Oakland Athletics: Eric Sogard Has Become Staple Part Of Roster

Over the past two season, the Oakland Athletics’ infield has changed quite a bit. However, there is one thing that has stayed the same – Eric Sogard has remained as the backup infielder on the roster. Over his time with the A’s, he has ultimately become a staple part of the roster.

Sogard has played his entire MLB career with the Oakland Athletics. Before making his big league debut in green and gold, Sogard started out in the San Diego Padres’ farm system. In 2010, the Padres traded Sogard to the A’s along with Kevin Kouzmanoff in exchange for Aaron Cunningham and Scott Hairston. Sogard was called up to the Majors for the first time in September of that season and played in four games.

This middle infielder started off the 2011 season in Triple-A, but was able to play the second half of the year in Oakland. Sogard began 2012 on Oakland’s roster, but only played in 37 games for the A’s that year. Despite receiving a minimal amount of playing time in 2011 and 2012, this dramatically changed for Sogard during the 2013 season. Sogard started to receive more playing opportunities since the Athletics highly valued  his outstanding defense in the middle infield. Because of his success as a defender the past few years, he has played in a 100+ games in each of the past three season with the Athletics.

Even though his bat is not very strong, Sogard made up for it with his fielding abilities. Over his five years with Oakland, he has maintained a .987 fielding percentage at second base. Additionally, he is able to field at shortstop and third base if the A’s need an extra infield utility man. Defense has always been Sogard’s strongest skill even when he was in Minors. In 2011, Sogard held the highest fielding percentage in the Pacific Coast League.

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Sogard has always been a silent star among the Athletics’ players and fans, and his “Nerd Power” glasses symbol is well recognized around Oakland. However, Sogard’s cool, yet nerdy look became known nationally when he made it to the final round of the “Face of MLB” contest in February 2014. Even though he did not win, it was great that Sogard gained national recognition during this time for he truly plays every game to the best of his ability and does anything possible to help the team.

He has been one of the most reliable fielder for the A’s over the last few years and his increased timely hitting this past season was a bonus for Oakland. Unless Sogard’s fielding ability dramatically decreases over the next two seasons, it is likely that the Oakland Athletics will keep Sogard on the roster until he hits the free agent market in 2018.