The Oakland Athletics were 59-36 heading into the All-Star Break. They were the best team in the MLB, and only second to the Angels with the most runs scored (466) and second to the Nationals for the league's best ERA (3.08). It looked like the World Series could be achievable, but that all changed on Tuesday night.
Oakland was eliminated from the playoffs when the Royals defeated them 9-8 in the AL Wild Card game in 12 innings. General manager Billy Beane did all he could to put the team in place to make a deep postseason run, but in the end it was considered a failure. Beane traded the team's top prospect, shortstop Addison Russell, to the Chicago Cubs for pitchers Jeff Samardzija (2.83 ERA with Chicago) and Jason Hammel (2.98 ERA with Chicago) to join Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir early in July. Beane then completed a blockbuster trade at the deadline that sent outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to Boston for left-hander Jon Lester. The A's officially looked like World Series contenders.
But the second half of the season nearly ended in disaster for Oakland. The team went 29-38 and just skated by into the second wild card spot in front of the Seattle Mariners, who were only one game behind them. They lost the AL West to the Angels by 10 games and then found themselves traveling to Kansas City to face the Royals in a one-game playoff. During the second half, Oakland was 13th in runs scored (263) and 10th in ERA (3.42), which isn't bad, but they were drastic drop-offs from their first half performance. Additionally, Hammel didn't really pan out (4.26 ERA with Oakland) and the bullpen blew a number of games late in the season. Samardzija (5-6 with a 3.14 ERA) and Lester (6-4 with a 2.35 ERA) performed great with Oakland, but the team was having trouble scoring runs.
Now that the A's are out of the playoffs, they have some questions to answer for next season. They have a number of looming free agents, including Lester, Hammel, shortstop Jed Lowrie, reliever Luke Gregorson and a few others. Beane's moves were considered questionable because he essentially traded away Cespedes and Russell for one-year rentals (although Samardzija has one year left on his contract).
"When we traded for Samardzija and Hammel, I think one of the first questions was, 'Why would you trade for two pitchers, you're first in the league in ERA?'" Beane told reporters earlier this week, via this ESPN article. "We weren't going to stay there. We knew it. Our job is to try and correct things before they become a problem, and some of the problems that we had we could see coming."
He also succinctly added: "Simply put, if we don't have Jon Lester, I don't think we make the playoffs."
And he's probably right. We saw Scott Kazmir regress after the first half, with his ERA ballooning from a 2.38 on July 10 to a 3.55 at the end of the season. Before being moved to the bullpen, Jesse Chavez started to fall off as well. Lester got the team three crucial victories in September that ultimately moved them into the playoffs.
But Lester's (probable) final game on the team ended in a loss. He lasted 7 1/3 innings against the Royals and was charged with eight hits, two walks and six earned runs. The bullpen was largely responsible for the loss, but the Cespedes-for-Lester deal will likely be viewed as a failure after the result of the Athletics' season. Beane and the A's will have some work to do in the offseason, but the MLB won't be surprised if the team is competitive yet again in 2015.
"What I didn't reveal was that I was also concerned about us, which was the point of the trades. I have said this many times: It's not where you are, it's where you're headed," said Beane. "And I like to think being here every day, I have a feel for where we're headed."
