Once you win 2 of the first 3, settling for a series split seems unsatisfying even if you went in thinking a split would be acceptable. So the A’s may not have boarded the charter back to Sacramento filled with jublilation and high fives.
But what 2025’s opening series showed was far more positives than not and should leave fans very optimistic about the A’s chances to compete in the AL West. The backdrop to the series was that the Mariners had dominated the A’s the past several seasons and that they boasted one of the very best rotations in all of baseball.
The A’s were not likely to score a bevy of runs in games started by Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo, Bryce Miller, and Bryan Woo, so their total of 14 in 4 games has to be put in that context.
Here are the pluses that showed up in the first 2.5% of the season…
Pitching
The rotation looks solid and deep with Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, Osvaldo Bido, and JP Sears at the front. Severino wobbled a bit at times but showed the stuff and the fortitude of a front line SP, Springs was downright ace-like, and Sears made all of one mistake in nearly 7 innings. Only Bido was unimpressive and even his stuff (with a hat tip to Max Muncy’s glove) allowed him to parlay his wildness into just 1 ER in 5 IP.
Overall the starters threw 23.2 IP and allowed just 3 ER, offering both quality and length as a unit. It’s a better rotation than the pundits are giving credit for and showed it could go toe to toe with one of the finest rotations around.
Hitting
The lineup is gaining length from last season’s “Butler and Rooker and pray for ___” Uh oh, I think I won’t publish the first rhyme for Rooker that comes to mind. Point being the 2025 A’s have more threats, starting with the emergence of Tyler Soderstrom as an all-fields power threat.
Soderstrom opens the season 7 for 15 with 3 HRs: one to LF, one to CF, and one to RF. With Miguel Andujar healthy, JJ Bleday and Shea Langeliers extra base hit threats, and high contact hitters like Jacob Wilson, the 2025 lineup is already proving to be heavy on XBH and low on Ks.
Specifically, despite the quality of the opposing starters the A’s clubbed 7 HRs and 3 doubles while striking out a very modest 30 times.
Defense
The defense showed some cracks, specifically the pitchers’ difficulty holding runners, a costly passed ball, Gio Urshela missing a foul pop up and making a strangely poor throw on a routine ground ball. But arguably the positives outweighed the deltas:
Soderstrom shone all series, making one terrific diving stop and scooping several throws in the dirt to save his infielders. He was an above average defensive 1Bman in the series, which exceeds hopes and expectations.
The outfield defense is a concern but was not especially exposed despite the large confines of Safeco. Bleday made all the make-able plays, perhaps save for one bloop he misread but may or may not have caught anyway. Butler looked comfortable and just missed making an excellent sliding catch on a flair, the only catchable ball he didn’t procure. Andujar was fine throughout.
Bullpen
Bullpens are inherently volatile, inconsistent, and difficult to project forward, and certainly the A’s work in this series leaves us with more questions than answers.
Jose LeClerc struggled mightily, but his track record suggests he is going to be fine. And while we can’t be as sanguine about Tyler Ferguson, if anything stood out in this series it was the surprisingly cool debut of Noah Murdock. Justin Sterner turned in an impressive 1-2-3 inning today, and TJ McFarland was his usual available-and-effective self.
Overall, while it might be challenging to say exactly who, it appears the A’s will be able to find several reliable enough arms to piece together an effective bullpen. Let’s face it —when your closer is Mason Miller, you‘re already a good part of the way there.
None of this is to say the A’s are without flaws, or that no areas of concern surfaced. It’s just to say that there was a lot more to like than to dislike in a series where the team only won half its games.
Color me optimistic.