The 2014 Oakland Athletics backed their way into an American League Wild Card spot after a blazing start to the regular season, going a mere 22-33 (.400) in August and September to fall from their perch as Major League Baseball's top team. After a brutal loss to the Kansas City Royals in an AL Wild Card game for the ages, A's general manager Billy Beane embarked on a radical makeover that saw plenty of fan favorites shipped off.
Will the makeover work? Is this a rebuilding year for Oakland? Here's our 3 Bold Predictions For The 2015 Oakland Athletics.
1. Brett Lawrie will thrive by the Bay
Lawrie was treated as a mere afterthought by many fans in the trade that shipped off 2014 MVP candidate Josh Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays, yet the 25-year-old third baseman has all the tools to break out as Donaldson's replacement at the corner in 2015. Lawrie has struggled with various injuries over the past few seasons, but now he appears healthy and ready to put a full season together. We think he will, slashing .270/.365/.450 with 17 home runs and 85 RBIs in 140+ games.
2. The trade deadline will be beyond interesting
In spite of a radical retooling process that led to the departures of the aforementioned Donaldson, Brandon Moss, Derek Norris, Jon Lester, Jeff Samardzija, and more, this A's team has just enough pop on offense to complement an underrated pitching staff (and Bob Melvin's wizardry from a managerial/platoon standpoint) from 1-to-12. Expect Beane to look for a power-hitting rental in early July if the A's are in the thick of contention, using some of the team's pitching depth to facilitate a trade...
That, or he'll dump off Ben Zobrist and Josh Reddick and leave us all scratching our heads, waiting for the other shoe to drop once again.
3. The A's will contend once again
It's going to be extremely tough to completely climb the ladder in an AL West with the Los Angeles Angeles and an improved Seattle Mariners club placing all their proverbial chips on the table. However, expect Oakland to tread water in the season's first two months before gelling in a June-August stretch that will have them within two games of a Wild Card spot (and three of the AL West lead) with ten to play.
From there, it'll be a crap shoot, with Oakland having all of their starting rotation horses (including AJ Griffin and Jarrod Parker) in full swing for a regular-season finish to remember.
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