Oakland Athletics, David Forst, -6.5 games
Forst took a major chance this winter, hoping he could replace free agent shortstop Marcus Semien with Rangers castoff Elvis Andrus. The latter cost only Khris Davis, a high-dollar player the A’s were delighted to part with, and also brought backup catcher Aramis Garcia (-0.8).
Not every plan works out, and this one certainly hasn’t. Semien (+3.2) is an All Star with Toronto, while Andrus (-1.1) is batting .228 for the A’s. That may not be the only reason why Forst’s A’s find themselves looking up at the Astros, but it’s one significant reason.
The reality is the Athletics are getting by this season on leftovers. Forst signed or re-signed eight players on the open market, the most productive of whom has been reliever Yusmeiro Petit (+0.5), who was released and then re-signed.
Most of the rest – Reymin Guduan (-0.4), Cam Bedrosian (+0.2), Domingo Acevedo (-0.2), Deolis Guerra (-0.3) and Sergio Romo (-0.1) – hurt the cause. The net impact of those five has been -0.8 games.
The Athletics may survive this less-than-stellar off-season because they have a strong holdover cast including Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Manaea, Chris Bassitt, and Mark Canha. But for Forst to be a contributor to any such success, Andrus, Garcia and a few other recent arrivals are going to have to turn things around quickly and abruptly.