The Oakland A’s have been a struggling team in recent years, finishing 75-87 during the 2017 season, 69-93 the year before, and haven’t put together a winning season since the 2014 campaign when the team led by Josh Donaldson, Yoenis Cespedes, and Josh Reddick made the wild-card game as the away team, and subsequently losing that game to the Kansas City Royals. However, a recent influx of prospects has provided A’s fans with some hope of a bright future. The projected lineup for the 2018 season as per MLB.com is shown below:
SS Marcus Semien
LF Matt Joyce
2B Jed Lowrie
DH Khris Davis
1B Matt Olsen
RF Stephen Piscotty
3B Matt Chapman
C Bruce Maxwell
CF Dustin Fowler
(Note: since this article was written, the A’s have signed free agent catcher Jonathan Lucroy according to Daniel Kramer and Alyson Footer of MLB.com. He would presumably become the starting catcher)
1B Matt Olsen and 3B Matt Chapman impressed in their MLB debuts during the 2017 season. In fact, FanGraphs Depth Chart projections predicts that Chapman will hit 31 home runs and have a Wins-Above-Replacement value of 3.2. Also from FanGraphs Depth Charts, Matt Olsen is projected to hit 35 HR in 2018. The trade for former MLB.com top 100 prospect Stephen Piscotty provides some nice upside as he is still just 27 years of age. Khris Davis has quietly reached the 40 home run plateau in each of the last two seasons. The A’s enter the 2018 season with a very strong lineup on paper with lots of upside potential.
One major question mark for this A’s team lies in the rotation. They do have a couple of young pitchers atop the rotation in Kendall Graveman and Sean Manaea (Manaea was an MLB.com Top 100 prospect back in 2014, including the #6 ranked LHP), though these two starters are both coming off years with ERA’s in the low 4’s, which is respectable for a major league starter, but is not what teams are hoping for out of their 1-2 arms in the rotation. Though if these two starters fulfill their potential, and maybe one more A’s starter can breakout (Jharel Cotton or Paul Blackburn are good candidates), then the A’s can supplement their lineup with enough pitching to possibly contend for the playoffs once again, if not this year then for future years.
The bullpen has the potential to be good as well. Blake Treinen is expected to be the closer, and he had a good finish to the 2017 season in that role, saving 13 games with a 2.13 ERA. They also have Santiago Casilla, who is 37 years old and coming off a down year, but also was a very reliable reliever for the San Francisco Giants during their World Series runs in the early part of the decade. New acquisition Ryan Buchter has also put together a couple of sub-3.00 ERA seasons over the last couple of years for the Padres and the Royals.
In short, the A’s have plenty of competition to contend in the AL West this year, with the defending champion Astros being loaded again, the Angels making some offseason splashes, and the Mariners also in the mix. That being said, the A’s are poised to make a run in the next few years with the young talent they have accrued.
BaseballNerd 