An Analysis of the Oakland Athletics’ Fantasy Prospects
“All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield”
-John Milton
“God, it’s brutal out here”
-Olivia Rodrigo
It goes without saying that 2023 was not the optimal season for the Oakland Athletics. If you’re reading this blog (hi Kim), then I assume you’re already well aware of their truly pathetic showing last year: a mere 50 wins against 112 losses for a winning percentage of just .309 – the lowest in the entire league. Given the relative stagnancy of their off-season moves, it certainly appears as though (barring the signing of someone like JD Martinez or the ghost of Rickey Henderson*) the A’s are shaping up for another dismal season. This sad news for Oakland fans (to those still in existence, God bless them), however, does not preclude a select few players on the team from vying for a spot on your fantasy baseball roster.
Admittedly, none of the names I’m about to list are MVP material – they will likely serve as good, solid backups; the types of fellas you can start if your IL list is rapidly growing and you’re in desperate need of someone who can eke out a few points a week. The upside of this is the fact that these are not hot-ticket names – you’ll be able to draft most of these players in the late rounds (some might go undrafted – even better!) for a relatively low-risk investment.
Brent Rooker
Ah, Big Brent. 2023 was the first year he played in a majority of the games, and coincidentally it was also the year of his breakout. Brent slashed .246/.329/.488 with 30 home runs across 137 games – not shabby for his first full season. The Rookster does have his drawbacks, however. Brent’s 2023 strikeout rate (32.7%) is a painful stat to read (and even more painful when it’s negative points on your roster), and on top of that he’s a very streaky player. His 2023 batting average jumps around from .350 to .150, to .300, then back down to .150 again – his other “big three” stats follow this trend. Brent’s at-bat volatility lessened in the latter half of the season, so maybe he got his shit together after I tweeted at him to “please hit some more home runs.” Whatever the case may be, I have a damn good feeling (completely unfounded… can I say it’s “woman’s intuition?”) that he’s on track for another solid season.
Esteury Ruiz
In his first season with the A’s, Ruiz slashed (“slashed” sounds kind of intense for such a mediocre set of stats) .254/.309/.345 with 5 home runs (wow) across 132 games. For all intents and purposes, this kid should be (and it brings me no pleasure to say this) condemned to the baseball equivalent of the banks of the Acheron – a nameless, forgotten face among thousands of other similarly “meh” players – the type of guy who makes you smugly congratulate yourself on your “esoteric” baseball knowledge when you enter him into the Immaculate Grid and see that only .6% of other players have thought of him. The reason he is on this list, then, is not due to his spectacular at-bat performances, but rather what happens after he gets on base. In 2023, only one man stole more bases than Esteury Ruiz; Ronnie Acuña Jr. stole 73 bases, while Ruiz stole 67. Perhaps the ghost of Rickey has indeed possessed this young man!* Is it foolish to add someone to your roster solely due to their base-stealing abilities? Maybe. Then again, it’s almost certainly foolish to shave your testicles with a sharp electric razor, yet that’s never stopped me. (By the way, sweet Jesus! One’s scrotum really bleeds a lot if you nick it while shaving.)
*My editor tells me that Rickey Henderson is, in fact, still alive. Interesting if true. Rickey: let’s get a beer sometime.
Zack Gelof
After a stint as the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, a brief foray into acting (he starred in that trippy movie adaptation of Pink Floyd’s The Wall), and working behind the scenes to make Live Aid a reality (this joke really isn’t that funny nor clever but, you know, sunk cost fallacy and whatnot), Zack Gelof made his MLB debut halfway through the 2023 season for Oakland. In the 69 games he played, I was quite impressed with his at-bat productivity: .267/.337/.504 with 14 home runs. More good news is that Gelof was not as volatile a player as someone like Rooker, and his at-bat lows were nowhere near as low as Rooker’s. His primary drawback, of course, is his age and relative experience. Was the latter half of last season nothing more than a lucky fluke, or was it the start of a solid career? An ancillary drawback is the fact that he played for Israel in the World Baseball Classic last year (if you care about that sort of thing, that is).
Mason Miller
How could you resist someone with an all-American name like that? AND it’s alliterative? Hubba hubba. Mason Miller’s professional career has been rocky, to say the least – not because of a dearth of skills, mind you, but due to his proclivity for landing on the IL. When he’s healthy, however, boy can this kid pitch. In two seasons in AAA ball, he recorded an ERA of 1.59 (this is slightly misleading, don’t look into it) and an SO9 of 15.9 – in his limited starts in the majors, this number only drops to 10.3. One downside (besides the obvious two: a lack of experience and his injury-prone-ness) is his BB9: 4.3 in the majors. Bear in mind, his measly 33.1 innings pitched is a relatively small sample size, but his walk rate is nonetheless a valid reason for concern. The A’s have stated that he’d spend the 2024 season in the bullpen before possibly moving back to the starting rotation, but given his ability to dish out 100+ mph fastballs and his high strikeout rate, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he’d become the A’s next primary closer. In short, this kid is certainly a bit of a gamble, but then again “gamble” is pretty much synonymous with “A’s fantasy prospects” at this point, no?
JP Sears
Are less-volatile pitching investments more up your alley? Look no further than Monsieur Jacques Pierre Sears, Oakland’s… well, not ace, he’s more like the A’s eight of diamonds. 2023 was Sears’ first full season with the A’s and only his second season in the majors, having wallowed in the minor leagues for a few seasons. And for a second full season, he didn’t pitch too bad. Nothing to write home about, mind you, but solid enough to warrant considering adding him to your roster. He finished 2023 with an ERA of 4.54 and a WHIP of 1.265, as well as an S9 of 8.4 and a BB9 of 2.8. I suppose whether or not you add him depends on how many people are in your league; if you’re forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel of viable starters, Sears might be for you. On the other hand, if your league comprises 4 people in total (or if you only have a few pitching slots per team), there may be no need to compromise on your starters.
Darell Hernaiz
Last but certainly not least is Hernaiz, who has yet to play a single game of major league ball. The A’s have announced that they’d be adding him to the 40-man roster for the start of the 2024 season, and thus we’re left with one of our more risky prospects. Is this kid going to adapt well to the big leagues, like Francisco Alvarez, or is he going to crash and burn à la Brett Baty? (Yes, your favorite journalist Dean Morielli is a Mets fan. Sue me! LFGM!) Hernaiz’s stint in the minors looked promising, slashing .321/.386/.456 in 2023, alternating between AA and AAA ball. He hasn’t shown much strength (literally and figuratively) as a big slugger, hitting only 9 home runs across 131 games last year, but his other stats more than make up for this gap.* Depending on how well-adjusted your league is, there’s a good chance no one else has even heard of him, and thus you can add him post-draft if need be. If they have, that means they’ve been paying attention to A’s minor league ball. And if that’s the case (and they don’t live in the Bay Area), tell them to get a life. Go outside. Talk to women. Go sow your wild oats. Christ almighty…
*At this point, I point to Jonah Hill, who is sitting in the corner. He quietly remarks “he gets on base.”
In short, despite the nonzero chance of the Oakland A’s finishing with the worst record in the MLB for the second season in a row, it’s not worth writing off the entire team as losers – there are certainly some players who can be an asset on your rosters. Some of them I’ve listed here, but I’m too lazy to examine all of them (and I have a deadline) so you’ll have to do your own research if you aren’t impressed with who I’ve discussed. Suck it! And who knows, maybe this is the year JJ Bleday finally slashes .311/.367/.530 with 32 home runs.
Image comes with a Creative Commons license (via Keith Allison from the Wikimedia Commons), per Google. Please don’t sue us.
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