The A’s have won an amazing two in a whole row so spirits are high and hopes higher with the team looking like an actual team for 18 consecutive innings. Realistically, though, David Forst was fired — I mean, mutually parted ways with the team — because of the 45-71 that preceded a pleasant weekend in Boston.
The casualty count is now 2 after pitching coach Scott Emerson was the fall guy for a woeful pitching staff that inflicted much woe by pitching in a woeful manner. A new GM and a new voice for the pitching crew is a start, but it is not nearly enough. Allow me to explain (or figure out how to control what I type)…
In many key areas of developing a winning team at the big league level, the A’s have fallen well behind the curve and whether it’s poor teaching or the inability to produce good listening, each deficit combines with the others to create a gap that becomes exponentially bigger.
Pitching Development
This occurs from the big league level all the way down to A-ball as pitchers are forever a “work-in-progress”. There is a noticeable area where A’s pitchers struggle from the minors to MLB and that is the ability to repeat, fix, tweak mechanics in order to throw strikes and quickly solve problems when command leaves them.
A glaring example is the Rick Ankiel like Luis Morales, who has become a 2-pitch pitcher: balls and center cut pitches that are launched. Every now and again the true “yips” infect a pitcher — Ankiel is an example — and this is not a coaching failure.
Perhaps Morales has caught this rare and deadly disease. More likely he is just a mess and when I say mess I mean “Hoo boy has he fallen apart sumpin’ fierce!” In his 16 big league innings, 27 hits, 7 of them HRs, 14 BBs, a 13.50 ERA. At AAA? 53.1 IP. 71 hits, 12 HR, 37 BBs, an 8.10 ERA.
But it’s not just Morales. Jack Perkins, Jacob Lopez, and Mason Barnett are 3 pitchers on the MLB roster who came up with control as their biggest vice and they have not been able to get over that hump. Prized prospect Jamie Arnold has started to pitch better, and his assignment straight to AA was aggressive, but he has walked 45 in his 96 IP. Helping or getting pitchers to repeat their deliveries and command the strike zone, and especially guiding them to plug the dam when it breaks, has been a weakness that is seen by the A’s issuing the 4th highest number of walks in all of MLB.
Other areas of pitching reflect poor coaching and preparation. It was spring training of 2025 that the Milwaukee Brewers ran roughshod on Jeffrey Springs and stole 7 bases in a Cactus League game. The opposition hasn’t stopped since and 2 years later A’s pitchers, collectively, simply don’t control the running game. As recently as last night the Red Sox stole 3 bases off of Gage Jump in which Jump gave his catcher no chance. It’s common place, including runners getting a walking lead and pitchers using long or slow leg kicks. Shea Langeliers, Jonah Heim, and now Brian Serven, have repeatedly been given no shot at runners who “stole it on the pitcher” and it’s been going on for so long you have to question why the same problems persist.
Hitting Approach
If the hitting coaches are saying the right things, the hitters are putting their fingers in their ears and shouting “La la la la la la la!!!!!” because it’s not penetrating. The A’s have too many batters who simply do not control the strike zone, lack patience and discipline, and bail opposing pitchers out far too often.
You would hope that younger players who begin their pro careers in A ball, advance to AA, then AAA, then arrive to the big leagues, would have enough time and tutelage to address any deep flaws that threaten to curtail their success. Yet here is a list of players who came up through the A’s system only to arrive hacking early and often, chasing far too many pitches out of the strike zone: Max Muncy (drafted in 2021), Colby Thomas (drafted in 2022), Jacob Wilson (drafted in 2023), Tommy White (drafted in 2024).
All 4 of these players were drafted in rounds 1, 2, or 3, and with the exception of Wilson they have all failed as hitters — and in Wilson’s case his 3.8% BB rate this season leads to a .301 OBP and his swing choices have helped to produce just a 91 wRC+. Joshua Kuroda-Grauer should take note before his “I only walk against position players” approach catches up to him.
There are other pedagogical ideals that if practiced could elevate a talented-but-not-that-effective core to elite status. You become a far more dangerous and potent hitter when you use the whole field, hit pitches the way they are moving, and embrace the ‘old school’ 2-strike approach to shorten your swing, hit more the other way, and emphasize contact over slugging. You score more runs when you are a dynamic offense that knows how to use “productive outs” to score here while “hunting middle-middle” ahead in the count and walloping a HR there.
The hitters need a new voice as much as the pitchers do, again up and down the organization. That doesn’t mean everyone involved in hitting instruction needs to be fired, but a lot of new voices are needed and the organizational philosophies need to reflect what actually works, not what hitters may think works.
Manager/Field Coaches
Again it’s not that everyone from Mark Kotsay to Ryan Christensen and Bobby Crosby to Darren Bush and Mike Aldrete, have to be laid off en masse, but there simply needs to be a new normal with regard to fundamentals, leadership, and strategy.
Twice on this road trip alone a player (Hogan Harris, Jonah Heim) lost focus holding the ball on a play that was still live, leading to disastrous results at the time. Fundamentals such as hitting the cut off man (which I will grant has seemed better recently), communication between fielders, not lunging to the bag trying to beat out a throw, sliding to a corner of the bag or plate — these are the areas where every player is capable of succeeding regardless of their talent level. And a small market team needs to do these things at a high level to compensate for a lack of payroll or resources.
What fans see from the outside is a team that is allowed to make the same mistakes over and over and does not have leadership that upholds high expectations — or else does not have the ability to effect change. Who stays and who goes is a question beyond my pay scale as someone not on the field or in the dugout/clubhouse daily. Personally, I think Crosby is an excellent 3B coach and I haven’t really seen anything to suggest he lacks competence in his lanes, but the broader point is that a GM coming in needs to look at the crew leading the A’s and its affiliates and bring in some superior — or if nothing else fresh — coaches and instructors who know what to teach, can teach it effectively, and will have the players’ ears.
The point is that from big league leadership to organization wide instruction to pedagogy and norms, the A’s are a combined mess right now leading to their 47-71 record. Injuries have been a factor, but they have also masked that the A’s had some serious deficits when most of their players were healthy, both at the MLB and MiLB level.
I’m interested to see who the next A’s GM will be, but I’m even more interested to see who they bring with them and how big the list is. I know this: if I were interviewing GMs I would be talking to them about a lot more than just themselves and what they personally bring. It’s time for some major change.
