Three Things To Watch For The Athletics In June

If a turnaround begins, it begins here

The Athletics wrapped up their May on the sourest of notes, losing the final five games of the month to a cap a 7-21 May that dropped the club from second place in the AL West all the way down to the cellar, where they currently reside at 10 games back of the division-leading Seattle Mariners.

They then began the month of June by finishing getting swept by the Blue Jays to drop the Athletics all the way down to 23-37, the third-worst record in the American League through two months. The season feels like it’s slipping away but there are still four months left of baseball to be played. Any turn around would need to start now, in June. If the club wants to claw their way back into the playoff race these will be some key things to keep an eye on for the next few weeks.

1. Can the bullpen figure it out?

This is the biggest issue currently facing the club. The Athletics’ relief corps currently owns the worst bullpen ERA in the entire sport with a 6.17 ERA. They have the fourth-most strikeouts but that’s because they’re also fifth in total innings pitched because of the instability in the starting rotation. All-Star closer Mason Miller was electric during April but has allowed runs in four of his nine May appearances and seen his ERA shoot from 1.50 all the way up to 5.49 along with a pair of blown saves. It’s fair to say he won’t be returning to the Midsummer Classic this July.

He’s been far from the only culprit behind the group’s struggles. Righty Justin Sterner was arguably the team’s best reliever for the first month of the season and leads the club in appearances but has been shaky in recent outings, including three straight relief appearances where he’s allowed runs. Mitch Spence has had his moments but is sporting a 4.38 ERA on the year, and the same goes for rookie right-hander Grant Holman (4.74 ERA). Lefty TJ McFarland is currently on the IL along with Jose Leclerc but neither were having quality seasons before their injuries and don’t seem like an obvious upgrade over the current group.

The only players in the bullpen with a sub-4 ERA right now are Tyler Ferguson and Hogan Harris. The 31-year-old Ferguson is second on the team in relief outings and has a 3.74 ERA this season. Harris meanwhile only has 15 relief appearances but has a team-leading 3.72 ERA on the year as the second lefty in the bullpen. These two in their own rights are having solid seasons but it says something about the state of the Athletics’ bullpen that those are the numbers that lead the unit.

The team has tried shaking it up with promotions of rookies like Anthony Maldonado, Matt Krook, Carlos Duran, Elvis Alvarado, and have now brought in lefty veteran Sean Newcomb to shore up the relief unit, though he may eventually get bumped into a starting role. There aren’t many other young relief options down at the farm either. Right-hander Ben Bowen looks like the next exciting option to get a chance with the club as he has a 1.08 ERA in 17 appearances for the Aviators. One arm isn’t going to change the direction of the bullpen though and any improvement will need to come from arms already on the roster. They’ve all seen success in the majors in the past so they’re capable of producing positive results. Now the team needs them to deliver and not let easy wins slip through the club’s hands.

2. How does the team handle these injuries?

The club was strangely fortunate in the injury department through the first month of the season. Second baseman Zack Gelof was lost to a freak accident when he got hit on the hand with a pitch before the season started, but other than that and his setback a couple of weeks ago the team has been remarkably healthy on most fronts on the position player side of things.

Now in the span of a week the team has lost their prized young first baseman Nick Kurtz to a strained left hip flexor, third baseman Gio Urshela to a strained left hamstring, and now seemingly Miguel Andujar will join them on the IL with an oblique strain he suffered in yesterday’s contest:

It’s almost certain that there will be a move to place him on the injured list tomorrow morning or afternoon. That’s now three quarters of the starting infield now on the IL and the replacements haven’t stepped up. CJ Alexander looks like the main option at the hot corner now that both Urshela and Andujar are out but he’s gone just 3-for-13 with six strikeouts since his promotion. Outfielders Denzel Clarke has one home run and a couple of steals but otherwise isn’t hitting much yet. Fellow rookie Logan Davidson has just two hits so far, which is one more than Drew Avans has.

The club made a major shakeup to the roster last week when they made several roster moves all at once in an effort to spark something in the team. And up to this point it hasn’t looked like it’s worked. Now that we have injuries to throw into the mix the club almost doesn’t have any other option than to let these young players sink or swim, and with them the team. Or the club could recall either or both of JJ Bleday and Seth Brown, two players who were on the roster just a week ago. Luckily for the A’s the injuries to Kurtz, Gelof, Urshela and Andujar don’t seem season-ending and the club just needs to tread water until reinforcements arrive.

3. Can anyone stop Jacob Wilson?

The 23-year-old Wilson made his big league debut last season but after an injury only managed to play in 28 games. It was enough to get his feet wet and let fans see the enormous potential in his contact-oriented approach at the plate, but it also wasn’t enough for him to lose his rookie status heading into 2025.

Well here we are about a third of the way through the season and Wilson has more than delivered on his first-round draft pedigree. He’s currently third in all of baseball in batting average while hitting at or near the top of the A’s lineup for the majority of the year. He’s been a pain for nearly every pitcher he faces as he’s able to consistently make contact and avoid strikeouts. That’s been his style of play since he was drafted, while he rose through the minors, and now in the majors. And it’s working to terrific results for the team as he’s been the club’s best hitter all season long.

There have been rookie classes where a player would have won any other year if he wasn’t also in the same year as another superstar. The A’s saw this happen in 2012 when Yoenis Cespedes helped spark the Athletics to an unlikely division championship that year based off his strong power and speed combo, as well as his cannon of an arm in left field. Unfortunately that was also the year that future Hall of Famer Mike Trout made his big league debut and even though Cespedes had a fantastic year, there was no doubt it was Trout’s award.

Wilson doesn’t look like he’ll have that problem here in 2025. Wilson is not only third in the entire sport in batting average behind stars Aaron Judge and Freddie Freeman, he’s also leading all AL rookies with seven long balls. His closest competition for the award is in New York as Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez is having a fine rookie year himself. He’s slashing .247/.346/.420 with six homers and eight stolen bases. In many years that sort of production over a full season might be enough to win the award but in almost every category Wilson’s statistics are better than almost every other rookie in the American League.

Now, there are still four months of baseball to go and that’s an eternity in this sport. An injury to Wilson could crop up and take him out of the running altogether. Or Dominguez could ride a power surge and the New York spotlight/playoff race to highlight his impact better than Wilson, who seems likely to be watching October baseball from the couch. It just doesn’t seem like any pitcher is going to figure out a hole in Wilson’s approach at the plate. If this is what Wilson is doing in his first full season as a major leaguer then imagine what he’ll do with some more experience under his belt. An easy runaway win for the AL Rookie of the Year may end up being just the start of Wilson’s awards shelf. Another month of this type of production and you may as well wrap up the award before the All-Star Break.