Logjams That Aren’t

Naturally, with the 2024 A’s functionally eliminated from post-season contention around spring training, fans are looking ahead to 2025 and beyond pondering a team that might actually be as good as this year’s club has been since the calendar turned to July.

A common “worry” I see in the analysis, is the “problem” of a logjam at a position — will the A’s use off-season trades to leverage these “abundances” or will they recognize that there’s a reason “abundances” has quotes around it...?

The Rotation

There are two problems with the embarrassment of riches that is the A’s future rotation. Currently the group fighting for spots looks like JP Sears, Joey Estes, Mitch Spence, Joe Boyle, Oswaldo Bido, Hogan Harris, Brady Basso, Gunnar Hoglund, and JT Ginn, with Ken Waldichuk recovering from TJS hoping to return to relevance and Luis Medina behind him.

If that sounds like a lot of guys, first keep in mind that for all the quantity there is lacking that potential front-of-the-rotation SP you would like to have anchoring the group. This could lead Oakland to consider adding Mason Miller to this list or fast-tracking Mason Barnett if he continues to shine.

But more importantly, it isn’t really a long list. Remember that the 5 who opened the season in Oakland’s 2024 rotation were Wood (injured), Stripling (injured then moved to long relief), Blackburn (injured then traded), Boyle (demoted for half the season), and good old reliable Sears.

You need at least 10 quality starting pitchers in order to get through a full season maintaining quality. Most of the guys on the list still have options and that’s a good thing — far from subtracting from the list I expect the A’s likely will only add to it in the off-season as they almost always covet a veteran arm to join the initial rotation.

The cream will rise, the sludge will fall, half of them will get hurt anyway, and it will all sort itself out without an actual logjam forcing ace pitchers to toil in AAA “just because”.

Around The Diamond

Recent musings have the A’s possibly dealing Tyler Soderstrom and cashing in on his value as a young prospect with high pedigree who will soon be aced out of a position. The idea is that the A’s have Shea Langeliers, and Soderstrom isn’t that good of a catcher anyway, and Nick Kurtz is rising on the “Jacob Wilson Express Train” that could land him at 1B for the A’s as soon as sometime during the 2025 season.

Again, no logjam to see here. Langeliers, while having a solid enough season, is still about a .200 hitter outside of Shea (Langeliers) Stadium who doesn’t move his body to try to block pitches. Daniel Susac, the most promising catcher in the minor league system, is progressing just fine but hardly looks like a sure thing at this point. (At AA Midland, Susac is batting .277/.319/.447 for the season with a 26% K rate and his defense has always been considered a ‘work-in-progress’.)

At 1B, Kurtz may be generating understandable excitement but he also has all of 8 professional games under his belt. There is also no guarantee how long the increasingly pricey Brent Rooker will be the A’s DH, so potentially there is a spot for Soderstrom there. (It’s kind of a nice luxury to have a third catcher as your DH — Soderstrom might even, potentially, be able to serve as the primary back up catcher while serving as DH much of the time.)

Other apparent logjams include the group of Darell Hernaiz, Max Schuemann, Jacob Wilson, and Zack Gelof, along with Max Muncy and Cooper Bowman knocking on the door, for just 3 positions around the infield.

As we have seen with Gelof, even where you think you are set for years suddenly you can be open to good auditions — 2B is not exactly locked up the way it appears to be this time last year. Hernaiz and Schuemann might be valuable utility players, but neither is probably best suited to starting every day anywhere. Wilson has to prove he can stay on the field, while Muncy and Bowman still have to prove they can play at the highest level.

If the A’s get 3 really good every day players — or even 4 using a platoon — out of that group they should be over the moon with joy. It would be a nice problem to have if they couldn’t find room for someone who was just too good to sit.

Point being, all of these “logjams” figure to work themselves out once injuries, disappointing and pleasantly surprising performances run their course. The A’s are a long way from having “too much talent” — but they also might not be a long way from putting a contending team on the field. As they have done, frankly, over the last 52 days.