Here we are in the middle of December, the first-ever virtual Winter Meetings have wrapped up, Billy Beane is still (for now) a member of the organization, the world is still turning and the Oakland Athletics still have needs to satisfy before Spring Training rolls around. While the big questions are who will replace All-Stars Marcus Semien, Tommy La Stella, and Liam Hendricks, there are other notable contributors to 2020’s squad that are also hitting the open market, including the top three set-up relievers from 2020 and the starting left fielder.
Semien and Hendricks might be among the biggest names hitting the open market, but the A’s are well equipped to handle their departures both in the short and long-term. Fans loved the San Francisco-born and Berkeley-raised Semien as a member of the A’s for the last half-decade, but affording the contract he’s likely to garner was always going to be tough, now close to impossible after massive revenue loss. Nick Allen, currently rated as the A’s 4th-best prospect, isn’t likely to be the starting shortstop to open 2021 but is definitely being groomed to assume the job at some point in the not-too-distant future. While utilityman Chad Pinder could theoretically be a starter here, he’s most useful to the A’s as a piece that can play all over the field instead of locked in at his least-proficient position. A cheap stopgap at shortstop is likely, but it’s worth noting that any downgrade is going to be smaller than expected, since Semien came back down to earth in a season the A’s tied for the second-best record in the American League.
Star closer Liam Hendricks is also as good as gone, with his market easily expected to surpass anything Oakland could afford. The good news is Oakland has had lots of recent success finding buy-low relievers and turning them into useful pieces, including Hendricks himself, but to compound the Hendricks loss is that there’s going to be lots of turnover up and down the bullpen as well, with fellow relievers Joakim Soria, Yusmeiro Petit, and T.J. Mcfarland also hitting free agency. This offseason will feature one of the biggest top-end bullpen turnovers in recent A’s memory, and while Oakland could still possibly bring back one or two of those other three if the price is right, A’s fans should expect to see a lot more of Jake Diekman, Lou Trivino, and J.B. Wendelken handling late inning duties in 2021.
It feels like the A’s run through the same exercise every offseason of picking a second baseman. For the first time in years, however, Franklin Barreto isn’t a factor for the team, and the team can be comfortable with its current options heading into the season, even if they are reportedly looking to upgrade by bringing back La Stella. Tony Kemp was very useful for the first half of 2020, acting as something of a second leadoff man at the bottom of the order and getting on base at a solid clip with good defense, before the team acquired La Stella,. Before that acquisition the A’s had found a rhythm playing Kemp against righties and Pinder against lefties at the keystone, and unless Oakland brings La Stella back to be the everyday player for 2021, expect the team to be confident in the Kemp-Pinder duo heading into Spring Training.
Robbie Grossman’s arrival to the Bay Area was met with little to no fanfare, with Oakland acquiring him to be the starting left fielder a season after losing in the AL Wild Card Game. After a decent-but-not-great year in 2019, many A’s fans thought management should have looked elsewhere for a star player to upgrade over the switch-hitter. The front office stuck with him, though, and Grossman had a career year in 2020 heading into free agency. While the pandemic probably pushed Grossman’s potential earning power down, he’s still likely to find a new home because of the combination of Mark Canha possibly starting 2021 as the everyday left fielder and the new addition of Rule 5 pick Ka’ai Tom, an outfielder who’ll need to stay on the roster the whole season and currently replaces Grossman as the outfield’s primary lefty bat. There are also multiple young outfielders the A’s have been developing that are almost ready, specifically Seth Brown and Luis Barrera, who could force their way onto the roster in 2021. Oakland will still need a lefty-hitting outfielder if they’re concerned about Tom’s ability to step into Grossman’s shoes, which could be a legitimate issue considering Tom has yet to make his major-league debut, but as a 26-year-old Rule 5 pick and facing a financial crunch, it would be the A’s style to see if they have something in Tom before committing any additional financial resources to the outfield, just like they’ve done with recent Rule 5 picks Canha and Vimael Machin.
Replacing outgoing players is among the chief issues every team faces every year, and as always, the team will need to balance the coming season with the future, even more so now with the future of the organization tied so closely to a Howard Terminal project that has had scant updates since March and can reasonably be expected to be delayed by at least a year, maybe two. The team taking the field next year at this moment, though, is already in position to contend for a title next year. The starting staff is set, the lineup has stars and studs littered throughout the lineup, and after getting past the first round of the playoffs in 2020, the A’s should be starving for success in 2021.
