Bob Melvin for Manager of the Year
This morning, we ran a post outlining why Kevin Cash is deserving of the AL Manager of the year crown over his AL East counterparts. He’s a fine manager, doing a pretty good job turning baseball conventions on their side, managing to turn Bad, Broke, and Uninspiring into OK, Broke, and Curious. The main case for Cash is that he’s done a good job with little to work with. But another low-payroll team, with low expectations at the season’s beginning is now expected to make the playoffs. Bob Melvin and the Oakland Athletics are riding a second-half surge, to a projected 97 wins and the fourth-best record in baseball.
The Cash narrative has at its advantage the club’s payroll. Oakland ranks 28th in Major League Baseball, one spot above Tampa Bay. The closest the A’s have to a superstar is Khris Davis, who may just as well be identified as “not that Chris Davis.” Khris Davis is perennially underrated despite posting 40+ home runs each season. The other $5-million-and-over guys on the roster are Jonathan Lucroy, Matt Joyce, and Jed Lowrie. These guys have a combined 4 All-Star game appearances. They’re good players, usually, but not household names to casual fans.
Oakland gets yet more anonymous looking at its starting pitchers. Sean Manaea currently is the only qualifier on the staff, and he may will miss the rest of the season. I dare you to name 3 of their starting pitchers.
While you think about that, let’s marvel at how he has extracted value out of an outfield full of nobody’s. Mark Cahna, Ramon Laureano, and Nick Martini have combined for 3.9 WAR / 1.8 Wins Above Average. Laureano and Martini are rookies who ranked in the 10-20 range of the A’s prospect lists, while Cahna entered his age-29 2018 season with a .700 OPS and zero career WAR. Manager Bob Melvin has mixed and matched this crew to supplement the “stars” of the roster.
2018 has been Matt Chapman‘s coming out party. The third baseman currently sits at 7.9 WAR and will get MVP votes this offseason.
But back to the rotation. Mike Fiers, Trevor Cahill, Chris Bassitt, Daniel Mengden, and Edwin Jackson are the guys currently in the rotation. This is the rotation of a contender? This is the rotation for the A’s, the current wild card team. It only makes Melvin’s job seem that much more commendable.
While Cash has started 18 different pitchers in a game this year, in part because of his use of “The Opener”, Melvin has started 14 different pitchers (in part because of his use of “the Opener.”)
The A’s are heading to the playoffs thanks to a host of players outperforming expectations. Matt Chapman will get MVP consideration, but in a field headlined by Mookie Betts, Jose Ramirez, and Mike Trout, Chapman will finish as an also-ran. The same fate shouldn’t befall Bob Melvin. This A’s team is heading to the playoffs in no small part because of Bob Melvin.
