For some it’s time for rest and relaxation, for others rehab and strengthening. And for a few players, this off-season is an opportunity to address a key weakness or limitation in their current game. Here are some “If you focus on just one thing...” tips for a few of our Sacramento bound Athletics...
Zack Gelof
The swing has simply gotten too long and violent, and the result is an ability to catch up to fastballs in the zone combined with the need to start the swing so early to compensate that Gelof is terribly vulnerable to chase sliders.
The answer lies in an adjustment Gelof seemed unable to make in real time during the season, but which an off-season allows quiet time to address: rediscover that shorter and more fluid “right-center field” swing that made him one of the league’s best young hitters in 2023.
The good news is that even leading the world in K rate and disappointing us all (and undoubtedly himself even more), Gelof’s 2024 season produced 17 HR, 25 SB in 28 attempts, and terrific base running when he had to showcase it.
But there’s no sugarcoating a .212 BA, a .270 OBP, or a 34.4% K rate, and the path to success lies in the swing path to the pitch in a game where split seconds make all the difference.
Shea Langeliers
Unfortunately, Langeliers is not limited to one flaw in his game as he has plenty of issues both at the plate and behind it. A .224/.288 hitter in 2024, sadly this represented improvements in both areas from his rookie season.
Meanwhile, as a pitch framer Shea improved as well — but only from dead last to “well, not dead last anyway”. So we acknowledge all these issues while choosing to focus on a separate one as a skill that can be developed with hundreds of in between season reps.
Langaliers has terrible form when attempting to block balls that are not directly in front of him. To see proper technique just watch the post-season games and see Austin Wells, as one example, but pretty much any catcher as another, sliding laterally to try to get his body involved in the pursuit.
Langeliers commonly keeps his body static and stabs at errant pitches to the backhand side, and this is objectively terrible form. This is a correctable flaw that could help elevate the catcher’s defensive game while he learning how to hold pitches for the umpire to see (seriously, how hard is that???) and better comprehending how “guessing wrong” is a terrible hitting strategy.
Lawrence Butler
Butler’s second half (.300/.345/.553 with 13 HR and 12/12 SB in 61 games) was electric and one has to remember that it’s unlikely he will replicate it in 2025. But offensively and on the bases, he is poised to be an impact hitter for years to come.
What Butler needs to dedicate himself to this off-season is improving his play in RF so as to become an asset on “both sides of the ball”. Currently he is raw, with talent but not necessarily skills.
The metrics view Butler currently as about average, partly because he can sometimes outrun his mistakes, but to the Eyeball Scout his reads, jumps, and routes need a lot of work.
The good news is that Butler is, by all accounts, very teachable, capable of making adjustments, and hard-working and so given that he is sufficiently athletic to play a solid outfield he should be able to up his game another level or two in RF.
The point here is that this improvement is needed, as the status quo is that Butler gives back some of his offensive value in RF rather than being a force both in the tops and bottoms of innings. Get to work, Law!
Joey Estes
Unless he can enroll in Driveline and take the Jared Koenig “improve your fastball 8 MPH overnight” class, Estes, with his current arsenal, will always be a barrage of HRs waiting to happen.
It’s great that he is confident, aggressive, fills the strike zone and has a bulldog mentality — but all that will only get you so far if the stuff doesn’t play enough. And for Estes, he works at the top of the strike zone relentlessly with almost no margin for error and pays a steep price for his small location mistakes.
I know it’s not easy to just “add a pitch” that you don’t have. If it were that simple, every pitcher would do it. But the reality is this: you can’t thrive in the big leagues with a ground ball percentage of 24.6% (24.9% career).
If I were Estes I would take a page from rotation mates Mitch Spence and JP Sears and try to develop a sinker that gives him a pitch he can throw down in the zone without having to try to miss bats, a pitch that can coax a few more ground balls and involve his infielders more, fans in the bleachers less.
Whether Estes is capable of developing a decent sinker is anybody’s guess. What I am more confident in saying is that the current arsenal just won’t work as is so start playing with grips and see if you can arrive to spring training with a way to get that GB% at least into the 40s.
Thoughts on these players and these skills? Or others you want to suggest for their one piece of “off season homework”? Do tell...
