Hello! Welcome to another edition of the A’s beat newsletter. WEST SACRAMENTO -- The Athletics dugout at Sutter Health Park erupted as it witnessed the unthinkable. Jacob Wilson drew a walk. A bit overshadowed by the Major League debut of A’s No. 1 prospect Nick Kurtz in Wednesday night’s 5-2 win over the Rangers was Wilson doing what felt impossible. The momentous occasion came in the second inning against left-hander Jacob Latz. Heading to the plate, not only had Wilson gone through his first 87 plate appearances without a walk, the 23-year-old shortstop had yet to see a three-ball count. Five pitches later, he was standing on first base courtesy of a five-pitch walk. “I don’t think he swung at a pitch that at-bat,” said A’s catcher Shea Langeliers. “I don’t think we’ll see that very often.” |
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Wilson indeed did not swing at a pitch, watching all of Latz's offerings go by. After the 3-1 fastball from Latz went low for ball 4, Wilson smiled as he reached down to remove his elbow and shin guards and looked over to the A’s dugout, where his teammates were collectively losing their minds. “That was amazing,” said A’s right fielder Lawrence Butler. “J-Willy never walks. He never even gets to three balls. Just to see him walk, we were telling him to auto take on 3-1. I don’t know if he was or not, but we’re just glad he got a walk so the critics could stop trying to hate on him for not walking.” Since the beginning of this century, only one A’s player had a longer streak of plate appearances without a walk to begin a season. It was Josh Donaldson, who went 99 plate appearances before his first base on balls in 2012. That stretch, however, was split up as he spent some time in the Minors between. |
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When Wilson first arrived to the big leagues last season ranked as the A’s No. 1 prospect, manager Mark Kotsay often talked about drawing walks being something for the young shortstop to work on developing to succeed at the highest level. So far, however, Wilson is thriving without walking much. He's batting .347 (34-for-98), having struck out just five times in 99 plate appearances. “I don’t know,” Kotsay said last week when asked what to make of Wilson’s walkless season to that point. “When you’re hitting .333 and your on-base percentage is .333, that’s pretty impressive. Can he sustain hitting .333 and have that on-base the same? I’m not sure. It’s obviously a tough league, and very few guys hit .300 over the course of a season. But the fact is he’s putting the ball in play at a consistent level, and he’s not really striking out at extreme levels. That’s something we’ve always known about him. We’ll see how long it goes forward. It’s pretty impressive as of now.” |
It’s unlikely that Wilson will suddenly turn into a walk machine, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The Padres' Luis Arraez, a player whom Wilson has received comparisons to for his incredible bat-to-ball skills, has won multiple batting titles while routinely posting some of the worst walk rates in baseball because he also strikes out at a minuscule rate. Still, it was good to see Wilson has the ability to draw a walk in his bag, especially in such a key moment as Wednesday’s, which came with the bases loaded and pushed home a run. “I mean, there’s no better time to draw a walk, right?” Kotsay said with a smile. “Bases loaded, to draw your first walk of the season, I wasn’t quite sure if he was going to actually walk this year. That was a great sign to get the first one out of the way.” |
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Making good progress as he recovers from a hook of the hamate fracture in his right hand, Zack Gelof is set to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Las Vegas on Tuesday. Gelof, who was hitting .297 (11-for-37) through 15 Cactus League games before sustaining the injury during the final week of Spring Training, appears on track to return around the first or second week of May, though the A’s will take a cautious approach early in his rehab games. “He had a decent amount of at-bats in Spring Training,” Kotsay said Thursday. “But any time you’re dealing with something in your hand or wrist, it does take time to get that strength back to full capacity. There’s going to be a buildup program where he probably plays a couple of days, then takes an off-day. “The goal would be to get him at least above 35 at-bats and just make sure everything keeps going in the right direction.” |
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• Wilson, owner of the A’s final walk-off hit at the Coliseum last year against the Rangers, recorded the first A’s walk-off hit at Sutter Health Park, also against the Rangers. More >> • It didn’t take long for Kurtz to make an impact in his first Major League game as he contributed to an A’s victory. More >> |
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