What was expected?

The team was expected to lose and continue to make a Major League-esque style exit out of Oakland (without the inspiring winning season).

They brought in Alex Wood from the Giants and traded for Ross Stripling, also from the Giants. Osvaldo Bido, Abraham Toro and Mitch Spence rounded out the players who were acquired and had any fantasy relevance. Essentially the focus has been, and will remain, on the future of the ball club. They are rebuilding with a focus on the 2028 season, where they will play in Las Vegas.

This team lost over 200 games in the previous two years entering 2024 and the expectation was they would go out of Oakland with a wimper.

How did it go?

Almost exactly to script. They started out fairly OK through April… then they started losing and reality set in.

Now they are just the “Athletics” with no official city on their team name (no hard feelings, right Sacramento?)

This season was not totally lost from a baseball perspective as they got some nice seasons out of some key young players, especially in the lineup.

The young Athletics finished 15th in wRC+ (101) on the year and were tenth in isolated power (.159).

They did it on the backs of some young bats like Brent Rooker (164 wRC+), Lawrence Butler (130 wRC+), JJ Bleday (120 wRC+) and Shea Langeliers (109 wRC+).

The pitching was another story. They finished with the 24th ranked ERA (4.37), 23rd ranked FIP (4.24), and the 7th ranked SIERA (4.31).

There were a couple of bright spots with the emergence of the aforementioned Bido and young stud closer Mason Miller. Starters like Mitch Spence and, JP Sears and Joey Estes each had spurts of fantasy viability, but none of them were a continued presence on many fantasy rosters this year.

Fantasy Stud?

The A’s certainly got some elite performances out of Miller and Butler, but the stud this year has to be Brent Rooker.

He was the third-ranked fantasy outfielder this season (per FanGraphs) after being drafted just inside the top-300. It is worth noting he only played in 14 games in the outfield, so he will just be UTIL eligible entering 2025.

Rooker followed up 2023’s 30 homer season with 39 this year to go with 82 runs and 112 RBI. The surprisingly not-so terrible offense definitely gave him a huge boost, allowing him to drive in 112.

Not only did he provide elite power and run production, he hit .293 with 11 steals. He walked at a 9.6% walk rate, which gave him added value in leagues that count OBP.

The wOBA was .383 and the wRC+ was 164.

Rooker was great.

Fantasy Dud?

While plenty of pitchers were massive ‘duds’ no player had high expectations and failed to meet them as much as Zack Gelof.

He was the 13th second baseman drafted and was just awful.He was coming off a fun first 300 MLB plate appearances in 2023 were he hit 14 homers and stole 14 bases with a 132 wRC+.

Well, he did not do that this year. He slashed .211/.270/.362 with a wOBA of .276 and a wRC+ of 82.

The silver lining is he did hit 17 homers and stole 25 bases.

But that is not enough to cover up the stank of his batting average, especially considering where he was drafted.

He has a ton of supporting talent in this lineup and if he can find that magic from 2023, he could be in line for plenty of runs and RBI. He can be a legit 5-category dude, he just has to find what was working in 2023.

Fantasy Surprise?

Just MLB.com’s 11th ranked prospect in the A’s system in 2023, Lawrence Butler made a name for himself in 2024. In 421 plate appearances, he hit 22 homers, stole 18 bases while scoring 63 and driving in 57. He hit .262 with a .345 wOBA and 130 wRC+.

He came into the majors without hitting 100 or better in wRC+ in his 200 or so Triple-A plate appearances, making his explosion just a bit more surprising.

After nurmerous years with a 30%+ strikeout rate through the minors, he really started to cut back on them in 2023 and that carried over into the majors with a respectable 23.9% strikeout rate in 2024 as a big leaguer.

He is due to be a key piece in the middle of an A’s lineup that is going to be fearsome in the very near future.

Oh, and playing in a minor league ball park is going to give him (and all the other Sacramen… I mean just plain-ol’ Athletics’ players) added value in 2025.

Player Breakdowns:

Hitters

Brent Rooker – DH

Rooker hit 39 homers with a .293/.365/.562 slash line with a 164 wRC+ and .392 wOBA.

Was it legit?

Well…

• xwOBA .383 (96th percentile)
• xSLG – .570 (97th percentile)
• avgEV – 91.9 mph (89th percentile)
• Barrel rate – 16.6% (97th percentile)
• Hard-hit rate – 49.6% (92nd percentile)
• Launch angle/sweet spot – 38.3% (86th percentile)

The only ‘blemish’ from a statcast angle is the xBA was only.269 (78th percentile), a bit lower than the real .293.

Oh and he showed he can be a five-category dude with 11 steals

While the high strikeout rate is supported by the poor chase (31.0%) and whiff rates (34.1%), his solid walk rate of 9.6% is right along with his walk rates that we saw in the minor leauges.

A great sign of his maturing as a hitter is the increase in z-swing% from 64.3% in ’23 to 71.3% this year.

The only thing that kind of sucks is he will lack positional flexibility as he is only eligible for your UTIL spot. But that should not stop him from being drafted and seen as a valuable member of a fantasy team in ’25.

Lawrence Butler – OF

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