Oakland Athletics Youth Having Different MLB Debut Experiences
Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom have had opposite experiences thus far in Oakland
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . While the Oakland Athletics have leaned into a youth movement in 2023, the team is far from the youngest in the major leagues, ranking with the seventh-youngest position player grouping and the eighth-youngest pitchers.
. . . The youngest position player group in the majors this season is the Kansas City Royals, with an average age of 26.4 years old, barely edging out the Cleveland Guardians (26.7). The Guardians’ average age of 26 among the pitching staff is nearly a year and a half younger than the next closest team.
Leading Off
A Tale of Two Rookies
By Rich Campbell
As the A’s season continues on the path to the worst record since the team arrived in Oakland in 1968, perhaps now is a time to focus on the future of the roster. As the saying goes, “The future is now.” The next wave of position players has been called up in the last couple of months to join the rookies and other young players on the squad.
The problem with evaluating young players is the “small sample size” question. Is it proper to evaluate a young player after 20 games? 40 games? Half a season? If I knew the answer to that, I would likely be advising a club, not writing about the topic in this space.
There are nine position players on the active roster with less than two years of service time: catcher/first baseman Tyler Soderstrom (21 years old), infielder Jordan Diaz (22), Zack Gelof (23), shortstop Nick Allen (24), catcher Shea Langeliers (25), first baseman Ryan Noda (27), plus outfielders Lawrence Butler (22), Esteury Ruiz (24), Brent Rooker (28). Will the front office be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and identify a core of players to build around?
In 2017 while writing for Forbes SportsMoney, I penned an article noting that the A’s were coming off consecutive 90-loss seasons, but had seemingly identified a pair of infielders to anchor the team’s next rise in the standings. Both were high draft picks and had flashed tremendous ability that season.
If you are an A’s fan, you know those two players were 24-year-old Matt Chapman, a college player drafted 25th overall in 2014, and 23-year-old Matt Olson, a high school player nabbed with the 47th pick in the 2012 draft.
Looking back on their 2017 slash lines, Chapman’s .234/.313/.472 in 84 games resulted in a 111 OPS+ (league average is 100) and Olson’s line of .259/.352/.651 in 59 games produced a 166 OPS+. Of course, they are now leading other teams toward the playoffs, after leading Oakland to the postseason thrice.
So, who are the breakout building blocks from this rebuilding campaign? One is obvious: Zack Gelof. Heading into the weekend, second baseman Gelof was slashing .294/.360/.610 for an OPS+ of 171 in 35 games. He has certainly looked the part of a pillar for the next over .500 A’s team. Gelof was the 60th pick in the 2021 draft out of Virginia. In just 35 games for Oakland Gelof has 10 homers, a better start to his career than Olson, who took 45 games to hit 10 long balls.
The second possibility is Tyler Soderstrom. The results are not there yet, as evidenced by his .165/.237/.247 slash line that resulted in a return trip to Triple-A Las Vegas after just 85 at-bats with the big club. But it is not time to panic about the development of the high schooler who was the 26th pick of the 2020 draft. One factor in his favor is his youth. Playing his age 21 season, he was young to even be in Triple-A, much less the majors. According to Baseball Reference, he was 5.7 years younger than the average Triple-A player this season. So, patience will be required.
Another factor in his favor is that he has produced at every level in the minors while being one of the youngest players in each league he has played. Last year he led all A’s minor leaguers with 29 homers and 105 RBIs while rising from High-A to his first taste of Triple-A. This year in Las Vegas he has slashed .262/.316/.552. The talent is there.
Finally, there have been many players who struggled in their first (and sometimes second) attempt at having an impact in the majors. Some local examples provide needed historical context.
Former San Francisco Giant Matt Williams ended his career with 46.6 bWAR, but do not forget that he struggled in his age 21 season, slashing .188/.240/.339 in 266 plate appearances in 1987. Even in his third year as a 23-year-old he scuffled, hitting .202/.242/.455 in 1989. The following year he was an All-Star and hit 33 homers to go along with a league-leading 122 RBIs, which resulted in a Silver Slugger and sixth-place finish in MVP voting in 1990. Sometimes with young bats patience pays.
More recently, Petaluma, California, product Spencer Torkelson of the Detroit Tigers struggled to live up to his status as the top overall pick in the 2020 draft after an illustrious career at Arizona State. Last year as a 22-year-old rookie he slashed .203/.285/.319 and was sent back to Triple-A, before returning to Detroit in September when rosters expanded. His OPS+ was a disappointing 74. This year his OPS+ is above league average (106) and as detailed in Jay Jaffe’s recent Fangraphs piece entitled “Spencer Torkelson Is Breaking Out,” his production has improved significantly as the season has unfolded.
While Soderstrom is off to an inauspicious start to his MLB career, there is still plenty of time – and hope – that he can be a cornerstone, along with the already flourishing Gelof, to return the A’ to respectability. If they can develop or find some pitching talent, a potential return to the playoffs will become the goal.
Rich Campbell is a Marketing Professor at Sonoma State University by day and A’s fan by night. He has previously been a sports business contributor at Forbes.com and his academic writing has appeared in Sport Marketing Quarterly. You can find him on Twitter @RichCampbellPhD.
Timeless Trivia:
Q: The Athletics have utilized 18 players with rookie eligibility this season, behind only the Cincinnati Reds (21). The Reds are also competing for the final National League Wild Card position. Can you name the last team to win the World Series while rostering that season’s Rookie of the Year?
Answer in tomorrow’s newsletter!