Some people may confuse “Steamer” and “Stomper” so let’s clarify off the top. One is a statistical projection system and the other is rather silly looking elephant. I will leave it to you to google as needed to figure out which is which.
Today we are talking about Steamer. If Steamer is known for one thing it’s being generally conservative. Steamer doesn’t wake up in the morning to predict someone is going to be utterly terrible, nor does Steamer wake up in the morning to predict someone is going to take off and exceed all expectations.
OK it’s a bit of a trick because it’s also true that Steamer doesn’t wake up in the morning, period, owing to the fact that unlike a human, or even an elephant, Steamer is not a living being. But the point is that waking up or not, Steamer is usually pretty tepid on everyone, offering projections that leave you saying, “Oh, is that all? well, ok.”
I bring this up because while Steamer is not an A’s fan — whereas I will presume that Stomper probably is — the 2025 rendition of Steamer sure seems to like the A’s hitters quite a bit. Honestly, if the usually conservative Steamer is right on about the A’s hitters, Oakramento is going to have a pretty nifty offense.
Let’s take a gander, shall we? (Spoiler alert: we shall)
In decreasing order of wRC+:
Brent Rooker, DH: .247/.329/.485 (133 wRC+)
Lawrence Butler, RF: .255/.317/.455 (122 wRC+)
Jacob Wilson, SS: .287/.338/.417 (119 wRC+)
JJ Bleday, CF: .231/.327/.417 (117 wRC+)
Tyler Soderstrom, 1B: .233/.300/.446 (113 wRC+)
Shea Langeliers, C: .229./296./450 (113 wRC+)
Miguel Andujar, LF : .273/.321/.413 (112 wRC+)
Seth Brown, LF: .237/.295/.428 (107 wRC+)
Gio Urshela, 3B: .264/.308/.390 (102 wRC+)
Zack Gelof, 2B: .225/.291/.394 (98 wRC+)
Given that wRC+ measures % above or below league average (with 100 being average), this means 8 of 9 positions are projected to provide above average offense with Gelof barely missing.
And at 6 of 9 positions the A’s hitters are being projected to be 13% above average or better. Not too shabby. Some specific notes:
– The one which surprises me the most is Wilson, projected to produce a 119 wRC+ in his first full season despite a tepid 28 game debut (.250/.314/.315, 86 wRC+). Steamer thinks Wilson’s “bat-to-ball” skills will translate into a robust .287 BA on the strength of striking out very seldom (Steamer guesses 10.8%), and interestingly projects him to slug more than .100 better than he did in 2024 (from .315 to .417).
– Let’s call LF a projected 109 wRC+ based on Brown getting the majority of the at bats due to his being the LH side of the platoon. So Andujar’s 112 and Brown’s 107 average out to 109.
– Even as promising as these projections are, 4 players of the 10 have OBPs of .300 or below. That speaks to how low the bar for league average has become in this era of 100 MPH fastballs and a parade of fresh-armed relievers. It also shows the value of slugging: Langeliers and Soderstrom combine “.300-ish” OBPs with “.450-ish” SLG and come away with a 113 wRC+.
– If Gelof is the “weak link” it’s a nice weak link to have. Lowest projected wRC+ and all, Gelof is still projected to hit 21 HR, steal 23 bases, and contribute 2.5 WAR.
Bottom line, if Steamer has anything to say about it the A’s are going to score an above average number of runs in 2025, perhaps enough to get them into the upper 1/3 of the league. And if Stomper has anything to say about it? Well, don’t look at me — I don’t speak Elephant.