The Oakland A’s have played six games so far, which constitutes 10% of their 2020 season. A week from Saturday, we’ll be at the one-quarter point, which is usually in mid-May. The halfway point is Aug. 24, a little over three weeks away.
With that kind of sprint ahead, there’s not as much time as usual to let slumping players work through their troubles with everyday at-bats. That doesn’t mean benching everyone who has an 0-fer day, but you can’t give them a month to find their rhythm either. Especially not when you have enough depth that there are quality hitters sitting on the bench.