Good morning A’s fans! Happy Thursday!

Yesterday our starting catcher Shea Langeliers was honored with the American League Player of the Month award, winning it for the first time in his career after a torrid month of August:

It’s a well-deserved recognition of his incredible month of August, during which he slashed .284/.307/.661 with 11 home runs, second-most of the month in the American League behind only Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero. His OPS led the American League in the month and was a huge reason why he won this month’s honors. He also ranked tied for third in doubles in the AL, behind teammates Brent Rooker and Tyler Soderstrom, which is a funny coincidence.

It’s also the second consecutive month that an Athletic has won the monthly award. Langeliers joins rookie first baseman Nick Kurtz as A’s recipients this year. It’s the first time the A’s have had back-to-back Player of the Month winners since 2001, when it was Jermaine Dye winning the award in August and Eric Chavez taking it in September:

Langeliers has improved in every offensive category this year. He’s massively cut down on the strikeouts, going from 27.2% last year to just a 19.5% rate this year, and he’s about to set a career-high in home runs with a chance to break the A’s single-season homer record from a catcher (though he’s beginning to run out of time to catch up to Terry Steinbach’s 35 homer mark). Heck, he’s already joined the record books after being only the second catcher to hit three home runs in a game out of the leadoff spot (first was Travis d’Arnaud in 2019) back on August 5th. That performance also put him in even rarer territory: he’s one of four catchers with two separate three-homer games in their careers, joining d’Arnaud, Gary Carter, and Johnny Bench. That’s a small club to be apart of with a couple big names headlining the group.

The stud catcher has been overshadowed by his AL West rival Cal Raleigh and his MVP-level campaign, but Langeliers is quietly becoming one of the best catchers in the sport. He’s second in homers at catcher behind the Big Dumper and he’s a critical part of a future Athletics playoff team. There haven’t been as many positives this year as many fans probably hoped, but Langeliers’ continued development as a hitter has been one of the biggest and best stories for the A’s this year. And he’s still only 27 and about to enter his prime.

Congrats Shea! Well deserved. And to the rest of you, have a great day!

Still one of the best catches at the Coliseum:

Something to consider when judging our prospects in Triple-A: