The regular season is finally upon us
The Athletics are all set to kick off the regular season on Thursday night in Seattle, beginning the 2025 season on the road for a four-game series against the rival Mariners.
Starting the series off for the Athletics will be Luis Severino. The team announced the right-hander as the Opening Day starter early last week but that was a mere formality. The team gave the 31-year old a team-record $67 million dollar contract this offseason to be the ace of a young pitching staff. After years of injury issues Severino finally had a full and healthy season last year, anchoring the New York Mets’ starting rotation as they made their march to the postseason. The club could sorely use that same production this coming year and the team feels confident that Severino will deliver on his massive contract. No Pressure.
Of course, being that the A’s are the road team for Opening Day, that means the Green & Gold will bat first. We can easily expect budding star Lawrence Butler to be the first batter of the 2025 season for the Athletics, reclaiming his spot in the leadoff spot. After that you can expect former All-Star Brent Rooker in the two-spot, center fielder JJ Bleday in the three-hole, and starting catcher Shea Langeliers batting cleanup. That’s a strong top half of the lineup with multiple contenders for an All-Star nod.
The question for the offense in 2025 will be the bottom half of the batting order. We know Seth Brown and Miguel Andujar will split time in left field this coming year, with Brownie facing right-handed pitchers and Andujar in there against lefties. Star prospect Jacob Wilson should at least be an upgrade over the likes of Max Schuemann, Nick Allen, and Aledmys Diaz. Same goes for offseason signee Gio Urshela at third base. A lot of the focus however will be on Tyler Soderstrom and Zack Gelof (who is out with a broken hand to begin the season), at first and second base respectively. With Gelof out the team will likely turn to another offseason pickup in Luis Urias to begin the year as the starting second baseman, but prospect Max Muncy broke camp with the club and could steal some at-bats from Urias. How the bottom half of the lineup settles in will be a storyline for the coming year.
The A’s will be facing Mariners young right-hander Logan Gilbert on Opening Day, one of their many prized arms they’ve developed in recent years. Gilbert posted a strong 3.60 ERA last season, his fourth in the big leagues. The club has seen plenty of the righty since his debut in 2021 as he’s made 12 starts against the A’s with an above-average 3.09 ERA so far. Gilbert had a rough spring this past year, allowing multiple runs in four of his five appearances. If Gilbert isn’t fully ramped up yet it would be a great time for the Athletics to jump on him early and often and get the season started on the right foot.
After the Severino-Gilbert matchup on Opening Day it’ll be new face Jeffrey Springs making his A’s debut against righty Luis Castillo. Castillo posted his typically-strong numbers last year while pitching 175 1⁄3 frames for Seattle. Springs posted strong numbers in his own right coming back from the dreaded Tommy John surgery he had in April of ‘23. The A’s likely won’t push the envelope with Springs as he prepares for a full season as a starting pitcher but he has the talent to go toe-to-toe with Castillo.
The Athletics and Mariners turn to their #3 starters on Saturday evening as right-hander Osvaldo Bido takes the ball for Game 3. Seattle will go with another one of their highly-touted young pitchers in Bryce Miller, who absolutely dominated in his second full season as a major leaguer last year. Bido himself had some bright moments last year but like Springs dealt with injury problems. There has been a lot of hype in camp about Bido and we’ll finally get to see him in action in just a couple more days. Fingers crossed the team has a diamond in the rough on their hands.
Wrapping up the opening series on Sunday will be left-hander JP Sears. The third-year starter got off to a decent enough start during spring but got hit around hard his last two times out. Hopefully that was just Sears fine tuning his repertoire and experimenting with his pitching because this team isn’t going anywhere if Sears can’t at least replicate last season, though the hope is that the lefty takes a big step forward in 2025. The Mariners will counter Sears with yet another young stud pitcher in Bryan Woo. Like Miller, Woo has had a solid start to his career, building off a successful rookie season in 2023 before stepping it up in a major way last year.
Seattle is in prime position to contend this year after missing out on the playoffs by one game last year. The pitching is going to be great, but their offense was atrocious last year and they didn’t add much to beef up their bats. In fact, they lost corner infielder Justin Turner to free agency, one of their few solid mid-season additions last year. They did sign starting catcher Cal Raleigh to a massive extension yesterday but that’s the extent of their work on the offense. The fact that they didn’t add a single bat to their lineup during the winter seems like it’s going to come back and bite them, but that pitching staff alone could carry them to contention. The Athletics meanwhile should have at least an average offense, but the pitching remains a question.
I guess we will be getting answers to all these questions soon enough. The long winter is almost over and meaningful baseball is just one more day away. The roster is set, and the Sacramento era is set to begin Thursday night. Let’s hope it starts off with a win against our division rivals!