Inside the Skill That Turned Carlos Cortes into an A's Success Story

At the tail end of the 2022 season, the Athletics claimed outfielder Conner Capel off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals, and about ten days later he was up in the big leagues finishing out the season in Oakland. At that point in his career, he'd racked up just 17 at-bats in the bigs with St. Louis, going 3-for-17 (.176) with a .211 OBP.

In his brief stint with the A's that September, he ended up batting .371 with a .425 OBP and two home runs in 13 games. Capel was on the A's Opening Day roster a year later, but ended up spending the majority of 2023 in the minor leagues, and he elected free agency that winter.

The A's signed Carlos Cortes as a minor-league free agent last winter, and he said that there were other teams that had touched base to say they're interested in signing him, but there were no firm offers or invites to big-league camp.

First career HR for Carlos Cortes!! pic.twitter.com/FQHyNgo4Iq
— Athletics (@Athletics) September 7, 2025

"The A's called on the first day of free agency and said 'hey we want you. We want to invite you to big-league spring training.'" He talked over the offer with his wife and agent, and they decided that the A's provided him with the best opportunity to get to the The Show.

When the club called up Cortes, another late-blooming left-handed bat that was off to a hot start, there was some reason for skepticism. He was called up on July 22, and ended up fitting into a bench role with occasional starts mixed in as a member of the outfield.

Over the final two-plus months, he earned 99 plate appearances and hit .309 with a .323 OBP, including four home runs, 14 RBI, and a 132 wRC+ (100 is league average). It's an impressive stat line, but heading into 2026, is it repeatable?

Before the season ended, Athletics on SI asked him a bit about his process and how he gets ready, and the answers he provided made it clear that this production is something he can continue to provide.

We asked Cortes how he stays ready. Does he focus on the few pitchers on a team's staff that he could be facing and does that help him to focus on the task at hand?

"That's exactly what it is. The week starts, we have a three-game set and all the pitchers are up, and I'm like, 'I know I'm gonna face that guy. Two of these guys I'm gonna face 100%.' and I game plan like three days in advance. If I don't play until Sunday, or I don't face [him] until Sunday, I already have a game plan of what's gonna happen.

"I know what he's gonna throw. I don't know exactly, but I have an idea based off of how the week went, like I got a lot of changeups—he doesn't throw a lot of changeups, but he's going to throw a few to me this at-bat."

He also used some video and some data in his research process, focusing more on video if he's facing a starting pitcher that day. If he's going into the game a little later as a pinch-hitter, then he takes a different approach.

"I'm watching how he's attacking Law (Lawrence Butler), how he's attacking Sodey (Tyler Soderstrom). I'm not saying I'm as good as those guys, but everyone gets pitched similarly between lefty and righty."

He'll then take what he's seeing in those at-bats and talk about how a certain pitch is looking with guys like Law, so he's combining his game plan going in with the data he's studied with what he's seeing, and what other left-handers that have faced the pitcher he's likely to face are seeing.

It's a lot of input that goes into this process, but the results sure spoke for themselves in 2025. Cortes is a great fit in the clubhouse, and he should be an excellent option for the A's on their roster in 2026 in a similar type of role.

Not a bad debut season for him at all.