A's Look to Put Astros in Rear-View Mirror

Just making the playoffs is no longer good enough for the Oakland Athletics, who have set their sites on the AL West title and beyond.

There is nothing quite like making it to the Major League Baseball playoffs year after year.

Or is there?

The Oakland A’s have been there the last two seasons. Both times the A’s posted 97 wins in the regular season, then got bounced in the one-game American League Wild Card.

It’s part of a longer trend. Three times in the last six years the A’s have made the playoffs as a Wild Card. Three times they’ve been sent packing after that one game.

Small wonder then that the A’s are setting their sites higher.

Just getting into the playoffs by finishing second in the AL West is no longer enough. The A’s are telling Bay Area media encamped in Mesa that they have had enough of eating the Houston Astros’ dust. If Oakland is going to play a winner take all game, they’d much rather have it in the AL Division Series, the AL Championship Series or, dare we say it, the World Series.

“I knew we were good last year, but now I feel like we have a legitimate chance to catch and pass the Astros,” third baseman Matt Chapman said.

The Astros loom large, not just because they’ve won the last three AL West titles, but because of the sign-stealing scandal that has made them the Houston Asterisks in many corners of the baseball world.

That isn’t overlooked in the A’s clubhouse. After all, it was former Astros starting pitcher Mike Fiers, now the expected Opening Day Oakland starter against the Twins on March 26, who blew the whistle on the Astros’ cheating ways.

For the A’s, however, even had the scandal not surfaced, there is the feeling that 2020 is Oakland’s time.

They’ve finished a strong second place each of the last two seasons, and, as manager Bob Melvin puts it, “the expectations are higher this year.”

Chapman, who homered in Thursday’s 5-1 win over the Dodgers, Oakland’s seventh consecutive Cactus League victory, doesn’t concern himself with the scandal issue.

“We can’t concern ourselves with that,” Chapman told NBC Sports-Bay Area this week. “Regardless of whatever happened, that’s a thing of past. Hopefully from here on out the game is fair and that’s all we can ask for.

“This year from a team standpoint we are just focused on ourselves. We’ve got a lot of guys returning. A lot of our young pitchers are getting more mature. A lot of our hitters are getting more polished. And our bullpen seems to get better and better.”

Asked if the A’s are better than the Astros this time around – Houston has lost starter Gerrit Cole to free agency, someone not easy to replace after his 20-5 season of 2019 – Melvin chooses his words carefully.

“Well, we’re better (as a team),” Melvin said early in camp. “We’ve won 97 two years in a row. The first year was a little unexpected, but we backed that up. We proved things to ourselves. So, going into the season, we’re looking to do a little bit more. That would be battling with the Astros and hopefully winning our division this year.”

Fiers, who threw four scoreless innings against the Dodgers Thursday, says he’s looking forward to the competition. And while he says passing the Astros is the immediate goal, the World Series is the ultimate destination.

“Coming back this year, we have the same goal in mind,” the veteran right-hander said. “(We have) the same core group, so we know we can win. It’s all about getting it done on the field. And really taking care of business between the lines.

“We still have that hunger. It’s not like it’s gone away, it’s not like we can’t do this. We have a high goal in mind, and that’s obviously the World Series. We’re very capable of doing that, but like a lot of teams, it’s about staying healthy and getting it done between the lines. A lot of teams are good on paper, but it’s about putting in the work and being consistent throughout the season.”

The remedy to easing that hunger, right fielder Stephen Piscotty said, is simple: win the American League West outright.

“We’re hoping obviously to take down the division this year and make it a little easier going forward,” Piscotty said. “That’s everyone’s goal this year. All our momentum is moving in the right direction.”

Piscotty likes the A’s veteran presence, but he says the difference maker in Oakland may be the youngest of the players, including starting pitchers A.J. Puk and Jesus Luzardo.

“We have so many young guys contributing,” he says. “It’s really cool. They are so young, but we are going to be counting on them.”

Shortstop Marcus Semien says it's up to the veterans to bring the kids on the roster up to speed, and he says the veterans are up to it. 

"We look great on paper, but this is a great league," Semien said. "We play in a great division that has added a lot of pieces. So, we need to stay on it. We have a great lineup. We have young pitching now, and a bullpen that’s experienced and will help the young guys out." 

First baseman Matt Olson adds that “obviously there is a little sour taste in out mouth after last year,” he said. “(This spring) we have a little breathe of fresh air here. We’ll change it up.

“We have the potential (to get to the top), absolutely. We have a lot of guys coming back who have been here the last few years. They have gotten more experience under their belts, and it’s going to turn into great things.

“We are in a great spot this year, the best since I’ve been here. We want to take it and run with it.”