Oakland Athletics: Do they have two cornerstones at the corners?

The Oakland Athletics are rebuilding, but they may have two cornerstones on their infield.

The Oakland Athletics are in yet another rebuilding program. They dealt Sonny Gray for prospects before the trade deadline this year, recently dealt away Yonder Alonso,  and have dealt players like Rich Hill, Josh Reddick and others in recent years. Their farm system is improving and they have been giving young players a chance to earn their stripes in the majors.

Two of those players play along the corner infield positions in third baseman Matt Chapman and first baseman Matt Olson.

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Olson has been given a chance with Alonso being dealt and going into last night he was hitting .273 with a .955 OPS in eight August games. The former first round pick had 23 homers in Triple-A thus far this season with a .935 OPS, so he does have some pop.

Chapman has really turned it around in August, hitting .308 with an OPS of 1.020 this month going into last night’s game. He’s also produced a WAR of 2.1 since he was called up back in late June in part because he’s so good defensively. Chapman already has 12 defensive runs saved since he came up. To put that in perspective, only Jedd Gyorko and Nolan Arenado have more for the entire season at the hot corner.

The way the Oakland Athletics have built their teams in the past is through young pitching. They have some interesting arms in Sean Manaea, Jharel Cotton and Kendall Graveman. They should have more arms coming, possibly as soon as next season in A.J. Puk, Grant Holmes and potentially James Kaprielian if he can stay healthy and recover from Tommy John surgery.

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However, it’s their position players that have made the most impact in the early stages. Alongside Olson and Chapman, Ryon Healy has demonstrated some power this season. If Dustin Fowler can recover from his knee injury and with Franklin Barreto knocking down the door to go along with Olson and Chapman, the Oakland Athletics may be a couple years away from fielding a young, cheap, pretty good team. With their current stadium situation, that’s how they have to do it and that’s how they did it during the Moneyball era.

This year has been about development for the Oakland Athletics, and they may have found two cornerstone pieces in their corner infielders.