Oakland A's 2023 Season Preview
It is going to be a long season in Oakland. The grind of a Major League Baseball season affects everybody differently, but going to the ballpark in the midst of a 100-loss season cannot be fun, especially with the cloud of a move to Las Vegas hanging over the Athletics. They are the only AL team projected for at least 100 losses based on the season win total odds and may be every bit as bad as the forecasts indicate.
Manager Mark Kotsay played for seven different teams across 17 seasons in the big leagues. He played in all of 26 postseason games, including seven with the 2006 A’s. He knows life on some bad teams, but the A’s were actually quite good while he was there. In fact, they were quite good with three straight playoff appearances from 2018-20 and from 2012-14. In between, those teams were 68-94, 69-93 and 75-87.
Oakland won 86 games in 2021, but fell short of the playoffs and then got into complete rebuild mode. They bottomed out at 60-102 last season, finishing with over 100 losses for the first time since 1979. If the recent pattern holds and three years is the requisite time to retool on the fly, the midpoint will come some time this season. Add the A’s to the list of teams where wins and losses don’t matter this season. It’s all about individual development.