On Wednesday afternoon the A’s, who had stunned Dylan Cease by putting up 6 runs in the 1st inning and 9 ER on his ledger overall, mustered only 2 measly hits, both singles, in a 2-1 loss.
When your offense sputters to that level it’s hard to blame anything else on a loss. And yet even then you can point the A’s outfield defense as a “difference maker” in the game. Twice JJ Bleday reprised an all too familiar act, taking a circuitous route on a shallow pop fly only to have it land on the grass despite his diving attempt.
One of those times allowed a precious run to score, both are caught by an accomplished CFer with better initial reads and jumps and more foot speed. It’s remarkable the percentage of pop flies to CF that have found grass so far in 2025.
What’s not remarkable is that Bleday’s struggles in CF are predicted by the past. His career -31 DRS in just under 2000 innings tells the tale of a player who is miscast as a CFer. Note that it’s not Bleday’s fault that he doesn’t possess the skill set to play a fast man’s position; it’s the fault of the organization that keeps acting like he is a viable option to trot out there day after day.
But this is not an article ranting on a single player’s shortcomings because it takes 3 outfielders to form a team. The A’s primary LFer is Miguel Andujar and he doesn’t pass either the eye test nor the wrath of the metrics (-7 OAA last year in just 615.2 innings).
Andujar is not fleet of foot and this results in him playing on a hop or two fly balls accomplished LFers run down. Wednesday he could not flag down a base hit that ticked off his glove and allowed Xander Bogarts to go to 2B. The A’s outfield is giving up an inordinate number of hits and extra bases on a daily basis.
The case for Andujar is that you have to sacrifice some defense in order to get his bat into the lineup. And in fairness Andujar’s bat has some value — he’s batting .289 and his tendency to make contact makes him a “good RBI guy” in the middle of the lineup.
But before you accept Andujar’s shortcomings on defense too readily, remember that not all .289 hitters are alike. He has exactly one extra base hit so far this season, a double at Coors Field, giving him just a .316 slugging percentage.
If you slug like Juan Pierre you can’t also run and field like Jeremy Giambi. It leaves Lawrence Butler as the tallest midget in the outfield, struggling in his own right with inconsistent tracking and a LFer’s arm, but at least the metrics keep tagging him as solidly average and he is generally neutral to the cause.
The A’s simply need to improve their daily outfield defense in order to be a truly competitive team in 2025. What I am seeing, deficiencies showing up multiple times each game, is bad enough that personally I would be at peace with calling up Drew Avans to play CF, moving Bleday over to LF, and letting Andujar find time against LHPs and off the bench.
Avans is no great shakes, but he’s an excellent defensive CFer and as an added plus he has good plate discipline so even if he doesn’t hit much he might get on base some and he has good speed.
The A’s are in a good place to hide a light hitting CFer in the #9 spot because Wednesday’s game notwithstanding they are hitting, and scoring runs, at a decent clip. Certainly swapping Andujar out for Avans isn’t going to cripple the offensive production. What it might do is help the outfield defense to make a quantum leap.
In spring training I was advocating for Avans to win a roster spot over Seth Brown, but it was with the late innings in mind: Avans could be a valuable defensive replacement (and at other times pinch runner), whereas Brown doesn’t really offer any skills that aren’t duplicated on the roster.
Now, having watched 13 games I don’t even think the A’s can afford to wait until the 7th inning to catch fly balls. And since Denzel Clarke is not yet ready (and just went on the IL with a shoulder issue), and they didn’t acquire a different CFer in the off-season, Avans is the only possible solution right now for a serious problem.
This is not to suggest that ideally, Avans should be starting in CF for a contending big league team. It’s to suggest that the status quo just doesn’t work and that strengthening the defense should be an urgent priority — and options don’t abound but one does exist.
Whether it’s rolling the dice with Bleday-Avans-Butler for a while or making an early trade, my underlying point is this: every game right now, the A’s are giving away outs they can’t afford to give and a run saved is every bit as much of a run as one scored.
Andujar-Bleday-Butler is not a capable defensive outfield, so acknowledge it, make whatever corresponding move addresses the problem — my best suggestion is the same one from a month ago: option Brown (2 for 14 without an extra base hit), call up Avans, and shift Bleday over to LF, and go from there.
You can still give Andujar some starts against lefties, and maybe bat him 2nd or 3rd knowing that at least after his 4th plate appearance you have Avans to insert for defense late in the game.
But please let’s not trot this defense out there for another 2 months pretending it might be adequate or that the hitting is enough to offset or justify it. Because it’s not.