Three Current MLB Stars Who Will Eventually Be Inducted in A’s HOF
An IBWAA member discusses a trio of active players who should be honored by the Athletics franchise..
Pregame Pepper
. . . There are only 72 players who have played in the majors whose last name begins with the letter I. Only three have a last name with I, followed by a vowel, and two of those are brothers! One of those brothers celebrates his birthday today. Dane Iorg had a ten-year MLB career that was primarily used as a pinch hitter. He hit .276 over 1,782 plate appearances in his career, but his role was a vital part of two World Series championships, hitting an incredible .522/.580/.826 over 25 plate appearances in those two playoff runs. Dane turns 76 today.
. . . On this day ten years ago, Max Scherzer had a uniquely dominating game, becoming the fifth pitcher to record at least 20 strikeouts in a start (Tom Cheney holds the record with 21, but over a 16-inning game where he threw all 16 innings). Six games have featured a starter with 20 or more strikeouts, with Roger Clemens accomplishing the feat twice. Of those six games, Scherzer’s was actually the worst game score, with an 87, as he allowed two solo home runs among six hits in the start, though he did not strike out a batter. Incredibly, in June of 2015, Scherzer had back-to-back starts with better game scores than his 20-strikeout game.
Leading Off
Three Current MLB Stars Who Will Eventually Be Inducted in A’s HOF
By Rich Campbell
Last month in this space, we looked at the players in the A’s 2026 Hall of Fame class: Mark Ellis, Dave Henderson and Blue Moon Odom.
This month, we stick with the A’s Hall of Fame theme and look at current MLB stars who have already likely clinched a spot in the Green and Gold Hall. We will look at three teammates from the last successful era of A’s baseball, and why their stints in Oakland will earn them a spot, and how their careers have gone since moving to new teams. The players are presented in the order in which they debuted in Oakland.
Marcus Semien (2015-2020) 773 games, 20.0 WAR
Semien manned shortstop for the A’s during the second half of the 2010’s, a time of great success, including 97-win seasons in 2018 and 2019 and an identical winning percentage in the Covid-shortened 2020 season (36-24). Across those three years, he missed only ten of 384 games.
But Semien was so much more than an everyday presence in the lineup. He was third in MVP balloting in 2019 and scored the Silver Slugger, Gold Glove and his only All-Star appearance with the A’s that year. For this career in Oakland, Semien slashed .256/.325/.430 before an insulting offer from the A’s in free agency led him to sign in Toronto for the 2021 season.
After leaving Oakland, Semien added two more third-place MVP finishes with the Blue Jays (2021) and Rangers (2023), plus a couple of more ASG appearances, a Silver Slugger, and a Gold Glove, all at second base. He was a key part of the Rangers’ World Series win in 2023. Now playing for the Mets in his age-35 season, Semien has a career WAR of 49.6. Having played second base since leaving Oakland, Semien will play more games at second than short in his career and is 26th all-time in WAR among second basemen, per Baseball Reference, just ahead of HOFer Nellie Fox (49.3).
Matt Chapman (2017-2021) 573 games, 22.5 WAR
Chappy might be the best defensive player in A’s history, which in the Oakland era included six-time Gold Glove winners, fellow third baseman Eric Chavez and center fielder Dwayne Murphy. Chapman won the AL’s Platinum glove - best defender regardless of position - in 2018 and 2019. In his Oakland years, Chappy won three Gold Gloves and finished sixth (2019) and seventh (2018) in MVP voting. He made his only ASG in 2019 in the Green and Gold. He slashed .243/.330/.478 in Oakland.
After being traded to Toronto for the laughable return of Kevin Smith, Gunnar Hoglund, Zach Logue, and Kirby Snead, he played two seasons in Toronto, winning another Gold Glove before signing with the Giants in 2024 and finishing eleventh in MVP voting and netting his fifth Gold Glove that year.
For his career, Chappy has 42.6 WAR, which ranks 39th all-time at the hot corner, between Alex Bregman (43.4) and Gary Gaetti (42.1).
Matt Olson (2016-2021) 575 games, 19.0 WAR
Oly debuted in 2016 and was entrenched as the squad’s starting first baseman by 2018. He won a pair of Gold Gloves in Oakland and garnered down-ballot MVP votes in 2019 (21st) and 2021 (8th), in addition to making one All-Star Game representing the A’s in 2021. In his Oakland years, Oly slashed .252/.348/.511.
After the 2021 season, he was traded to the Braves for Shea Langeliers, Joey Estes, Ryan Cusick, and Christian Pache. Returning to his native Georgia has agreed with Olson, as he has finished fourth (2023) and 18th (2025) in MVP voting, made a pair of ASG appearances, and picked up a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger for the team formerly owned by the recently deceased Ted Turner. And this year, Oly is an early-season MVP candidate, ranking (at this writing) as tied for first in dingers (13), tied for third in RBI’s (33), leading in total bases (98), second in OPS (1.033), and second in WAR (2.4) in the National League.
For his career, Oly has 42.1 WAR, ranking 42nd all-time for first basemen, just behind Don Mattingly (42.4).
Rich Campbell is a Marketing Professor at Sonoma State University by day and an Oakland (not Sac/Vegas) 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 and other outlets. You can find him on Twitter @RichCampbelPhD.
Extra Innings
Saturday morning, the baseball world lost one its most iconic managers and minds of the game. Bobby Cox passed away at the age of 84. Cox is one of just four managers in the history of baseball to accumulate 2,500 wins, more than 2,100 of them coming with the Atlanta Braves. What many forget about Bobby is that he was let go by the Braves in 1981 (leading to one of the greatest quotes from recently-deceased Ted Turner, the owher of the Braves at the time, who, when asked what sort of manager the team needed to turn things around, stated that they needed a guy just like Bobby Cox, though he was the guy who was just let go), and he managed the Toronto Blue Jays to some of the organization’s first success since coming into the league before returning to the Braves in the role of general manager in 1985. His evaluation of systems of player development and coaching allowed him to build the organization through drafting and staffing choices that allowed the team to go on a run of 14 straight division titles, of course after Cox assumed the managerial role again, one he would hold in Atlanta until 2010, mentoring his eventual replacement Brian Snitker, and the man who would take over for Snitker, Walt Weiss, who was part of the Braves under Cox’s management. Rest in power, Bobby.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [biggentleben@hotmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.