Series Preview: Mariners (22-24) vs. Athletics (10-38)

Having gone 4-5 on the road these past ten days, the M’s come home today to face the best get-right crew in baseball: the Oakland Athletics. Mariners starters reliably keep games winnable; it’s up to the batters now to actually win them. I’m looking forward to José Caballero continuing to give the team reasons to start him at second – what are you looking forward to in this series?

Since the Mariners visited the Colosseum at the start of this month, Oakland has continued to plummet. They’ve lost four of five series in that span, two via sweep. Their run differential is -168! As a reminder from the previous series preview: 2023 is not an opportunity to focus on future promise for Oakland fans, however, since the team has officially announced an agreement to purchase land in Las Vegas for a new stadium, with the team intending to begin playing there in 2027. While the deal is far from done, this is a crushing betrayal for many fans, whose devotion has gone unrewarded for many years.

Not much has changed overall since last we saw the A’s in Oakland, but there could be lineup changes this series with Seth Brown’s impending return from the IL. The outfielder, one of only two good hitters for the A’s in 2022, will rejoin the team in Seattle after missing a month and a half with an oblique strain. Brown’s return is likely to improve the team’s performance, but it will also mean reduced playing time for younger, developing players. The two young players showing the most promise, who will certainly keep their playing time even with Brown’s return, are Esteury Ruiz and Brent Rooker. 24-year-old center fielder Ruiz leads the majors with 24 stolen bases, and has a 112 wRC+. 28-year-old Rooker is having a breakout start to the season, leading Oakland in all major offensive categories, including posting a 173 wRC+. Shea Langaliers (the A’s primary catcher since Sean Murphy was traded last winter) has cooled off considerably over the last month, though he’ll likely heat up again at some point in the year.

Probable Pitchers

Updated Stuff+ Explainer

• Stuff+ scores for Mariners starters

Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images

Along with Ruiz, Kyle Muller was the other big prospect that came back in the Sean Murphy trade. He had a couple of stints in the majors with the Braves, but a walk rate that cleared 13% indicated he had a lot of development left before he was ready for the big leagues. He’s lowered his walk rate to just above 10% this year but his strikeout rate has completely cratered. He’s locating his pitches in the zone more often but that’s only led to a huge jump in contact rate allowed. His stuff just isn’t good enough to induce enough whiffs in the zone so batters are spitting on his pitches off the plate while crushing everything that’s left in the strike zone.

Three pitching prospects came over from the Yankees in the Frankie Montas trade and all three have now made it to the majors — and all three are scheduled to take the mound against the Mariners in this series. The first is Luis Medina who got his call up in late-April. His first start in the majors was an ugly, eight-run blowout but he was a bit better in his two outings after that. Issues with command have limited his upside as a prospect despite a plus fastball and a good breaking ball. The lack of a third pitch in his repertoire likely points to his future as a flame-throwing reliever, but it’s in Oakland’s best interest to help him develop his changeup and hope he sticks in the rotation.

Ken Waldichuk also came over to the Bay Area in the Montas trade and quickly made his major league debut for the A’s last summer. He enjoyed a breakout season in the minors before getting shipped off, fueled by a good, sweeping slider and a developing changeup. The knock against him — and stop me if you’ve heard this before — is his command, particularly with his fastball. He’s often forced to use his breaking ball, which he can locate with precision, as an in-zone option to cover for his wild heater. That’s certainly not the best usage of his slider since he’s not getting many whiffs on it when it’s over the plate.

From a previous series preview:

JP Sears made his major league debut last year and was involved in the big Frankie Montas trade last summer. His best pitch is a flat, four-seam fastball that he can command at the top of the zone to get plenty of whiffs. Unfortunately, he’s also prone to allowing tons of loud contact off that pitch when he misses his spots. He’s transformed his breaking ball from a slurvy slider into a true sweeper this year. That’s given him a second weapon in his arsenal to play off his heater. Unfortunately, his changeup is still a work-in-progress which means he’s struggling to keep right-handed batters at bay.

Sears held the Mariners scoreless across six innings in his last outing against them, allowing six baserunners while striking out seven. It was the best start this season by any Oakland starter.

The Big Picture:

The Mariners are starting to slip further behind in the AL West, as the Rangers hold on to first with Houston close behind. The Rangers walloped the Rockies three games in a row over the weekend, while Houston swept the A’s in a more subdued manner. The Angels took two of three from the Twins, and hope for similar results as Boston comes to town. Both Texas teams head north for interleague play this week, with Houston going to Milwaukee and the Rangers to Pittsburgh.