R.I.P. Oakland Athletics World Series Window
After flopping as a World Series favorite, the 2015 A’s will have a whole new look – one of which nobody is happy about.
The saying goes, if the shoe fits, wear it. Apparently the shoe came nowhere near fitting Oakland A’s manager Billy Beane.
After being the World Series favorite last winter, spring and summer, the A’s pulled a card from a Florida Marlins World Series book: sell everyone.
The team that just about ran the American League through most of 2014 will be a mere green and gold shell of itself in 2015 raising the question “are the actual Oakland Athletics back?” A fair question considering that Beane traded his ace, let another ace leave via free agency, shipped his three top power hitters away to other American League clubs and allowed his fairly reliable shortstop to go to the worst team in the AL.
Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) considered Oakland the team to beat in the home stretch of the season — and even October — once Beane acquired Jeff Samardzija and Jon Lester in July. Of course, Beane’s gamble, and fear of a lack of pitching come October, came with a price. The A’s sent their top prospect Addison Russell for Samardzija and sent fan favorite power hitter Yoenis Cespedes for Lester.
The trade for Lester was the straw that broke the camel’s back. While Oakland lost a big bat in the lineup along with a solid glove in the outfield, Lester went just 6-4 in 11 starts with the A’s and completely blew his Athletics playoff debut, allowing six runs on eight hits in 7 1/3 innings in the A’s Wild Card collapse.
In short, if Beane was playing Blackjack, the move for Lester put him at 22.
While Beane has defended his “Moneyball” practice and explained that the trades of Donaldson and Moss, A’s fans throughout the Bay Area are ready to demand Beane’s head on a stick.
“We did it three years ago; we have done this before,” he told reporters during last week’s MLB Winter Meetings in San Diego.
“[But] we did it three years ago when we traded Rich Harden and got Josh Donaldson. It’s like Groundhog Day; you could basically substitute. This is how it is. We are trying to be proactive.”
Proactive, yes. But as far as the method of madness being successful, well, let’s just say it’s been a fun three years Oakland.
While there will be tributes and a few memorials to the A’s three-year-old “World Series or bust” run, Beane will spend the rest of the winter trying to build a competitive team and try to pull that postseason groundhog out of a tree, again. We can only assume it’s like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
“I’m still not positive what the A’s are doing here, though,” ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian said. “They traded away 300 RBI’s.”
Although the A’s signed Billy Butler from the American League champion Kansas City Royals and Ike Davis from Pittsburgh, Beane seems more like a man in denial about the slow death of his club than someone completely confident about his team’s chances in 2015.
The offseason isn’t by any way a complete dismantling for Oakland. However in an offseason where both the White Sox and Red Sox made significant moves and where 20 of the total 30 MLB teams could make a run at 10 total playoff spots, the Athletics window didn’t just slowly close, it damn near closed shut faster than that of a driver in New York City in the summer, stuck in traffic with all of the homeless trying to ask for change (ponder that).
Beane and company aren’t going to sign any big names like they did when Beane’s wallet expanded $20 million last winter, they’re not going to trade for anyone significant who can help them win now.
He is going to add parts, bring in younger guys and see what he can get out of them, whether or not they’ll be worth keeping down the road or become trade bait for a bigger piece will have to be seen.
Some A’s fans will jump ship, somewhat understandably so. The others (the respected die-hards, the long-timers and those in the right field bleacher crew) will stick and could be in for a big reward for their patience should Beane open the window again in 2016 and allow that postseason and possible World Series draft in again.
Oakland isn’t rebuilding, revamping or retooling, they’re recreating. As long as Billy Beane is the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, he will always get players who will produce high and project low, then get rid of them when they get too high. The trick is to get the right parts of the puzzle and make them fit into a World Series trophy while they fit.
But if it’s anything we can say on the passing of the A’s three-year-old World Series run it’s this: it was fun, it was memorable, and it was frustrating as hell.