Who Needs Chaperones Anyway?

 

The current status of the A's is that they're down to only five people on the active roster who are over 30. One of them, Brent Rooker, is 30 exactly. The others include 3 relievers and Jeffrey Springs. It's just them, plus Severino and a couple other spare parts on the IL. Everyone else is under 30, young and thriving. Is it a coincidence that the A's have lapped the Angels right as the last major thirtysomething in the lineup got DFA'd?

Here are the latest batch of young people who have been aiding the Athletics: Luis Morales, a 22-year-old starter who's 2-0 with a 1.19 ERA in 5 games this year; Colby Thomas, another young outfielder who already has 4 homers and 13 RBIs in 29 games; Max Muncy, who finally seems to be getting the hang of this whole MLB thing and has 9 homers; Darell Hernaiz, who's backing up Jacob Wilson at short and is a .250 hitter himself; and Jack Perkins, who, before he got injured, was becoming a solid enough fixture in the ninth. We can also lump in Jacob Lopez, who was having a nice season in the rotation before his injury, with a 4.08 ERA and 113 Ks. And now we even have the rookie Mason Barnett, a former Royals prospect who faced the Rangers for his debut last night.

That is a lot of youth, and a lot of rookies in big positions. You'd expect a few of them to not work, and Muncy, Hernaiz and Lopez all struggled for a bit before locking into gear. Pretty much every major piece of this team can remember those moments of struggling, like Lawrence Butler in 2023, or Rooker before he got to the A's, or Shea Langeliers before...like, June. A lot of them have clicked, which helps tremendously. Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, Brent Rooker and Shea Langeliers are the heart of this team, and they're all surging. Kurtz is headed for the Rookie of the Year, and not even Jacob Wilson can be too mad about that. Langeliers is looking at 30 homers, and it's not too far out of the realm of possibility for Rooker either. 

There's enough power on this team that it distracts from the fact that there's still some room for growth, like a few more solid rotation options or a better bullpen or slightly better defense. The important thing is that this is a team that can be an offensive match, even now, for competitors. Your worst A's team could be a slam dunk win for a competitor two years ago, and now with Kurtz, Rooker and Butler you can't quite be certain. Remember, the 4-homer Kurtz game happened in Houston. The Astros are clinging to a small lead in this division because of losses like that making them human. That couldn't have happened in 2023.

The A's, while still a bad team, are embracing their youth and getting way stronger. Next season will have a lot of questions answered, and I reckon they'll step even closer to a competitive idea. 

Coming Tonight: A Rockies infielder who was way better before he had to play for this specific version of the team.