Jacob Wilson

Then the league found a hole in his swing.

They made some adjustments, and since then he has counter-back, and he essentially took the starting center fielder spot from Denzel Clark with his play, and he's just such a dynamic player, and there was all the talk of, especially in spring training or early in the season, "Well, who's the leadoff hitter? Is it gonna be Kurcz? Is it Wilson? Is it Langeliers? Is it Butler? Is it, is it Clark? Who, who should it be?" Well, Henry Bolte not only has solidified center field, Ray, but he- I think he solidified that leadoff spot some of the A's have been looking for for a while.

I agree.

He certainly pivoted that, that spot for me for next year.

This is a group question for future GM and Townie, our assistant GM and Nate.

So all right, I feel like this year we have ...

So as you know, we have sort of our fab five core of guys, right? We have Kurts and Langoliers and Wilson, Rooker, et cetera.

Question for you guys, where do you see Bolte and Gelof now? Are they in the same kind of tier as these guys? Do we now have a c- a core of seven? What do you guys think about Bolte and Gelof and kind of where they fit in with the Kurts and the Langoliers and the Rookers and whatnot?

And like you said, if you wait till the first week of October, then the next thing you know, you look up and it's January and you're a month away from spring training.

So the other guys that have had the surgeries are progressing well, and Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom, bigger operations, longer periods of time for rehab.

but fully expected to have them ready to go when camp starts.

A couple of players want to get into first.

And like you said, if you wait till, you know, the first week of October, then the next thing you know, you look up and it's January and you're a month away from spring training.

So, you know, the other guys that have had the surgeries are progressing well and Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom.

You know, bigger operations, longer periods of time for rehab, but fully expected to have them ready to go when camp starts.

A couple of players want to get into first.

They have so many infielders.

But he kind of took control, especially after Jacob Wilson was out for the year.

Donovan Walton's had a nice finish to the year.

So, yeah, I think just the way that the offense overall has been able to kind of hold it down, I think they lead the league in homers this month, right? Yeah.

You talk about JT Ginn, you know, Gage Jump, you know, Perkins had an excellent outing, his last outing, the back of the bullpen's been good with Alvarado and Medina and Hogan Harris.

I mean, they've got some really good arms and they're, you know, you just wish that They could have a little more depth in that department and the injuries, you know, put Nick Kurtz out, put Soderstrom out, Jacob Wilson, you name it.

They were all the starting players, Langoliers, all these guys were out, all-star players.

And that just killed the team.

But talk us through your A's pick and how you think about it now.

Yeah, I thought the A's coming into the year, they just had a great young lineup core there, right? You have obviously Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson.

You have so many good young hitters in that lineup.

All right.

But it's just so many bad seasons and a lot of injuries, too, there for the A's.

But it's not just the injuries, right? Like, okay, Nick Kurtz was good, but he got hurt.

Jacob Wilson, also injuries there.

He hasn't been very good.

Something else to keep an eye on are some arbitration extension candidates.

So the good news heading into this off season, they have a relatively small group of salary arbitration candidates, primarily because the front office is actively locked up several young core stars like Tyler Soderstrom, Lawrence Butler, and Jacob Wilson to pre-arbitration extensions.

The primary arbitration eligible players for the upcoming cycle include Shea Langoliers, This is the second year of arbitration.

He's expected to garner a salary of $7.5 million.