On the back end of the one of the worst team seasons in Major League Baseball history, the Oakland A's were eliminated from postseason contention for 2023 this weekend. The A's, at 38-92, are 34.5 games out of a playoff spot with 32 games to play.
The A's had previously been knocked out of the AL West race with a 12-1 loss to the Orioles on Aug. 20. That marked the earliest in franchise history that the team had been eliminated in the division race. The previous club record for earliest divisional elimination was Aug. 28, set by last year's A's. Prior to 2022, the A's had been elimination from the division race before Sept. 1 only once, in 1979.
At present, the A's are on pace for 115 losses this season. Should that come to pass, it would be tied for the fourth-most losses in season ever endured by an MLB team and the most since the 2003 Tigers lost 119 games:
1962 New York Mets
120
.250
2003 Detroit Tigers
119
.265
1916 Philadelphia Athletics
117
.235
1935 Boston Braves
115
.248
1904 Washington Senators
113
.252
The depths reached by 2023 A's is a consequence of a calculated effort on the part of owner John Fisher. In an effort to run a basement-level payroll and abet his desired relocation to Las Vegas, Fisher since the end of the 2021 season has forced trades of core talents like like Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Murphy, Chris Bassitt, Frankie Montas, and Sean Manaea and allowed erstwhile manager Bob Melvin to depart for San Diego. In that sense, what's befallen the A's is not only unsurprising but also entirely planned.
Now that the A's have been eliminated from playoff contention -- despite there being six berths in each league up for grabs -- the attention shifts to how many losses they'll stack up before their season ends on Oct. 1.
Of note is that the A's over the remainder of the regular season play one of the toughest schedules in baseball, as measured by opponents' average winning percentage, and the narrow majority of those games will take place on the road. As well, the A's right now have a seasonal run differential of minus-297. That puts them within range of the record for the worst run differential in the annals of MLB -- minus-349, set by the 1932 Red Sox. As such, the 2023 A's may not be done when it comes to making the most unwelcome kinds of history.
