MESA, Ariz. — Now one of the longest-tenured players left on the A’s roster, Chad Pinder has seen the team break apart its core around him this week.
But not even winning — four winning seasons in a row, three playoff appearances, one AL West division crown — could keep this group together. It didn’t matter that both Olson and Chapman said they wanted to stay in Oakland and, as Olson said after being traded Monday, “flip the cycles that have kind of been here in the past.” As they got more expensive and closer to free agency, the A’s organization decided it was time for them to go.“That group, when they got to the big leagues, wasn’t successful right away,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.
With that surge, the next four years followed suit: 316-230 overall record and three playoff appearances in a row from 2018-2020. But the Astros kept pace ahead of the A’s in 2018 and 2019, forcing Oakland into the wild card game each year, which they lost both times . But Oakland faltered from there as others surged, and a 12-15 September knocked them all the way down to eighth place in the AL overall, six games back of the AL wild card spots at season’s end. Not long after, the trade speculation kicked into high gear.
It was three days before he was traded, but Matt Chapman knew he was on his way out when he talked to reporters Sunday. And he summarized the existence of this organization as succinctly as anyone could.
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