It is easy to see that the Oakland A’s offense was a major problem in 2022.
The A’s finished the year having scored just 568 runs while posting a miserable .216/.281/.346 batting line. They were the bottom three in the American League in hits, runs, homers, batting average, on base percentage, slugging, and walks. The offense was truly offensive.
A sign of Oakland A’s struggles on offense
It seemed that no matter who the A’s plugged into the lineup, they struggled. A total of 33 players had at least one plate appearances for the A’s this season, with 16 of those receiving at least 150 plate appearances. Out of those 16, four had an OPS+ of 50 or below.
How bad was that? Only 13 players who received at least 150 plate appearances this season had an OPS+ of 50 or lower. The A’s were the only team to have more than two players with an OPS+ mark that low, even if one of them did not spend the entire year in the A’s organization.
One of those players, Jed Lowrie, is not going to be part of the future. The 38 year old had been brought back for his leadership qualities and with the hope that he would provide enough with the bat that he may be able to be flipped at the deadline. The latter just never happened.
Meanwhile, the A’s hope that the other three players can be part of the future. Kevin Smith and Cristian Pache both showed the potential to be elite defensive players, but they did not hit at all. Ernie Clement could be an interesting utility player, but he was even worse with the A’s, albeit in a small sample size, than he was in Cleveland.
Maybe this will change. Maybe Clement, Pache, and Smith will be able to improve enough to be viable major league options. However, it is far more likely that they will end up as backups at the major league level at best.
The Oakland A’s had four of the 13 worst hitters in the majors in a minimum of 150 plate appearances. Hopefully, that will change next year.