Oakland A’s pitcher JP Sears delivers against the Los Angeles Angeles in the first inning at the Big A in Anaheim on Sun Oct 1, 2023. Sears and the A’s went through the worst season in Oakland history. (AP News photo)

2023 The Worst Year for the A’s in Oakland

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

The bad season for the A’s combined with the news this year the team is moving to Las Vegas, makes it the worst year ever in Oakland A’s baseball history.

The 2023 Oakland A’s season ended in Anaheim, on October 1, with their 112 loss of the season. They ended with 50-112. At the bottom of the American League and Major League Baseball in the win and lost column, as in most statistical departments, obviously including attendance. The 112 games lost is ten more than 2022 when they lost 102 games. In 1979 Oakland lost 108 games, so there have been other bad years for the ball club since they moved from Kansas City to Oakland in1968.

However, in 55 years of playing in Oakland, this is the first year that the team is planning to leave the city of Oakland, build a new stadium in Las Vegas which they hope to inaugurate on opening day 2028. The combination of bad performance on the field and the eventual departure of this franchise without a doubt makes it the worst year.

Some take solace that they won 50 games, but that is not what history will remember this team for, because when you end with 50 wins during a 162 game season, everybody knows what happened.

Bright spots: Young position players like Zack Gelof, Ryan Noda, Brent Rooker, Esteury Ruíz, Jordan Díaz, Shea Langeliers, have shown they are major league talent. Their pitching is also very young, and the club will need some stability forming a rotation, they have some very good arms.

Lefty J.P Sears started 32 games for the team, he was their most consistent pitcher. Sears ended with a record of 5-14 and 4.54 earned run average, hardy a positive record, but what more could he do with a team that lost 112 games? Pitchers are many times the benefactors of the teams they pitched for, but also their numbers suffer when they pitch for a bad team. It is part of baseball.

Zack Greinke ended the season with a record of 2-15 and 5.06 ERA for the last place Kansas City Royals in the central division. The Royals ended with a 56-106 record, and Greinke a potential Hall of Fame pitcher, could not escape the poor performance of his team. A pitcher with over 200 wins (granted at the end of his career) was not helped at all by his team performance. Zack Greinke said before the season, this was his last year.

What the A’s need? They have to find a way to build a decent rotation, guys like JP Sears who gets the ball every fifth day, has that unique consistence is badly needed on a young club like the A’s.. People should know that this 2023 team have some great young arms, the ones I think are the best: Kyle Mueller, Luis Medina, Mason Miller,Joey Estes and Joe Boyle, they all need more seasoning, but they have the tools. In years past when the A’s were “rebuilding”, a most favorite term, they also signed a veteran pitcher than can get outs, guys like a Jon Lester, Bartolo Colón.

They do not have to take a loan to sign pitchers like that, but guys that will help a very young pitching staff and they bring a lot to the table, with their experience, and in Colón’s case I remember one A’s pitcher telling me, “this guy is great to have because he has been around and he still throws strikes and he is mentor to the kids that are trying to become good pitchers”.

What will happen? Nobody knows. There will be changes, some players will not be back, others will be traded, maybe some new faces will be signed and that could bring another dimension to the 2024 Oakland Athletics.

I am not going to write here about the move to Las Vegas, because everybody have their own opinion, it has become a very emotional issue, in some cases incendiary. It is a salad of owners, construction companies, labor unions, school teachers unions, politicians, lawyers and one Commissioner, what they call a “mix salad”.

So, I like to end with this quote.

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.” Helen Keller

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the lead play by play voice on the Oakland A’s Spanish radio network at 1010 KIQI San Francisco and 990 KATD Pittsburg and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com