MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Byrnes

The A’s concluded their 2025 season on a low note, losing 2-of-3 to the Kansas Royals in the final weekend of the regular season.The team finished with a 76-86 record, a seven game improvement over 2024, but fans witnessed the potential that fell short.

The Royals series showed the promise, the progress, and the problems that is the 2025 season.

In the opener, the A’s kept the top of the lineup intact, and timely hits by Jacob Wilson and Shea Langeliers resulted in enough runs needed to secure a 4-3 victory.

Saturday’s game was a close 4-2 loss, with the heart of the order going 0-for-13 at the plate.

Starter Luis Morales kept it close but with only Langeliers locked in on K.C. pitching, he couldn’t pull a win.

Manager Mark Kotsay delivered an unserious lineup card to the home plate umpire Sunday.

Kotsay emptied his bench for the third day in a row, with the bottom half of the lineup contributing eight of the benches 11 strikeouts, and two errors in the blowout 9-2 loss.

Kotsay’s habit of treating series finales like some minor league developmental program has cost the A’s this year. He needs to start putting the best players on the field every day and stop tinkering so much with the lineup.

Sitting player on hot streaks was prevalent as well, and these decisions have to evolve for Kotsay-led teams to improve.

Athletics Batting:
Kotsay sat C Shea Langeliers in the season finale, during the hottest hitting streak of his career.

Dating back to the previous series, Langeliers batted 13-for-18 (.722) over his last four games, and with the A’s not being in the playoffs, sitting the teams hottest bat seemed unnecessary.

Willie MacIver, his backup, went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts and allowed a stolen base in his absence while Carlos Cortes struck out three times taking Langeliers leadoff spot in his 1-for-5 night.
Shortstop Jacob Wilson, who hit a bases-clearing double in the opener, was also benched along with his second best batting average in the American League of .311.

With the randomness of the final lineup, one would assume utilityman Max Schuemann would have gotten the start.

With a .198 batting average, he needed more than two at-bats to get his average over the infamous Mendoza Line (.200), but he entered the game late, went 0-for-1 with a walk.

He finished at .197, a painful spot on every baseball card he has for the rest of his career.

Likely AL Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz ended his rookie campaign in a most fitting manner, his 36th home run in his final rookie season at-bat.

One has to wonder if he would have exceeded 50 home runs had he been called up earlier and appeared in more than 117 of 162 games.

Athletics Pitching:
The Athletics three starters have a combined 19 career starts and it showed in this series.

Mason Barnett did have the longest outing of his career, at 5 2/3 innings, and held K.C. to just three hits.

Luis Morales took the loss Saturday, going just 4 2/3 innings and giving up three runs.

His calm demeanor exudes confidence exceeding his experience and looks to be a solid starter moving forward.

Reliever Brady Basso was Kotsay’s ‘starter by committee’ pitcher and he lasted just one and a third innings before yielding to six other relievers on the day.

While multiple relievers struggled this series, many ended the season with decent era numbers.

Basso (2.31), Mike Kelly (3.18), Elvis Alvarado (3.18), and Hogan Harris (3.20) all overcame e.r.a. crushing outings to bring their season totals to respectability.

Upcoming Column:
Coming soon will be an analysis of each position, and how the Athletics performed in 2025, followed by a look ahead to the 2026 season.

The Athletics have a Top 5 lineup at the plate and starting pitching must be the focus for 2026.