As the majority of MLB lay down their bats and gloves and have a few days’ rest during the All-Star break, now is as good a time as any to assess how the Oakland Athletics are doing this season.
It would be fair to say that I was not optimistic in my season preview article.
Therefore, this meant that the start of the season was a pleasant surprise, as the A’s were actually quite mediocre and amassed a reasonable win-loss record. While that record has now reverted to the mean, with the A’s going into the All-Star break with a 37-61 win-loss record, there have still been plenty of positives for A’s fans to feel good about thus far in 2024.
The good
Many of these positives have been on an individual level, with several players shining for the A’s.
For example, no one had more hits in the month of May than Abraham Toro, who finished the month with an MLB-leading 39 hits. When we signed him in the off-season, I knew we were getting a good player, and he has been a valuable addition to the team, not only amassing 72 hits before he got injured last month, but also playing on all three bases and in the outfield during his short time thus far with the team.
Furthermore, in my review of the 2023 season, I said that Shea Langeliers was showing moments of developing into a good power hitter, and this has continued to be the case in 2024, with the catcher hitting 17 home runs (HR) – which is second only to Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners among catchers in MLB – and contributing 50 runs batted in (RBI) this season. Similarly, Brent Rooker has also continued to perform in the designated hitter spot for the A’s, leading the team with 21 HR and 62 RBI.
Most satisfying of all has been the continued development of the team’s young players this season though.
In particular, Zach Gelof has continued to shine, with 12 HR and 34 RBI thus far, with guys like Lawrence Butler (9 HR/25 RBI), Tyler Soderstrom (7 HR/20 RBI), and Max Schuemann (5 HR/20 RBI) all starting to get into the groove in the major leagues too.
This has also been true on the mound too, as JP Sears has developed into a solid starting pitcher for the A’s. While his ERA of 4.56 needs to come down, it belies a pitcher who has performed well as the only pitcher for the A’s who has pitched in over 100 innings, allowing 51 earned runs in 19 starts.
In a similar vein, the emergence of the rookie Joey Estes as a starting pitcher has also been great to see. Not only does Estes have the highest strike percentage in MLB thus far in 2024 (70.8%), but it was also a wonderful personal achievement in his young major league career that he broke the third-longest streak in MLB for a team without a complete game at 515 games by shutting out the Los Angeles Angels on 3 July.
Any article talking about the emergence of young pitchers at the Oakland Athletics wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Mason Miller too. Having featured in a few games for the A’s last season, the emergence of The Reaper as a closer in 2024 has been amazing to see. Not only is he now an All-Star, but he’s so good, people other than me have been writing about him for this site too!
As a team, there have also been bright spots for the A’s in 2024 too. The A’s team that I became a fan of was one that was built on solid defensive play, and that has started to become true again somewhat this season, with the A’s making the most double plays in MLB with 88 and counting thus far.
On a team level, it was also good to see Zach Gelof hitting the A’s 9,000th home run versus the Arizona Diamondbacks on 30 June – making them only the sixth team to achieve this feat since they became the Oakland Athletics in 1968.
Scoring 20 runs versus the Miami Marlins on 4 May, 19 runs against a very good Orioles team on 6 July and 18 runs against the Phillies on 14 July (during which, Brent Rooker’s first HR was the 14,000th in Athletics’ history across the organisation’s time in Philadelphia, Kansas City and Oakland) has also been great to see. The ability to string a series of hits together and win against good opposition is there. We just need to show some consistency.
The bad
However, this being the Oakland Athletics, it hasn’t all been a bed of roses.
That 37-61 record I mentioned earlier means that the A’s are last in the American League (AL) West and have the fourth-worst record in MLB ahead of only the Colorado Rockies, Miami Marlins and MLB’s worst team in 2024 thus far, the Chicago White Sox.
Similarly, in my review of the A’s 2023 season, I highlighted that A’s pitchers hit the most batters. This has sadly continued to happen in 2024, with the A’s pitching crew having hit the second-most batters thus far, with even Joey Estes, and his league-leading strike percentage, having hit a batter five times.
For me, hitting so many batters demonstrates how much the A’s are still being hurt by silly schoolboy errors. Sadly, this is not only occurring on the pitching side either, as Kyle McCann losing a run against the Angels by failing to touch home plate shows.
While making some silly errors is perhaps understandable given the A’s have such a relatively-young team that is inexperienced at the major league level, it makes it no less frustrating to watch. Again, the ability is there. Such errors are affecting what that ability can achieve though.
The ugly
Finally, I’d like to use this article to highlight something. In my Season Preview article, my One To Watch was Jenny Cavnar, who made history prior to the season’s start by becoming the first woman to be named as the primary announcer for a team in MLB history. Since then (and perhaps, unsurprisingly), she has been subjected to a torrent of abuse on social media, as well as a petition calling for the A’s to fire her.
Let’s get something clear; Jenny Cavnar is a multi-award-winning sportscaster. By any measure, she is good at her job, and her hiring has been one of the rare things about the organisation that A’s fans could be proud of in recent years.
The endless abuse she has received since the start of the season frankly has nothing to do with her ability to do the job though, as it can only be described as sexist and misogynistic rants that lean heavily on tired tropes about women’s voices. While I doubt much of it has come from genuine A’s fans, shame on all of those that have targeted Jenny with abuse.
Those hurling abuse at Cavnar and delighting in the infamous Jose Siri call (which, yes, was very cringe if you’re an A’s fan) certainly do not speak for me, and I would go so far as to say that they don’t speak for the vast majority of, if any, A’s fans watching at home.
In conclusion…
All-in-all, the A’s are doing better than expected.
Will we make the playoffs? Not a chance, but it has been a pleasant surprise to be able to enjoy watching the team play this season, and I hope it continues after the All-Star break.
If the unheard of happens, and the A’s hang on to the developing talents I’ve mentioned in this article, the team might actually manage to achieve a respectable win-loss record and give itself a good send-off in its last season in Oakland before the organisation moves to Sacramento.
Who I am kidding; this is the A’s. They’re going to look to trade away every vaguely-valuable asset they have for prospects at the deadline!
Brett Walker is the Oakland Athletics contributor for Bat Flips & Nerds, and can be found on Twitter @BrettChatsSport.
Featured image – Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images Sport
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