Sunday, September 20

Hello! Welcome to another edition of the A’s beat newsletter.

WEST SACRAMENTO – Lawrence Butler scanned the Athletics' locker room after Wednesday night’s 4-2 extra-innings loss against the Red Sox at Sutter Health Park and came to a realization.

“I’m kind of the ‘unc’ on the team,” Butler said. “Our team is majority young guys now. … A lot of 22-year-olds and 23-year-olds. I’ve been in the game longer than they have, so I can kind of help them out with little stuff that they might have questions about, or tips on what I can help them with on or off the field.”

You wouldn’t associate a 26-year-old with having "unc" status, but Butler isn’t necessarily wrong. In comparison to this current group of A’s players on the active roster, Butler has more Major League service time than most on a team that has been ravaged by injuries this season.

As somewhat of an “elder statesman,” Butler recently took it upon himself to speak up amid what has been a brutal stretch for the A’s. Before Tuesday’s 4-3 win against the Red Sox, Butler gathered his teammates inside the A’s clubhouse for a players-only meeting.

“I called this one,” Butler said. “Usually, it’s one of the veterans, but they’ve all been kind of hurt. So, I took it upon myself to address the team. It wasn’t just me talking. Everybody got to say their piece, so it was good.”

Butler declined to go into specifics of what was said during the meeting, but it’s fairly obvious why he felt like there was a need to call one. At the time, the A’s had lost 20 of their past 24 games, including a 4-2 loss in Monday’s series opener against Boston, going through a period in which not much has gone well for the club in all aspects.

“We know what we have to do to become a winning baseball club,” Butler said. “We can’t just keep speaking it. We have to actually go out there and do it. … That’s pretty much the core of what we wanted to talk about. How can we all get on the same page, where we can just make everybody better? Everybody can take a step. Nobody is perfect. Just be accountable and hold each other accountable.”

That act of leadership did not go unnoticed by manager Mark Kotsay, who pointed out Butler’s efforts on Wednesday night. 

“Lawrence, the last couple of days, has really stepped up and helped this club in more ways than just on the field,” Kotsay said. “He’s starting to realize that he can be a leader in that clubhouse, and that’s a good sign for Lawrence and for our club.”

With Brent Rooker and Shea Langeliers – two unquestioned clubhouse leaders – both out for the season due to injury, it’s on players like Butler, Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom to guide these A’s to the finish line over the final two months of the regular season. That trio may not qualify as veterans in the traditional sense, but each player is locked in as a franchise cornerstone, having signed contract extensions that will take them well into their next era of baseball in Las Vegas, where the A’s will relocate to at the start of the 2028 season.

“It’s really important for those guys to step up in a leadership role and continue to build a culture here that they’re a part of,” Kotsay said. “All of the guys that are committed to go to Vegas, Rooker being one of them, but not healthy and probably not feeling like he can step up and have a meeting or talk about how we want to finish the season. For Lawrence, Tyler and Jacob, those three guys are committed to being in Vegas. Their contracts take them through an extended period in Vegas, and they need to be a big part of that leadership group."

“Good reports. He’s arguably, and probably, our top hitter in the Minor Leagues right now. [A’s director of hitting] Darren Bush has told me all about him and filled me in on how much he likes his swing. For Devin, he’s dropped some weight and gotten a little more athletic, so that has helped his defense. I know that it’s a priority to improve his defense, and there’s still a lot of growth for that.” -- Kotsay on A’s No. 6 prospect Devin Taylor, who between High-A Lansing and Double-A Midland is slashing .314/.416/.497 with 16 home runs, 19 doubles and 78 RBIs in 99 games

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