A's Butler, Gelof Off to Very Different Starts

Last season A's right fielder Lawrence Butler broke out in a big way once the calendar flipped to July. The 24-year-old finished the year batting .262 with a .317 on-base, along with 22 homers and 18 stolen bases. He's also reportedly talking with the team about an extension after being one of the top-10 bats in baseball after the All Star break.

Zack Gelof had a similar season in 2023, coming up from the minors and showcasing his potential. At 23, he came up and hit .267 with a .337 OBP, complete with 14 homers and 14 steals. His wRC+ was 132. Butler's over the full season last year was a 130.

Without digging too deeply, those are pretty similar seasons. The difference is that Butler's full-season stats aren't representative of just how good he was in the second half. He posted a 155 wRC+ and batted .300 with a .345 OBP, adding 13 homers and 12 swipes.

The biggest difference is that Butler cut his strikeout rate by ten percent, going from 29.5% to 19.8% from the first half to the second half of the season. Gelof's k-rate was at 27.3% in 2023, then shot up to 34.4% last year. That was the highest strikeout rate among all qualified hitters in 2024.

This spring, both players have continued on those same trajectories in the early going. Butler, playing in a pair of games thus far, has gone 2-for-3 in each contest, which includes a home run and a double. His four hits are tied for the sixth-most in spring training.

On the flip side of that, Gelof has struggled out of the gate, striking out in five of his six at-bats. Those five strikeouts are also tied for the most in spring training thus far, but the other five players have also had an extra at-bat or two, and each of those players also has a hit and a run scored.

It's important to stress that it's very early in camp, and with five weeks to go until Opening Day, there is plenty of time for this to become a tiny blip in an incredible season. The worry here, especially for a young player, is that coming off of the season he had last year, that this beginning could start to snowball for Gelof quickly.

At the end of the 2024 regular season, he was talking about how excited he was to get back at it in 2025 and about the work he was going to do during the offseason. Now, that time is here, and it has to feel a bit like that work isn't paying off immediately.

The A's players and coaches constantly preach the importance of process. Even when things aren't going quite the way you'd like, if you believe in the process, the results will come. Sticking with the process is what Gelof is going to have to do in order to have success.

That said, it has to be a little worrisome seeing other players getting time at second base to begin spring games. It's not like the A's are just having a prospect get some time at Gelof's position--they're playing veterans like Luis Urías and former first rounder like Max Muncy, who is pretty close to the bigs.

Those types of players could take playing time away from Gelof during the season. While it's important to trust the process and get back to producing, it also has to feel like there is a countdown clock looming as well.