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Elephant Rumblings: Besides third base, where can the A’s upgrade?

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MLB: New York Yankees at Oakland Athletics
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Happy Tuesday A’s fans!

The Athletics have a known gap at the hot corner right now and everyone knows it. The baseball world knows it after General Manager David Forst spoke to beat reporter Martin Gallegos on this very subject just three days ago after the trade for Jeffrey Springs. It’s something that should be obvious when looking at the past couple of seasons: the team doesn’t have a long-term plan for the position. The club has tried the likes of band-aids like Vimael Machin, Jordan Diaz, Aledmys Diaz, Abraham Toro, Max Schuemann, Brett Harris, and others. Nothing has worked as the team has the worst production out of that spot in all of baseball since the club traded star third baseman Matt Chapman after the 2021 season.

Athletics Nation’s own Nico wrote a piece recently advocating for a certain “average” third baseman that he makes a great case for. While the club still has a ways to go to be competitive, just getting decent production out of that critical position would be a massive boost to both the pitching staff and lineup. That said, even if the A’s are persuaded by Nico to go after that third baseman, it wouldn’t cost the team much in the way of salary. The other options on the free agent market are either A) far too expensive even for the A’s right now (Alex Bregman), B) not much of a difference-maker (Josh Rojas, Jon Berti), or C) just not that good (JD Davis, Yoan Moncada, Jace Peterson). So if the club isn’t going to shell out the necessary cash for Bregman, they’ll need to trade for a third baseman and spend money elsewhere on the roster.

You can never have enough pitching, and Forst’s comments after the Springs trade indicate that the club is still engaged on pitching. It makes sense when the top four options for the A’s (Severino, Springs, Sears, Spence) are solid pitchers in their own right but things can go wrong really quickly with your pitching depth behind them. Just look at how the club fared last year when their starting pitchers started dropping like flies. We started having to call up rookies from the minors when they weren’t ready, and they showed they weren’t ready. The team won’t be shopping at the top of the market a la Corbin Burnes, but the name of the game for the rest of the offseason should be adding more to the current group, even if we don’t break the bank.

The A’s payroll currently sits at roughly $88.6MM after signing Severino to the largest contract in team history and trading for well-paid left-hander Springs. And if the club needs to hit the $105MM mark to keep the players union off their back, that means the team has about $17MM left to burn before they can sit back and relax. So if the Athletics aren’t going to make a big signing at third base, where are they going to spend the money?

Looking at the team from a birds eye view the team is still in rebuilding mode and not quite ready to start pushing. Though they want to improve this upcoming season, a lot of that is going to have to come from growth from the young guys. The team has Shea Langeliers behind the plate as the everyday option and the squad is clearly going to give Tyler Soderstrom more time to figure it out in the major leagues at first base, so the the team won’t be signing superstar first baseman Pete Alonso to a contract anytime soon. Top prospect Jacob Wilson is set to be an everyday major leaguer for the first time this year at shortstop and should be exciting. Snubbed All-Star Brent Rooker will get everyday at-bats again in what will be his third full season at DH. And the team has budding young outfielders Lawrence Butler and JJ Bleday set to man two outfield position with higher expectations heading into next year.

The other few spots on the roster are much more up in the air. Hopes were extremely high for second baseman Zack Gelof entering ‘24 but he was a massive disappointment, slashing just .211/.270/.362, though he did hit 17 home runs and swiped 25 bags over his first full season. Even with the down year the team is going to trot Gelof out there again everyday until he either proves himself or shows he’s just overmatched. While Gelof does have experience at the hot corner in the minors he’s never played it in The Show. Would the team consider sliding him to the hot corner and then plug second base with one of the high-upside second base options on the free agent market? There are a lot more interesting players at that position than free agent third baseman, that’s for sure.

Or could the club turn their eyes back to the outfield and supplement Bleday and Rooker with a more permanent solution. Again, there are lots more options there for the A’s to take a swing at if they’re going to be spending money. The current options on the roster leave a lot to be desired, though prospect Denzel Clarke is exciting and should make it to the Athletics before the year is out.

Whatever way the A’s decide to go, we can at least be sure of this: the club is not done spending this offseason. The team may have to overpay to bring players to Sacramento but it seems they are ready to spend. And that’s something we haven’t heard this team do in a long time, if ever.

Food for thought everyone. Discuss below, and have a great day!

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