Opening Day: How will the Oakland A’s define ‘success’ in 2021?
In plain terms, the Oakland A’s have been successful over the last three years. But no one in the organization or on the roster will be happy with what the core has accomplished yet.
Three consecutive trips to the postseason is a mark of success; a few Major League Baseball teams who’ve toiled in the bottom of the barrel of late would be pleased at those results. But the A’s want more — what team wouldn’t who’s flirted with an extended postseason enough times and fallen short each time? A successful season won’t be one unless the A’s can at least get beyond the American League Division Series and, yes, make the World Series.
Why that series in particular? The A’s haven’t won a championship series game since 1992, when they took two games in a 4-2 series loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. In 2020, their wild card victory over the Chicago White Sox was their first postseason series win since 2006, when they swept the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS only to be swept by the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS.
The A’s are constantly at success’ doorstep. They’ve barely been able to get the strength to knock down the door. Their last World Series victory came in 1989 in a sweep of the San Francisco Giants in the rubble of the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Manager Bob Melvin is the right skipper to head the A’s arduous journey back into relevancy. He’s entering his 11th season as manager, and already taken two iterations of this team into the postseason six different times.
They have the talent, too. But that talent has yet to reach its full potential. They’ll need some high-ceiling players to touch their ceiling. The A’s core players need to take a step, which means their best players need to move on from being sneaky-good to spotlight-stealing stars.
All eyes are on Matt Chapman and Matt Olson to lead the charge at the plate and defensively — if they can put together standout seasons, they’re the X-factors that can take the A’s over the top.
On the pitching side, seasons in which Jesús Luzardo and Frankie Montas can reach their highest potential can also help the A’s off the postseason schneid. They both have the stuff to be some of baseball’s best pitchers, but need the time, health and consistency to get there.
If the A’s want to succeed, their best players need to broaden the targets on their backs. Not only that, those players need to dodge the darts.
The A’s bullpen will also need to outperform its 2020 season. Yes, the bullpen had a 2.72 ERA last season, the best ERA in baseball last year. But they faltered in the postseason, often a central part of each of the three losses against the Houston Astros in the ALDS. The front office did well to construct a new-look bullpen that prioritizes diversity of arms angles, speeds, arm slots and pitch type. It’s modeled after the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Dodgers’ bullpens — bullpens that were central to the team’ success in deep postseason runs. Can that bullpen both execute in the regular season, and become a different beast in the postseason?
In this core’s postseason runs so far, the A’s haven’t been able to flip the switch. The postseason beast is still sleeping.