A lot can go right or wrong for a team that doesn’t have the unlimited funds to mask weaknesses by tossing endless money at them. And even then who has a better record this season, the spendy Mets or the scrappy Tigers?
For the A’s some performance-based questions will confront them next March, particularly on the mound where poor performance did them in early as they went into a 21-game free fall that effectively ended their contention before it got out of the parking lot.
But undeniably there is big time talent ready to take the field in 2026. Tyler Soderstrom has blossomed into a fearsome hitter who can beat you to all fields and in the recent past he has played a gold glove LF in just his 4th month on the job. Nick Kurtz has been the second coming of Jim Thome at age 22, Jacob Wilson might be legitimately batting .340-.350 had he not played through a bruised wrist with a forearm fracture chaser. Lawrence Butler has had a disappointing season but flashes brilliance when he’s locked in and Denzel Clarke is in a league of his own when it comes to patrolling CF. Shea Langeliers’ next HR will be his 30th and his K rates have never been lower. And on and on it goes.
If everyone can take the field, that is. Vying to be part of the every day position player core are Langeliers, Kurtz, Gelof, Muncy, Wilson, Hernaiz, Soderstrom, Clarke, and Butler. And 1/3 of them have established a pattern of soft tissue issues that keep them off the field.
The A’s surge in their last 52 games, 31-21 even after last night’s loss, correlates with Kurtz emerging as a true hitting force: .395/.480/.953 in July and .329/.471/.537 in August, .391/.503/.750 since the All-Star break …the numbers just go on and on.
Except they are on hold when Kurtz can’t suit up. A hip flexor strain cost him time in 2024, a hamstring injury time in 2025, and now “soreness” in his oblique that threatens to derail his season at the end. These are not just fluky injuries like when you’re hit by a pitch and sustain a fracture or have an unexpected appendectomy.
These are the types of injuries that if a player is prone to soft tissue maladies they tend to resurface — and even the nagging ones take their time to heal. The A’s would be better off for Kurtz to be Jim Thome for 150 games rather than be Barry Bonds for 90.
Wilson is another key cog with a history of soft tissue issues, specifically his hamstrings. His recent IL stint was just “one of those things” but Wilson’s hamstrings have been a concern this season and prior to 2025. The A’s have a lot of power up and down the lineup, but Wilson adds an essential element of batting average and low K rate that is sorely missed when he is out. The 2026 season doesn’t look nearly as bright without him in the mix.
Clarke is the third key player with a history of soft tissue injuries. Most recently he suffered a grade 2 right ip adductor strain scoring from 2B on a hit where there was no play being made on him. And then he reinjured it in his first rehab game.
It’s not new for Clarke to have trouble staying on the field. He suffered two injuries in 2023, though these were shoulder injuries that relate more to Clarke’s all out style of play in CF — something he can better manage, through self-control and common sense than you can stop balky soft tissue from straining and tearing.
If you imagine how good these A’s could be in 2026 with these 3 on the field along side their talented colleagues, you also can easily see how compromised the team is when any — let alone all — of them are sidelined.
All this doesn’t even consider the pitchers who, in fairness, share any propensity for elbow or shoulder maladies with “every team in MLB”. But the IL log for Jack Perkins is long, there are questions around Jacob Lopez and “forearm tightness” (google that and you’ll get roughly 1.3 million hits for “Tommy John surgery”), JT Ginn has had trouble staying on the mound over the years and even Luis Severino fell prey to the soft tissue blues this month courtesy of a left oblique strain.
Point being, there is a lot of talent ready to take the league by storm in 2026 — if they can literally take the field. The team MVP could easily turn out to be one of the strength and conditioning coaches.