The Athletics are trying to shake off a brutal slide, and they’ve turned to the waiver wire for a little offensive relief.
After dropping nine straight and losing 17 of their last 20, the A’s are staring at a second half that needs a jolt. The offense has been one of the bright spots when healthy, but injuries have thinned out the lineup. Zack Gelof is on the injured list, while Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson have also been out for a while.
That makes the addition of Donovan Walton a logical swing. The A’s claimed the former Angels infielder, and the 32-year-old could be in line to join the active roster for the team’s first series back against the Washington Nationals.
Walton has been productive this season, hitting .319 with an .860 OPS in 97 plate appearances. In 32 games, he’s posted a .314 average, 29 hits, three home runs and an .859 OPS. He also recently turned in a three-run homer and was hitting .343/.371/.522 in 23 games at that point.
There’s some reason to believe the bat may be a little better than the underlying numbers suggest. Walton’s expected batting average is .270, which is still solid, but not quite at the level of his actual production.
The other side of the profile is less appealing. Walton can move around the infield, but the defensive metrics aren’t kind to him. His fielding run value, range and sprint speed are all described as very bad.
Still, for an A’s club looking for any edge it can find, the appeal is obvious: add another hitter to a lineup that already has Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz in their primes, and see if the offense can carry more of the load. The team also made a change on the coaching staff, firing pitching coach Scott Emerson after a rough first half from the pitching staff.
Whether Walton is on the roster right away remains to be seen, but the door is open. With the injuries piling up, the A’s could use whatever help they can get.
In Other News...
As Draft Class Sends A Clear Message About Their Future
The Athletics draft class sent a pretty clear signal about where the organization wants to go next. Over 20 rounds, they took 21 players and leaned hard into the college route, using 11 of those picks on pitchers while spending nearly their entire signing bonus pool on collegiate talent. It was a class built for a faster path to the majors, with Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress going in the first round and left-hander Mason Edwards coming off the board in the second.
The pattern held well beyond the top of the board. Oakland did not get to its first high school player until the 14th round, which says plenty about the priority placed on experience and polish over long-term projection. For a club trying to stock a system with players who can move quickly, the draft looked less like a lottery ticket and more like a deliberate roster-building exercise, even if the real payoff will take time to show up. [Read more 🡒]
A's Fans May Not Be Ready For This Deadline Gut Punch
The Athletics have spent much of the summer trying to steady themselves after a rough stretch left them at 41-55 and still chasing the rest of the AL West. In the middle of that slide, Shea Langeliers has remained one of the more recognizable pieces on the roster, a starting catcher who gave the club a much-needed lift earlier in the season before his bat cooled off in recent weeks.
Since May 1, Langeliers has not matched the pace he set in April, and that shift has only sharpened the attention around him as the deadline approaches. For an A's club trying to sort out its long-term direction while also patching immediate holes, his situation has become one of the more intriguing ones to watch, especially with the kind of uncertainty that tends to follow a player in his position. [Read more 🡒]