Stephen Vogt Didn’t Make Opening Day Roster

Stephen Vogt hits an RBI single Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The 25 man roster has been released for the Oakland Athletics, and Stephen Vogt didn’t make it. There was speculation of this happening, but that doesn’t make the news any better. After having a tremendous Spring, batting for a .364 average, John Jaso was picked over him.

John Jaso is a great player, his average was .292, but with Vogt having a much better Spring, it only seems right that he would get picked. Vogt was more of an impact, especially with his walk-off hit in game 2 of the ALDS. He deserves it more than Jaso, but management went with Jaso anyways.

We as A’s fans have learned to say “In Beane we trust” or “In Melvin we trust” but these moves are a little hard to understand. A lot of people may argue that it’s because of the platoon and the way they bat against righties and lefties, but even then it would only make the case for Stephen Vogt even stronger. Norris bats extremely well against lefties, he crushes the ball against them. So wouldn’t it make sense to pick the other platoon catcher based off of who hits better against righties?

Let’s take a look. Stephen Vogt hit a whopping .438 against righties, with an OBP of .514. John Jaso? He had a .316 average against righties, and an OBP of .357. So with Vogt doing a lot better offensively, why didn’t they pick him? Maybe it’s the defense.

In 48 games as catcher, John Jaso made 3 errors, had 28 bases stolen on him and caught 4 people stealing. In 44 games started, Stephen Vogt had 1 error, 20 bases stolen on him, and caught 9 people stealing. So Vogt proves to be superior in in his defense as well.

I know we like to say “In Melvin we trust” and the same with Beane, but I don’t know if I trust this decision. One of the reasons given is that they have two left handed first basemen, so they want to balance that out with the catchers being right handed. However, Callaspo is going to get time at first, and he can bat right handed being a switch hitter.

So why Jaso? Why not balance it out elsewhere? Stephen Vogt fought hard all Spring to make it, and they didn’t pick him. He deserves it, and I must admit I’m a little frustrated with this staff for not letting him be on the 25 man roster. No disrespect to Jaso, but Vogt was the better player.

Stephen Vogt deserved to be there on opening night, and I can’t wrap my ahead around why he isn’t. His hard should have paid off. All we can hope is that Vogt didn’t have any hard feelings about it, and is still fond of the organization. If he got angry or upset, however, it is understandable. Let’s hope they bring him up sooner rather than later.