The Right Time To Demote Zack Gelof Is Now

Fans tend to have knee-jerk reactions and those are not helpful. Zack Gelof proved, in 2023, how good he could be in the big leagues and earned the right to work through “sophomore slump” difficulties without looking over his shoulder to see if an 0 for 8 might get him booted off the roster.

That being said, sometimes a confluence of factors meets at the same point and right now that point has come for Gelof. Only in the same way Lawrence Butler needed — and benefited from — something from a “kick in the pants” to a “reset” and just as the same fate fell previously on Seth Brown, Nick Allen, Ryan Noda, and Jordan Diaz.

It’s not personal and it’s not suggestive that the A’s have given up, in any way, on their prize 2Bman. But here are the points I see connecting to a demotion as the A’s travel to Anaheim to start a 4 game series with the Angels...

Long Enough Leash

Gelof’s leash has been long. He has been given half a season (81 games played) and 328 plate appearances to try to work through his problems. Putting together the short ups and longer downs, he is batting .198/.261/.372 with a 34.5% K rate.

Game Of Adjustments

Gelof is not making the necessary changes to his game, opting instead to try the same thing which has failed before but not seeing any improvement. (He is batting .177/.278/.387 in July, similar to his season stats.)

Gelof’s swing is big and violent, and he has not found a shorter, simpler, or more contact-oriented swing — not with 2 strikes, not ever. Today he struck out 3 times and the one time he put a ball in play came with 2 on, 0 out, in an at bat where he seemingly tried to pull every pitch even though his best swing is his “right-center field” stroke. In that at bat, Gelof bounced into a 6-4-3 DP.

Sending Gelof to AAA sends the message that the status quo is not good enough, that he needs to wake up and actually put in work to shift his approach, his swing, his mindset. It worked wonders for Butler, seemed to bring Brown back to life, and got Diaz’ attention in a good way.

Corresponding Move

There is a natural corresponding roster move that helps the big league team while Gelof is getting himself right: Darell Hernaiz is 3 games into his rehab at AAA with game 4 tonight. Hernaiz has gone 6 for 11 and his return to the A’s would give them a true shortstop on the diamond again.

Max Schuemann, who has done a yeoman’s job but is stretched as a shortstop (he has been charged with 10 errors in 64 games/60 starts), would be able to slide over to 2B where he is better suited. This keeps Schuemann’s bat in the lineup, where his .260/.353/.377 (116 wRC+) line has made him one of MLB’s most accomplished #9 hitters.

A Move Only For Now

Gelof is a big part of the A’s future plans as well he should be. But moves that are made are for now, not always forever. At some point Gelof, presumably, will force his way back up.

Hopefully in 3 weeks time, Jacob Wilson will return to claim shortstop. What that means for other players such as Hernaiz and Schuemann is unknown — everything depends on who is healthy, who is performing at any given time.

So this article is only about right now. Right now Wilson is a non-factor, on the IL with a hamstring injury that will keep him out the rest of the month and into August. Right now Gelof needs a reset, a message, and some work, and conveniently right now a shortstop is healthy again while the A’s current shortstop is better off playing on the other side of the bag anyway.

I don’t know what the A’s will do, but I’m pretty sure I know what they should do. Let’s see how it actually plays out.