Archive for Athletics

Back from vacation, I returned to the field Monday for an Instructional League game between the Athletics and Rockies. How is the Instructional League different from the Bridge League, which I’ve covered previously? Both are unofficial leagues with a scrimmage-style setting, but “Instructs” take place after the rest of the minor league schedule has concluded, and typically includes a handful of select players from the various affiliates that the parent club wants to see more of, and maybe the best couple of guys from each org’s DSL squad. So, Bridge League (which takes place after the Draft and Complex League seasons are over but before the rest of the minors are done) features rookie-level players, new draftees, and rehabbers, while Instructional League has more select talent from several different minor league levels, and often includes Arizona Fall Leaguers who are getting ramped up for their looming slate. There isn’t the same kind of internal team video or shared data for this window as there is for regular season affiliated ball, so this makes Instructs particularly useful to see in person. Read the rest of this entry »

Direct links to applications (please see job details below):

Research Analyst
Senior Data Architect
Senior .NET Web Developer

Research Analyst

Position: Research Analyst
Department: Baseball Operations, Research and Development
Reporting Manager: Assistant General Manager
Status: Full-Time
Job Classification: Exempt
Location: Las Vegas, NV

About the A’s:
The A’s are a baseball team founded in 1901. They have a rich history, having won nine World Series championships and 15 American League pennants. The A’s are known for pioneering the “Moneyball” approach to team-building, which focuses on using statistical analysis to identify undervalued players.

In addition to their success on the field, the A’s also have a positive and dynamic work culture. They have been recognized twice as the Front Office Sports, Best Employers in Sports.

The A’s are defined by their core pillars of being Dynamic, Innovative, and Inclusive. Working for the A’s offers the opportunity to be part of an innovative organization that values its employees and strives to create a positive work environment.

Description:
The Research Analyst supports Baseball Operations through rigorous quantitative research, statistical analysis, and data-driven evaluation of players, teams, and game strategy. This role combines a strong understanding of baseball with advanced analytical techniques to uncover insights that inform player evaluation, scouting, player development, roster construction, and on-field decision-making.

Responsibilities:

• Analyze player performance using Statcast, traditional statistics, advanced metrics, tracking data, and proprietary organizational datasets.
• Develop and maintain statistical models used for player evaluation, performance forecasting, and decision support.
• Research hitting, pitching, fielding, baserunning, biomechanics, and other components of player performance.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate analytical findings into actionable recommendations.
• Monitor league-wide trends and emerging strategies to identify opportunities for organizational improvement.
• Communicate technical concepts effectively to both highly quantitative colleagues and non-technical baseball staff.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in statistics, mathematics, economics, data science, computer science, or a related quantitative field; advanced degree preferred.
• Strong knowledge of baseball and familiarity with modern player evaluation and sabermetric concepts.
• Proficiency in Python, R, SQL, or comparable analytical programming languages.
• Experience building models to scale on large and semi/unstructured data sets
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to present ideas clearly and concisely.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, highly competitive environment.
• Willingness to travel as needed, including to conferences, conventions, Spring Training in Arizona, and Athletics game operations in West Sacramento during the 2027 season.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with baseball tracking systems.
• Experience with baseball analytics, scouting, player development, or performance research.
• Experience building predictive models or machine-learning applications.

The A’s Social Impact & Belonging Statement:
Social Impact & Belonging are in our organizational DNA. Our commitment to these values is unwavering – on and off the field. Together, we continue to build an inclusive, innovative, and dynamic culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates belonging and amplifies all voices. Combining a collaborative and innovative work environment with talented team members, we’ve created a workforce in which every team member has the tools to reach their full potential.

Equal Opportunity Consideration:
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

Senior Data Architect

Position: Senior Data Architect
Department: Baseball Operations, Research and Development
Reporting Manager: Assistant General Manager
Status: Full-Time
Job Classification: Exempt
Location: Las Vegas, NV

About the A’s:
The A’s are a baseball team founded in 1901. They have a rich history, having won nine World Series championships and 15 American League pennants. The A’s are known for pioneering the “Moneyball” approach to team-building, which focuses on using statistical analysis to identify undervalued players.

In addition to their success on the field, the A’s also have a positive and dynamic work culture. They have been recognized twice as the Front Office Sports, Best Employers in Sports.

The A’s are defined by their core pillars of being Dynamic, Innovative, and Inclusive. Working for the A’s offers the opportunity to be part of an innovative organization that values its employees and strives to create a positive work environment.

Description:
We are seeking an experienced Senior Data Architect to lead the design, development, and evolution of our enterprise data architecture. This role will be responsible for supporting and growing our Microsoft SQL Server environment that turns raw data from vendors, MLB, and internal coaching and scouting reports into actionable reports, advanced data models, and a best-in-the-industry frontend platform. We are also looking to scale up our medallion architecture in the face of new advances and challenges around cloud computing, artificial intelligence and automation, and truly large datasets. This role will work with our various Research and Development groups (data engineers, software developers, technology coordinators, and analysts), as well as Baseball Operations and IT leadership to build our future in Las Vegas.

Responsibilities:

• Design, lead development of, and maintain enterprise data architecture, including data warehouses, data lakes, lakehouses, and operational data platforms.
• Design, lead development of, and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines for baseball data.
• Manage and develop team members, providing technical guidance, setting priorities, supporting professional growth, and ensuring alignment with organizational data architecture and engineering goals.
• Stay current with emerging technologies in cloud computing, data engineering, AI, and data management, and provide guidance on major technology and platform decisions.
• Collaborate with Baseball R&D groups to optimize the storage, cleaning, querying, and delivery of datasets to solve complicated problems.

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Engineering, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
• Work experience in data architecture, data engineering, database development, and ability to design and build a bronze/silver/gold data architecture.
• Fluency with SQL and Python in an ETL/ELT context.
• Proven experience leading and developing team members, whether through direct people management or a team lead capacity.
• Experience with cloud-based data platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.
• Understanding of data lake architectures and implementations.
• Willing and able to work a non-traditional schedule, including evenings, weekends, and holidays, as required to support events and critical business operations.
• Willingness to travel as needed, including to conferences, conventions, Spring Training in Arizona, and Athletics game operations in West Sacramento during the 2027 season.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Azure Data Factory, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, or Google BigQuery.
• Experience with Docker and containerized applications.
• Familiarity with machine learning and AI data architectures.
• Working knowledge of the baseball industry and data sources in professional baseball.
• Familiarity with DevOps, Infrastructure as Code, and CI/CD practices
• Experience leading large-scale data modernization or migration initiatives.

The A’s Social Impact & Belonging Statement:
Social Impact & Belonging are in our organizational DNA. Our commitment to these values is unwavering – on and off the field. Together, we continue to build an inclusive, innovative, and dynamic culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates belonging and amplifies all voices. Combining a collaborative and innovative work environment with talented team members, we’ve created a workforce in which every team member has the tools to reach their full potential.

Equal Opportunity Consideration:
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

Senior .NET Web Developer

Position: Senior .NET Web Developer
Department: Baseball Operations, Research and Development
Reporting Manager: Assistant General Manager
Status: Full-Time
Job Classification: Exempt
Location: Las Vegas, NV

About the A’s:
The A’s are a baseball team founded in 1901. They have a rich history, having won nine World Series championships and 15 American League pennants. The A’s are known for pioneering the “Moneyball” approach to team-building, which focuses on using statistical analysis to identify undervalued players.

In addition to their success on the field, the A’s also have a positive and dynamic work culture. They have been recognized twice as the Front Office Sports, Best Employers in Sports.

The A’s are defined by their core pillars of being Dynamic, Innovative, and Inclusive. Working for the A’s offers the opportunity to be part of an innovative organization that values its employees and strives to create a positive work environment.

Description:
We are seeking an experienced Senior .NET Web Developer to design, develop, test, and maintain scalable web applications and enterprise software solutions within the Baseball Operations department. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in the Microsoft .NET ecosystem, modern web development, database technologies, and software engineering best practices.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain web applications using C#, .NET / ASP.NET Core, MVC, and Web APIs.
• Build responsive, user-friendly interfaces using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and modern front-end frameworks such as React or Angular.
• Develop and integrate RESTful APIs and third-party services.
• Design, develop, and optimize SQL Server databases, queries, stored procedures, and data models.
• Analyze business and technical requirements and translate them into effective software solutions.
• Write clean, maintainable, scalable, and well-documented code.
• Perform code reviews and provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior and mid-level developers.
• Troubleshoot application issues, identify root causes, and implement effective solutions.
• Develop and maintain automated unit and integration tests.
• Contribute to technical documentation, development standards, and best practices.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and recommend improvements to development processes and application architecture.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Minimum six years of experience developing web applications
• Design, develop, and maintain web applications using C#, .NET / ASP.NET Core, MVC, and Web APIs.
• Build responsive, user-friendly interfaces using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Develop and integrate RESTful APIs and third-party services.
• Design, develop, and optimize SQL Server databases, queries, stored procedures, and data models.
• Analyze business and technical requirements and translate them into effective software solutions.
• Write clean, maintainable, scalable, and well-documented code.
• Perform code reviews and provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior and mid-level developers.
• Troubleshoot application issues, identify root causes, and implement effective solutions.
• Develop and maintain automated unit and integration tests.
• Contribute to technical documentation, development standards, and best practices.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and recommend improvements to development processes and application architecture.
• Willing and able to work a non-traditional schedule, including evenings, weekends, and holidays, as required to support events and critical business operations.
• Willingness to travel as needed, including to conferences, conventions, Spring Training in Arizona, and Athletics game operations in West Sacramento during the 2027 season.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with React, Angular, or another modern framework.
• Experience with Azure or other cloud platforms.
• Familiarity with Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar CI/CD tools.
• Experience with Docker and containerized applications.
• Knowledge of application performance monitoring and logging tools.
• Experience working with high-volume, enterprise-scale applications.

The A’s Social Impact & Belonging Statement:
Social Impact & Belonging are in our organizational DNA. Our commitment to these values is unwavering – on and off the field. Together, we continue to build an inclusive, innovative, and dynamic culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates belonging and amplifies all voices. Combining a collaborative and innovative work environment with talented team members, we’ve created a workforce in which every team member has the tools to reach their full potential.

Equal Opportunity Consideration:
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.

To Apply
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Athletics.

Welcome to the second Five Things of the week. After a bonus recap of Saberseminar, it’s time to get back to what this column is all about: bunts. OK, fine, that’s not entirely true, but trying to bunt for a hit leads to some of the best on-field action, and by the time we hit September, I’m eager for some exciting fielding adventures, whether they end in an out or not. In fact, exciting adventures are pretty much all I’m looking for at the moment. Whether it’s playoff previews, low-stakes barnburners, or maniacally aggressive baserunners, I’m looking for chaos, tension, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat combined in a single play or single game. The past two weeks haven’t disappointed – just so long as you’re willing to extend your definition of action past the usual homers and strikeouts. So buckle up for another five things – after thanking patron saint Zach Lowe of The Ringer for his delightful column idea, which I’ve been faithfully ripping off for four years now.

1. Seeding Clashes
Five Things is generally the domain of silly baseball. The best plays don’t only happen in games between the best teams – really, there are more mid-level teams than great ones, so if anything, this is more of an underdogs column. But while the past few weeks have plenty of that, there have also been some downright amazing battles between teams fighting for the same playoff spot, and I find myself tuning into those games more frequently than anything else recently.

The impetus for this item actually started several weeks ago, when the Dodgers played seven games against the Brewers and Cubs in a two-week span. I was interested in seeing the best teams in the NL measure themselves against each other – and luckily, the league cooperated. The Brewers and Braves themselves squared off in a three-game set just before the Dodgers traveled to Atlanta. That set up a round robin of sorts between the NL’s best – the Brewers went 5-2, the Dodgers went 1-6, and the Braves were 4-2. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s no secret that starting pitchers throw fewer innings than they once did. Not only have complete games become a rarity (there have only been 20 so far this season), it is all too common to see starters limited to just five frames. The proof is in the pudding. Going by 10-year increments, the average number of innings per start has dropped steadily, going from 6.53 in 1976 to 5.08 in the current campaign. Moreover, the number of outings with 100 or more pitches this year is just 510, a 560 pace. Turn the calendar back to 2016 and there were 1,737 such outings. A decade earlier, there were 2,095.

How do current major league starters feel about the collective decline in workloads? Comprehensive polling isn’t practical, but I did query nine starters — some older, some younger — to get their thoughts on the subject. Here is what they had to say. Read the rest of this entry »

Quick programming note: I’m working on a very special bonus Five Things that would normally run in this slot, but as with most bonus things, it’s taking a bit longer than expected. Look for it next week, along with a regular Five Things. In the meantime, join me in puzzling over what’s gotten into the A’s.

In 2023, the Oakland A’s were putrid. They won only 50 games, got outscored by 339 runs, and generally looked like the worst team in baseball. But over the next two years, sandwiched around a move to Sacramento, they figured things out. In 2024, they improved by 19 games. In 2025, they improved again, to a 76-86 record. Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers, Tyler Soderstrom, Brent Rooker, and Jacob Wilson either broke in or broke out in that span. Coming into 2026, the A’s weren’t favorites in the AL West, but they were trendy playoff picks, with various market and model estimates spitting out projections between 75 and 80 wins.

Yeah, about that. The American League is about as bad as it’s ever been this year, and the AL West is particularly poor. Eighty-two wins might be enough to take the division. But the A’s aren’t part of the race. They’re 54-86, a mere game ahead of the Angels for the worst record in baseball. They’ve been outscored by 194 runs, 54 runs clear of the Rockies in second-to-last place. I had to investigate what went down – both because rubbernecking is fun, and because I want to figure out what I should think about the A’s for 2027.

The obvious place to start is the offense. Last season saw four different Athletics eclipse 3.0 WAR on the batting side – Kurtz and Wilson had standout rookie seasons while Langeliers and Soderstrom both broke out to establish new career highs. Throw in Rooker and Lawrence Butler as offensive building blocks, mix in a blazing-fast center fielder (your choice of Denzel Clarke or Henry Bolte), and the bones of an upper echelon offense were clearly there. Even if you count the two center field options as only one position filled, that’s seven spots spoken for. The A’s traded for Jeff McNeil to fill an eighth spot. Their plan was surely to score a boatload of runs – a great plan in the snug confines of Sutter Health Park. Read the rest of this entry »

Tommy John spent 26 seasons pitching in the majors from 1963–74 and then 1976–89, more than any player besides Nolan Ryan, but his level of fame – and indeed, his contribution to the game — stems as much from the year that cleaves that span as it does from his work on the mound. As the first recipient of the most famous sports medicine procedure of all time, the elbow ligament replacement surgery performed by Dr. Frank Jobe in late 1974 that now bears his name, John endured an arduous year-long rehab process before returning to pitch as well as ever. His recovery gave hope to generations of injured pitchers whose careers might otherwise have ended.

By the count of analyst Jon Roegele, keeper of the Tommy John Surgery List, over 2,700 professional players have undergone some variant of Jobe’s pioneering surgery on John during either their amateur or professional careers. That list ranges from Brent Strom — who did not make it back to the majors after becoming the second recipient of Jobe’s ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction technique but went on to become a successful pitching coach — to Hunter Greene, who just underwent his second Tommy John last week. So far, only three are in the Hall of Fame, namely Paul Molitor (the first position player to undergo the surgery), John Smoltz, and Billy Wagner, but Justin Verlander, Chris Sale, and Shohei Ohtani will almost certainly follow in their wake, with more to come. By Roegele’s accounting, over 39% of all major league pitchers in 2025 had undergone Tommy John surgery.

On the mound, John was the epitome of the “crafty lefty,” so good at his vocation that he arrived on the major league scene at age 20 and made his final appearance three days after his 46th birthday. His 700 starts and 288 wins are both more than any other 20th- or 21st-century pitcher outside the Hall of Fame except Roger Clemens, but John’s longevity, his more dominant cohorts — including six 300-game winners — and the surgery that bears his name have overshadowed the rest of his on-field accomplishments. Between going 0-for-15 on BBWAA ballots (where he topped out at 31.7%) and 0-for-5 on Era Committee ballots (where he peaked at 43.8% on the 2025 Classic Baseball ballot), he never came particularly close to election, though in 2013, he got a share of the spotlight when the Hall honored Jobe. Read the rest of this entry »

Bryce Rainer is one of the game’s most promising prospects. Currently No. 25 on The Board and No. 3 in our Detroit Tigers rankings, the 21-year-old shortstop boasts elite bat speed — eye-opening exit velocities are part of his profile — as well as arm strength that Eric Longenhagen has described as “incredible.” Our lead prospect analyst’s preseason report elaborated that Rainer was “pumping mid-90s gas off the mound in high school.”

His pitching background is what I wanted to hear about when I sat down with Rainer last month. After beginning the campaign with a smattering of games at Low-A Lakeland, Rainer has put up a .267/.374/.455 slash line and a 118 wRC+ with the.High-A West Michigan Whitecaps. His left-handed stroke has produced a dozen home runs across 358 trips to the plate with Detroit’s Midwest League affiliate.

Just how good was the 11th-overall pick in the 2024 draft when he was toeing the rubber for North Hollywood’s Harvard-Westlake High School?

“I don’t really love talking about myself,” Rainer replied when posed that question. “That’s kind of how I was brought up when it comes to interviews, but now that I don’t pitch anymore, I will say that I enjoyed my time on the mound. It was fun. I threw pretty hard and was successful at it.”

Pressed for radar readings, the humble ex-hurler affirmed that he indeed sat mid-90s, adding that he would occasionally reach the upper 90s. Repertoire-wise, he was fastball/curveball/slider/changeup. As you’d expect, scouts for a multitude of MLB organizations were keeping close watch when he stood atop the bump. Read the rest of this entry »

With apologies to Tarik Skubal and the Dodgers, for my money the most eye-catching deal ahead of Monday’s trade deadline was the Red Sox acquiring Adley Rutschman in a six-player blockbuster with the Orioles. Not only did a switch-hitting All-Star catcher move from one Wild Card contender to another, but he did so within the same division — and he’s more than a rental, with one more year of arbitration eligibility before he reaches free agency. Though he’s currently on the injured list due to inflammation in his left wrist, Rutschman is reportedly nearing a rehab assignment, and once he returns, he should provide a substantial upgrade for a team whose catchers landed on my Replacement-Level Killers list a few weeks ago.

Rustchman wasn’t the only prominent catcher on the move to a contender on Monday, as the Marlins traded Liam Hicks to the Rays, but he’s a part-time backstop whose hitting makes him a useful DH and first base option as well. While the concurrence of his being dealt illustrates that trading for a catcher on the fly in the midst of a playoff race isn’t unheard of, such moves do stand out. They’re not to be undertaken lightly because of the weighty responsibility that falls on a catcher’s shoulders in terms of quickly having to build relationships with a new pitching staff to understand repertoires, situational preferences, and interpersonal dynamics. Odds are that those newcomers are also expected to provide more offense than the catchers they replaced, because offensive slumps often spur teams to make such changes. Read the rest of this entry »

They might still play in a minor league ballpark, but things were looking up for the Sacramento-ish Athletics coming into the 2026 season. The franchise hadn’t had a winning record (and typically hasn’t even been close) since 2021, with their last stretch of playoff relevance ending after the COVID-shortened 2020 season. The 2025 A’s only went 76-86, but an offensive core of Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers, Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom, and Jacob Wilson seemed to give the club a good chance to score runs this year. The A’s entered the season with 21.4% playoff odds, their best in some time.

The team’s most plausible breakout scenario involved leaning on a good offense while cobbling together just enough pitching to keep from being on the short end of a bunch of slugfests. The A’s were even confident enough to be on the other side of a salary dump for once, picking up Jeff McNeil over the winter. Unfortunately, things haven’t gone exactly to plan. The A’s are 43-59 entering play on Friday. The offense has been middling, and though they’ve gotten a few promising pitching performances from J.T. Ginn, Hogan Harris, and Gage Jump, the staff has more holes than a wheel of Emmentaler after a run-in with a shotgun. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello. While on paternity leave, I kept a journal about baseball and my daughter, who is not named Derek Jr., but who will henceforth be referred to as Derek Jr. You can read all of the entries here.

May 21
So Jose Siri made the coolest play I’ve seen in a while. He’s on the Angels now, a fact I had missed entirely, even though I now realize I saw him pinch-running against the A’s just two nights ago. When you think about Jose Siri, you think of great center field defense (and one million strikeouts), but that great center field defense usually comes in the form of great jumps and fantastic athletic catches. Tonight, however, he racked up an out with a combination of savvy and a perfect, powerful throw. A’s right fielder Carlos Cortes hit a routine single back up the middle. There was nothing notable about that whatsoever, but the Angels must have a scouting report that says Cortes likes to take aggressive turns when he singles. Whoever wrote it deserves a raise.

Siri played the ball normally right up until the moment when he didn’t. He intercepted it at a slow jog. It looked like he wasn’t taking the threat of Cortes going for a double seriously, but what he was actually doing was baiting Cortes, while also allowing the slow route to let him field the ball with his momentum still pushing him to his left, toward first base. That way, when he came up firing behind Cortes, he was able to got everything he had behind the throw. First baseman Nolan Schanuel was clearly in on it too. He lurked in foul territory, out of view of both Cortes and the first base coach so as to avoid arousing any suspicion, then popped back onto the field in time to catch the throw and apply the tag.

Read the rest of this entry »