The A’s franchise presents us with something of a paradox: Historically, they’ve been quite successful at times, enjoying some of the most iconic seasons of any American League team not named the Yankees. They’ve brought us Home Run Baker, Lefty Grove, Reggie Jackson, Dennis Eckersley, and that guy from the Brad Pitt movie. But instead of settling in to enjoy the fruits of their achievements, they’ve roamed from one end of the country to the other, perpetually cash-strapped. All of which is to say, A’s fans… expect some Sacramento jokes ahead. I don’t want to kick you when you’re down, it’s just hard to avoid these elephants when they keep stomping all over the room…1
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
George Williams 1997
Shea Langeliers 2023
John Jaso 2014
Jason Kendall 2006
Ron Hassey 1988
Scott Hemond 1993
Williams posted one of my favorite part-time catching seasons of the 90's; a switch-hitter who got on base at a .397 clip fits on any roster in any game. Langeliers has some power, stands a solid chance of being the first starting catcher for an MLB team in Sacramento, and is definitely the best MLB player whose name reminds me of a Stephen King novel, beating out Jim Tommyknocker from the 1923 Washington Senators.2 Jaso hit the ball well his two years in Oakland (.759 and .767 OPS), as he did in each of several stops in his career. Kendall retained the on-base skills from his Pirate days (.367 OBP), but the thrill was gone. Hemond was a useful utilityman who played all eight defensive positions during a time when Terry Steinbach owned the starting catcher's spot, .353 OBP in 1993. I could have chosen the early years of Mickey Tettleton or Bob Kearney's solid season in '83, but Hassey logged starter's at-bats for one of the classic teams of the 80's and at 35, still posted a .730 OPS against righties.
You could think of Langeliers' low-OBP, solid-power line as the reincarnation of this guy. Newman made an All-Star Team, so I guess that's not all bad, but in the 80's we frowned on hitting .231, and we wouldn't have loved the .267 OBP either if we'd read our Bill James Abstracts and been enlightened about walks. Posted almost the same line in 1980, .233-.273-.384, but it looks a lot worse when it adds up to 15 homers instead of 22, and that was Newman's last year as a starter. Hit .200 over his last three partial seasons, a harbinger of things to come for the league.
Fosse's tenure with the A's is hard to rate; he was already in his third year of decline and regressed from there, but he was still good enough to push Gene Tenace to first base, catch for the defending champions, and collect two World Series rings. Threw out 52 runners in '73 against just 41 successful steals, which may have something to do with it. Hit eighth in the order almost exclusively, suggesting Dick Williams was happy with a defense-first catcher and anything extra was gravy. Rediscovered his power stroke in August, 10 extra base hits and 17 RBI, so there was some extra…
The KC A's saw several different catchers post decent seasons in the 60's: Haywood Sullivan, Doc Edwards, Charley Lau. Bryan was probably the most successful, cracking 27 homers over two years. He broke out of a 2-for-25 slump at the start of the season with a vengeance: four hits and 5 RBI in a doubleheader against California. Went on to hit 6 homers and drive in 15 runs in May, though he cooled off for a couple of months after that. Hardly batted against left-handers, 7-for-30 on the year .152 in 99 at-bats for his career. Even his '65 was a spare-part season, but a useful one.
Maybe the fourth-best catcher in the American League in '84-85, behind Parrish, Fisk, Gedman. Or maybe fifth: Sundberg had a good year in '84 and won the World Series in '85. Dempsey and Boone were good in '85, not as much in '84. Whitt hadn't really come into his own yet. For consistent performance, Heath is near the top, especially when you consider Parrish and Fisk both had mild off-years in '84. In spite of which, he wasn't really moving the dial at 13 homers a year, with an OPS that didn't always break .700. With Tettleton around, you can see why you'd include him in the (somewhat disappointing) trade for Andujar. Had previously been part of the Dave Righetti trade and would quickly move on from St. Louis, bringing back Ken Hill. A good catcher is supposed to help your pitching staff, but not as bait...
Very good in Oakland for about a year and a half, with OPS hovering just above .750. Traded to San Diego, he wasn't as good for the Padres—which seems rather unfair, as the A's would come up with Steven Vogt the very next year, while the Padres haven't solved the catching position long-term since Santiago left. On the other hand, neither pitcher acquired for Norris accomplished much, with Jesse Hahn topping out at 16 games started in a season. So as they say, you get what you pay for. Career OPS was .271-.347-.454 against lefties, .210-.281-.342, so there's a winning platoon with him in it somewhere in the multiverse.
Probably the most famous and successful pitching coach since... ummm... actually, I'm not sure I can think of another famous pitching coach, at least not on Duncan's level. He was a pretty good player too, hitting 109 career homers, 15-19 per year in his prime. Only got to pick up one ring with the 70's dynasty before being traded for Fosse. Duncan had more left in the tank to begin with, and they also threw in 263 more future homers in the form of George Hendrick. But at least they also got back... Jack Heidemann? Wow. Got his one and only World Series hit off Jack Billingham in Game Five, 1972. They lost the game but won the Series, and once you unlock the achievement, you don't have to keep playing the level over and over...
Suzuki has had a long, successful, interesting career, to which his four-year stint as a full-time starter with Oakland serves as merely a prelude. I still generally go back to this era when choosing his career year, for some fairly old-school shallow reasons: He hit a lot better for the Braves in 2017, but it's hard to post an OPS so impressive in 276 AB that it looks better on a baseball card than 37 doubles, 15 homers, 88 RBI, his 2009 counting stats. Born in Wailuku, he does baseball history a solid by providing a starting catcher for Team Hawaii. Before him, the best they could get was 44 at-bats of Dane Sardinha. Closed strong in '09, 24 RBI in September.
Managing in Cleveland seems to be working out for him, which might be a sentence that applies to no one else since Lou Boudreau.3 As a player, hit 51 doubles, 32 homers with 127 RBI over a two-year stretch in Oakland, career-best line of .261-.341-.443 in 2015. Opened that year absolutely scorching hot, .322 with 11 homers, 38 RBI in April and May. Still had some left in the tank after being waived in '17, slugging .508 with Milwaukee the rest of that year, .490 for the Giants in 2019. Career .216 average against lefties, so in another era they might have platooned him with Norris instead of forcing a trade.
Started out with middling stats, but kept getting better and better. Went from .241-.311-.387 in his first full year in 2000 to .273-.331-.458 his last year in Oakland, with better years to come afterward. 10-of-58 in four straight division series with the A's (.172), moved on to San Diego two years later and hit .455, not that either team made it to the LCS. Dropped a sixth straight Division Series five years later in Cincinnati, so he may have been fated as a second-line solution for teams who can't quite play for the big prize. He did the job, but if you knew if your heart you were a World Series contender, you'd have brought in Ivan Rodriguez instead...
When you get to a place as a franchise where you have to start trading guys this good at the age of 28, it might be time to change your name and leave town. But what do I know, the A's probably didn't need 47 extra-base hits from their catcher spot; after all, they won 60 games with him and 50 without him. How much is that last gasp of self-respect that comes from not challenging the '62 Mets for the loss record really worth? Red-hot July and August in '22, .315 with 9 homers, 28 RBI, 23 walks. Hit 5 homers and 8 doubles against Texas, which wasn't too dramatic as they finished fourth and fifth in the division, but still.
101 homers over a four-year period from '73-76, drew over 100 walks six times in his career. Went crazy with the bat in the '72 World Series, hitting 4 home runs and playing key roles in at least three of Oakland's wins. First had to split time with Duncan, then play first base with Fosse in town. Seems like they could have solved the catcher position by just giving Tenace the job four years earlier, but it's not like better personnel movement could have brought them four championships from '72-74... Anyway, if you have a catcher on your bench with a .400 OBP, please play him. You'll be doing the mental health of your local analytics fan a great service.
Steinbach burst onto the scene with a .284-.349-.463 line in 1987, the first year I was watching Major League Baseball. He had perhaps his best season in 1992, one of my most memorable years as I moved to New England for the first time. Randomly smacked 35 homers in 1996, the year I started college. I'm not claiming any kind of psychic link or anything, but the ebb and flow of a ballplayer's career can mirror that of life, and sometimes you end up in synch. Anyway, he's always been one of my favorite players (non-Mets division) and a guy who provided reliably above-average production such that choosing a career year is tough; I picked his all-around peak over the homer explosion. Like Paul Molitor and Dave Winfield, a guy from Minnesota who went back to play for the 90's Twins. Their performance couldn't escape the team's post-1991 malaise.
Either Tenace or Steinbach would be a fine choice here; Tenace was better at his best and won three rings in Oakland to Steinbach's one. But Steinbach drove in 7 runs in the '89 series, hit .281 in the playoffs, so I'm not blaming him for his team's underperformance, and he spent most of his career in Oakland—unlike the peripatetic A's franchise.
On Sunday: Angels catchers. They might keep changing their name, but at least they stick close to LA.
1
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2
Yes, of course I made him up.
3
Yeah, okay, Mike Hargrove too. Stop nitpicking my jokes.
