MESA, Ariz. — Now one of the longest-tenured players left on the A’s roster, Chad Pinder has seen the team break apart its core around him this week.
Speaking to reporters at the spring training just after Matt Chapman had been traded — the third trade this week — Pinder recalled a conversation with then-hitting coach Darren Bush right after he was called up in 2016.
“He asked me in the cage, ‘What do you think will keep you here?’” Pinder recalled Wednesday. “I said, ‘I don’t know, playing well, hitting, being a good player.’ He said, ‘No, winning. When you win, you stay in a teepee together.’”
But not even winning — four winning seasons in a row, three playoff appearances, one AL West division crown — could keep this group together.
“Unfortunately, the cycle that happens here sometimes is, you run out of time,” Pinder said. “And we’re starting to see that a little bit.”
That cycle with this current core — led primarily by the two main stars, Chapman and first baseman Matt Olson — is officially over. Chapman is now a Blue Jay, Olson a Brave and pitcher Chris Bassitt a Met. Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, Ramon Laureano and others may follow in the coming days.
It didn’t matter that both Olson and Chapman said they wanted to stay in Oakland and, as Olson said after being traded Monday, “flip the cycles that have kind of been here in the past.” As they got more expensive and closer to free agency, the A’s organization decided it was time for them to go.
But for those who are still around, the growth together was beautiful to see.
“That group, when they got to the big leagues, wasn’t successful right away,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “But when they started to believe in themselves and their abilities, you saw that the transition and thus came the wins. And so there was a maturation process for that group, and they captured it and obviously, have become very successful major league players.”
They were really together for the first time at the major league level in the middle of 2017, with Pinder and Olson debuting late in 2016 but being called up for good in 2017 and Chapman debuting on June 15, 2017. After a series of trades on a last-place Oakland team, the “kids” took over as full-time starters in mid-August.
They initially took their lumps and lost eight in a row from Aug. 28-Sept. 5 of that year. But from that point to the end of the season, the A’s went 17-7 and outscored opponents 121-91. The highlight of the final stretch was a four-game sweep of the soon-to-be world champion Astros.
With that surge, the next four years followed suit: 316-230 overall record (.579 winning percentage) and three playoff appearances in a row from 2018-2020. But the Astros kept pace ahead of the A’s in 2018 and 2019, forcing Oakland into the wild card game each year, which they lost both times (at the Yankees in 2018, home against the Rays in 2019).
The 2020 season was set up to be the season for Oakland’s run, but the pandemic shortened the season to 60 games and expanded the playoffs, allowing more than half the league in. The A’s ran away with the AL West, winning the division by seven games, then beat the White Sox in a three-game wild card series. They lost in the divisional round to the division rival and defending AL champion Astros, who would not have been in the playoffs at all in a “normal” season.
The A’s kept the core together for one more season in 2021, even as Olson and Chapman hit their first year of arbitration. It seemed to be a wise move into August, as a seven-game win streak had the A’s at 67-48, leading the AL wild card race by four games and only 1.5 games behind the Astros in the AL West after Aug. 12.
But Oakland faltered from there as others surged, and a 12-15 September knocked them all the way down to eighth place in the AL overall, six games back of the AL wild card spots at season’s end. Not long after, the trade speculation kicked into high gear.
The lockout put those potential moves on hold for 99 days, but once the new collective bargaining agreement was ratified on March 10, the discussions picked up quickly.
It was three days before he was traded, but Matt Chapman knew he was on his way out when he talked to reporters Sunday. And he summarized the existence of this organization as succinctly as anyone could.
“It is a business, and it’s one of those things where you know that it’s going to happen eventually,” Chapman said. “Not everybody stays an A for life, you know?”
Pinder was the A’s second-round pick in 2013, one year after Olson was taken in the first round in 2012 and one year before Chapman was Oakland’s first-round selection in 2014. Pinder was Olson’s teammate for a full decade at various levels, and Chapman quickly caught up to those two, too.
The trio has grown up together, which makes the moves that much harder to swallow — even if they understand the business side of it.
“I know personally, it’s tough seeing two of my best friends go,” Pinder said. “But it’s part of it and I couldn’t be happier for both of them. To land where they did and the opportunity they’re going to have, to be in places where the talent they have is really going to be able to shine and be on the main stage.”
Pinder called Olson “the silent assassin, the guy who comes in, gets his work and leads by example.”
Chapman? Pinder called him “the vocal leader, the guy who gets up and grinds every single day he gets out on the field.” He was elected the team’s representative for the players association, the guy giving everyone updates on the CBA negotiations during the lockout. Both of their presences will be missed.
And while Kotsay gave this answer in response to a question about Chapman, it fits for Olson, too: “Matt’s going to a team that’s expected to win, compete for a title in a division. And he’s got an opportunity to impact that club.”
But to Pinder, who is likely to take the bulk of the time at third base in Chapman’s place, the impact of Chapman, Olson and Bassitt will still be felt in Oakland’s clubhouse, even as they’re off to their new ventures.
“When they check in on us, they’re going to want us to still play baseball the way that they, we, all the guys that have been here, built a foundation,” Pinder said. “My hope is that some of the younger guys have seen what they did, the pillars that they built, and saw all the work that they put in. The talent, the hours, the professionalism of how they went about their business.
“I can’t think of three better examples that young guys could learn from about what they do on and off the field.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com