Series Preview: Cleveland Guardians at Oakland Athletics
The inaugural series of the 2024 Guardians season begins tonight
The Cleveland Guardians will begin their season in Oakland tonight, facing off against a team that won 50 games in 2023 and is set to move to Las Vegas as quickly as their shifty owner can skip town.
The 2023 Oakland Athletics - 50-112, -339 Run Differential
Key Offseason Additions: Abraham Toro, IF, Trevor Gott, RHP, Ross Stripling, RHP, Alex Wood, LHP, and Scott Alexander, LHP.
Key Offseason Subtractions: Tony Kemp, OF, Trevor May, RHP, and Drew Rucinski, RHP.
Notes on the Athletics: ZiPS projected the Athletics for a likely outcome of 60-68 wins this offseason, settling on 63 in the latest iteration of the projections. Their farm system is also firmly ranked in the bottom three of baseball by just about every public source. The team is just biding time until they can move to Las Vegas and the main interest point in watching them this season is seeing what creative ways their fans will find to protest owner John Fisher’s decision to move the team to Las Vegas (if he can get a stadium built there) in what is set to be their last season playing at the Oakland Coliseum (moving to a destination unknown for years 2025-2027). They are a bad team, in a bad situation, and I feel badly for their fans and players.
Projected starters
Thursday, March 28th, 10:10pm ET
RHP Shane Bieber vs. LHP Alex Wood
Friday, March 29th, 9:40pm ET
LHP Logan Allen vs. RHP Ross Stripling
Saturday, March 30th 4:07pm ET
RHP Tanner Bibee vs. LHP JP Sears
Sunday, March 31st, 4:07pm ET
RHP Carlos Carrasco vs. RHP Paul Blackburn
Lineup highlights
Oakland Hitters to Watch - For whatever small amount of meaning Spring Training stats are worth, J.J. Bleday 169 wRC+, Lawrence Butler 149 wRC+, Shea Langeliers 149 wRC+, Zack Gelof 143 wRC+ and Abraham Toro 141 wRC+ all had excellent camps for the Athletics. Zack Geloff with a 133 wRC+, Brent Rooker with a 123 wRC+ and Ryan Noda with a 120 wRC+ were their brightspots as hitters in 2023.
Cleveland Hitters to Watch - Again, dangerous to read anything into Spring Training, but five hitters on the Guardians had especially great Springs at the plate: Austin Hedges 159 wRC+ (likely showing right away how meaningless these stats are), Will Brennan 145 wRC+, David Fry 141 wRC+, Andres Gimenez 130 wRC+ and Tyler Freeman 124 wRC+. Last year’s best Guardians’ hitters currently on the team were, of course, Jose Ramirez with 123 wRC+, Josh Naylor with 128 wRC+ and Bo Naylor with 124 wRC+.
Oakland Pitchers to Watch - Alex Wood at 4.10 FIP, Ross Stripling at 4.18 FIP and J.P. Sears at 4.34 FIP projected by ZiPS for 2024 seem set to be the starting rotation leaders. Closer Mason Miller had a good spring for the Athletics with 16.43 K/9 and a 1.74 FIP, but the less said about the rest of the staff’s spring performances, the better. The bullpen outside of Miller, especially, does not look promising.
Cleveland Pitchers to Watch - Shane Bieber at 3.54 FIP, Triston McKenzie at 3.81 FIP and Tanner Bibee at 4.01 FIP are projected as the rotation leaders by ZiPS for 2024. Bieber at 2.76 FIP and McKenzie at 3.94 FIP were the only starters to have particularly good springs, but Cade Smith with 1.41 FIP and 12 K/9 and Hunter Gaddis with 1.85 FIP and 13.11 K/9 impressed in the pen, both making it after injuries to Trevor Stephan, Sam Hentges and James Karinchak and illnesses for Xzavion Curry and Ben Lively.
Links to Oakland’s 40-man roster and depth chart.
Links to Cleveland’s 40-man roster and depth chart.
Note that the Guardians will be getting old friend Carlos Carrasco and newcomers Tyler Beede and Peter Strzelecki on the 40-man prior to tonight’s game (likely through 60-day IL stints, for Trevor Stephan and possibly Daniel Espino, Sam Hentges or James Karinchak, depending on their status and team preferences).
Analysis: It’s the opening series of the year, four games of 162, and it’s best not to make any judgment about any team until around Memorial Day. With those caveats aside, the Guardians would surely like to start their season by winning a series in Oakland against a team projected to be pretty awful. It will be emotional for Guardians’ manager Stephen Vogt to return to his hometown area and the place where he was beloved as a player for many years and where he finished his career with a home run after being announced at the plate by his children in 2022. Let’s hope the boys rally around their new skipper and get him at least two but preferably three or even four wins.
Let us know your predictions and expecations for the series in the comments below!