
- Center fielder Denzel Clarke: struggled before injuries cost him majority of season
- Right fielder Lawrence Butler: hitting .211 after rushing back from double knee surgery
- DH Brent Rooker: struggled before injuries cost him majority of season
If you had told me at the beginning of the year that that would be the ultimate fate for the Opening Day starting nine, I’d have called you a pessimistic jerk. That couldn’t happen to all of them by August. Alas, we’re living in the worst reality concerning our A’s. While the pitching was always suspect the offense was supposed to be a massive strength this season. Instead the club is middle of the pack in the league in most offensive categories.
There’s room for optimism though! We know how talented this position player group is when they’re healthy and firing on all cylinders. That evidently wasn’t in the cards this year with injuries affecting nearly every single Opening Day starter. Injuries are apart of the sport and every team deals with them, but the injury bug would not leave the A’s clubhouse this year. That just compounded the problem areas of the team and made the weaknesses much harder to overcome.
It’s going to come down to how lucky are the A’s. None of the injuries seem to be cause for long-term concern but you never know. No team is this unlucky back-to-back years so just getting all of our guys back next season should improve the club. The new general manager would be smart to remember how bad the injuries got this year though and act accordingly. Just because the A’s are a young team doesn’t mean they don’t need serious major-league quality depth.
We got the game starting here soon with first pitch at 11:10. Have a great day A’s fans.
A’s Coverage:
- Amidst The Despair: The Position Player Talent Is There
- What Are The Next Steps For The A’s? ($)
- A’s Bullpen Collapses Again in 9-7 Defeat
- A’s Blow Late Lead, Fall To Royals 4-3
- A’s Drop Road Trip Opener 9-5
- A’s Take Series Against Rangers, Win 5-2
- A’s place Soderstrom on 10-day IL with left hip impingement; Hernaiz recalled
- Where Each A’s Player’s Contract Stands Entering Offseason
- Red-hot Bolte looking to build on lessons from rookie season
- A’s prospect Winkler thriving in ‘fresh start’ with Aviators
- Late Blast Lifts Rangers Over Athletics
- Why The New GM Needs To “Clean House”
- 111 games, zero errors: Wilson sets MLB record at shortstop
- A Seemingly Rock Bottomless Glass
- MLB Trade Grades: A’s Have Quiet Trade Deadline
- A’s Top Prospect Jamie Arnold Sets Career High in One of His Best Double-A Starts
- Fustercluck 2026: The Real Reasons For A Disappointing Season
- Signs Of Hope And Signs Of Hopeless
- Athletics prospect Ryan Lasko says feeling in his legs returning
- Cuban’s investment group purchases minority stake in Athletics
- Could last-minute buyer purchase rights to Bally’s project around A’s Las Vegas ballpark?
- Chan Ho Park joins A’s group; 1st Korean to buy stake in MLB club
- Blogfather Saves The Day With Pearls Of Most Excellent Advice
MLB News and Interest:
- Jorge Polanco To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery
- Ketel Marte back in Phoenix for knee testing after no-show
- With Díaz sidelined, Dodgers see Scott as ‘our best and most consistent reliever’
- Phillies Sign Nestor Cortes
- Rangers’ deGrom to start Thursday with 2,000 K’s in reach
- Braves Temporarily Move To Six-Man Rotation
- Nola continues resurgence with 7-inning gem to extend Phils’ win streak to six
- Murphy downplays Brewers buzz: ‘Don’t think we’ve played great’
- Pirates’ Skenes sees room to grow amid recent pitching struggles
- Dad catches son’s 1st pro HR after predicting it was about to happen
- The 10 biggest breakouts on the new Top 100 Prospects list
- Pirates Acquire Christian Bethancourt
- Which 1B are best at receiving throws? New data has the answer
- Today in Baseball History
Best of X:
Almost certainly won’t be seeing De Vries make his big league debut this season now:
Won’t be long until we see Arnold at the big league level:
Recent first rounder Drew Burress is looking legit so far:
Would he really provide a spark though?
Serious question. How many?
More from down on the farm:
