It is Chapter 6 and we are ready for a new season. Season 2 ended in heartbreak, but we showed the world that we are here and ready to dominate. This past offseason was massive for us as we added Garret Crochet, Jarren Duran and three elite relievers to complement Mason Miller.
With that being said, let’s begin the simulation of the first half of the season.
Fast forward to the 2027 All Star Break and we have six All Stars. SIX!!! Shoutout to our boys Mason Miller, Garret Crochet, Shane McClanahan, Evan Phillips, Jarren Duran, and Brent Rooker who represented Montreal well in the mid-summer classic.
Skip a couple more weeks, as always, and we find ourselves in first place at the trade deadline. There is no real weakness on this roster, which is awesome considering the state of the team at the last two trade deadlines, but I set out to make the rotation and bullpen even stronger than they were. I am very serious about this contention window I have opened for us, and nothing is standing in my way.
The Rays are 45-65 and sit 24.5 games out of first place. They are looking more and more like a lost cause each year, but they can continue to serve me well. AJ Smith Shawver is just not good so far, and if we plan on making a deep push into the postseason, I need reliable starters. I called up the struggling Rays and tried to aim big. They have two big arms in their rotation that are wasting away.
Ryan Pepiot and Shane Baz.
Both have a lengthy history of injuries but also track records of dominance when healthy. Both are under control for the remainder of the season and all of 2028 too. This could be a massive acquisition for me as I look to keep the team hot in the second half and continue to mission of building a sustainable juggernaut.
I dug into the system of prospects and offered up 18-year-old pitching prospect Ozzie Diaz, 19-year-old Rafael Cervantes and outfielder Henry Bolte. The Rays liked this package and was willing to send over Shane Baz in a groundbreaking trade. Baz could be a #3 behind McClanahan and Crochet for a long time. Big move for both the present and future. Who needs a farm system when your MLB roster is loaded with young, controllable, elite talent?
I also sent a package of AJ Puk and Nicky Lopez over to the Brewers for Abner Uribe, who is struggling a bit this year but has potential to be solid. I, personally, do not care for AJ Puk so I felt it was addition by subtraction just by sending him away. Turning him into another young and controllable reliever may prove to be big in the long run.
That is it for the deadline, and I could not be more excited for the second half. This team is ready. Let’s fast forward again to the end of the season.
It is October again and we have DOMINATED the league. As I hoped, all my acquisitions proved to be solid as the A’s had the best record in baseball with 114 wins and 48 losses. The Mariners finished second in the division with 96 wins and were 18 games out of first. This is a message to all who doubted my A’s and said we could never do it. The job is unfinished for sure, but we have now been propelled into the “serious contender” tier of team alongside the Dodgers, Yankees, Phillies and Mets. Obviously that is the case as we led the MLB in wins, but a year and a half before this, we were being laughed at and under-appreciated.
The playoffs are sure to be electric this year, but first lets give a nod to our award winners from this season.
Garrett Crochet pitched to a 17-1 record as he struck out 222 batters in 211 innings. He recorded an ERA of 1.79 and a WHIP of 0.94 in his first season with Montreal. However, that earned him second place in the Cy Young Award race. He shockingly lost with these numbers, but to a friendly face named SHANE MCCLANAHAN. That’s right!
My boy Shane. The face and ace of the rebuild. Shane won his first Cy Young Award this season as he won 23 games, struck out 220 batters in 215 innings and pitched to a 2.55 ERA and 0.97 WHIP. Very similar to Crochet, and I think the latter should have won, but this game really values the win stat. In either case, the A’s dominated award season as even Bubba Chandler finished third in the voting.
We had the first and second place winners in the MVP race as well as Shane’s performance was good enough to make him a runner up for it. The winner of the MVP is Brent Rooker, yet again. When I took over this team, I acknowledged him as a star, but he has grown into a two-time MVP, 4-time All Star, 3-time Silver Slugger and the 2027 Home Run Champ. Rooker finished the season with 44 homers for the second straight year and his second consecutive 130+ RBI performance. He slashed .282/.362/.569 during his MVP repeat performance.
And lastly, we had Mason Miller win the Delivery Man of the Year Award for the first time as he struck out 86 batters in 74 innings to the tune of a 2.43 ERA. He racked up a whopping 57 saves this year and continued his dominant run for us in the late innings of so many games. He now has 141 saves during my tenure as GM and 169 in his career, which is number 2 all time on the A’s leaderboards. Also, Jared Koenig racked up 31 saves as well which is insane that the computer gave him that many chances over Mason. 31 saves is a nice number for any primary closer, but he stepped into a backup role over the other options in my loaded pen and had a monster year.
But more on the individual stats later. Let’s get to the playoffs.
Round 1 opens at home against our division rivals, the Seattle Mariners, and we have revenge on our minds. The Mariners are the ones who ended our Cinderella run in year 2. They are the ones who showed the world that dreams can die. But they are also the ones who sparked the shift in our clubhouse. They are the ones who broke our hearts and made us want to win even more than ever. All year, my players have had the matchups with Seattle circled on the calendar as they want revenge. We have succeeded all year long against them and it will not truly feel like a full circle moment until we send the Mariners home. I know my team is jacked up going into this series, so I made sure the first two home games were started by Crochet and Shane.
Game 1 was a major statement to our foes from Seattle as Crochet shoved through 7 innings of 1-run baseball and the bullpen closed the door with two scoreless innings to win with little resistance. Multi-hit performances from Jac Caglianone, Connor Norby and Coby Mayo helped lift the offense in the 4-1 win. Game 2 was another dominant effort in which Rooker and Mayo both homered and Shane pitched 8 innings while only allowing 2 runs. Game 2 was 7-2 in favor of the good guys.
Game 3 was a much closer one as Bubba Chandler delivered 6.1 innings with only 1 earned run. There was a nice back-and-forth between both teams in the late innings and both bullpens were hit a bit hard, but a massive 3-run blast by Coby Mayo and another solo shot from Caglianone propelled us to a clutch 5-4 victory and a series sweep of our biggest. The kids are here and now have playoff experience which should terrify the Baltimore Orioles, who will be the next team up travelling to Montreal.
The second round opens up again with Crochet on the mound and we need him to set the tone again for us. It is safe to say he did just that as he tossed 7.2 scoreless innings and gave the ball to Mason Miller with a 1 run lead to try and finish the shutout. 1.1 scoreless innings later, Miller closed out the game and sealed a 1-0 victory. The lone run came on a clutch double by Jac Caglianone (again) in the 6th inning.
Game 2 in Montreal was here and it was McClanahan day, which is always fun. This time around, he was hit around a bit more than usual. He gave us a quality start of 6.1 innings and 3 earned runs allowed while only striking out 5. However, the offense backed him up nicely as they made sure he left the game with a lead. It was 5-3 when he left the game and it stayed that way until the end as the bullpen dominated yet again and Coby Mayo continued his scorching run with another monster blast. That must have felt great for him against the team that gave up on him and traded him away.
The A’s quickly grabbed a 2-0 series lead and were starting to sniff the World Series a bit more with each passing inning. They head on over to Baltimore excited but determined to finish the job. Game 3 was going to be a big one, of course, as it would either result in a 3-0 series lead or let the Orioles right back into the thick of things.
With the pressure on, the A’s managed to score early in the game as they pulled out to a three-run lead by the third inning and that alleviated some stress for Bubba Chandler who threw 7 beautiful innings with 8 strikeouts and only 1 run allowed. The entire team came to play this one as they racked up 12 hits and scored 6 runs as they won the game 6-1. Playoff legend, Evan Carter, combined with Rooker and Shea Langeliers to get 7 of the team’s 12 hits.
They now move on to game 4 with a sweep on the line and the World Series in a very reachable distance. I could have went with Crochet, but I decided to maximize the wiggle room and give a key playoff start to mid-season acquisition, Shane Baz. I was eager to see how he would handle the situation and was curious to see if he would rise up to it. In yet another game, we scored quickly as we gave Baz a 5 run lead by the third inning thanks largely to Jac Caglianone and Brent Rooker who both went yard again.
Baz came out the gates hard and never looked back. He allowed 1 run in 7.1 innings to set up Zach Jackson and Trevor Megill nicely. The latter two relievers dominated and closed out a 5-1 win to send the A’s to their first World Series appearance in 38 years. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! We have won the pennant and are now advancing to the Fall Classic against the dreaded Los Angeles Dodgers, which is no easy task. The Dodgers won 108 games this season and are the only thing standing between my team and glory.
Let’s get this series going.
Game 1 again opens up in Montreal with Crochet on the bump against Roki Sasaki. Mookie Betts opened up the scoring with a 2-run homer in the first inning. However, it was quickly answered by a clutch 3-run blast by Shea Langeliers in the next half inning and an RBI Single by Jarren Duran to quickly make it 4-2. Crochet buckled down and stayed strong for 6 innings as he struck out 9 batters and lowered his playoff ERA to 1.30. Cade Smith and Mason Miller closed the door in the last 3 innings and snagged game 1 for Montreal.
Game 2 was a big test for Shane McClanahan, who is now accustomed to playoff dominance, as he faced off directly against Shohei Ohtani. He got hit for 2 runs early on as Mookie Betts hit another first-inning two run homer. However, the A’s continued to back up their pitching staff as they knocked in 5 runs over 5 innings against Ohtani. A 3-RBI effort by Caglianone led the team to an incredibly clutch victory at home to grab a 2-0 series lead against the mighty Dodgers.
Game 3 was in LA and it was Bubba Chandler’s time to shine. After a few clean frames and a nice 3 run lead gifted to him, thanks to another Brent Rooker home run, he entered the fourth inning on cloud 9. The wheels unfortunately fell off in the fourth as two big errors led to a back-breaking 7 run inning for the Dodgers, in which Bubba got charged for 4 of those. Joey Estes provided some big time long-relief to keep us in it, but that lead was insurmountable against Tyler Glasnow and the Dodgers. Game 3 goes to LA.
The fourth game of the series was pivotal as it could allow the Dodgers to tie up the series at home with a third game in LA queued for the next day as well. The Dodgers threw Sasaki back out on the mound again and I could have answered with Crochet, but I wanted to give Baz a chance at an encore. Game 4 was a dogfight for most of the way, but one team pulled away in the late stages. In a game where guys like Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, Nick Castellanos, Teoscar Hernandez, Brent Rooker, and Jarren Duran all participated, one man had an unbelievably huge 4 hit performance and it was none of them. It was, in fact, Xavier Edwards, who knocked in three runs, hit a homer and brought his postseason batting average up to .361 in a tremendous game 4 victory. The A’s are now 1 game away from a championship and have Crochet and McClanahan ready to rock. The Dodgers will call upon Blake Snell to keep them alive at home.
Game 5 started with a bang as Xavier Edwards came through again with a big-time leadoff home run. It was a huge moment for the A’s as it broke Snell’s confidence early. He then struck out Duran and gave up a single to Brent Rooker. Desperate to get back on track, Snell faced Coby Mayo. Mayo again was a mid-season acquisition last year who had minor success with us and struggled a bit in the playoffs last year. He took a big leap forward this year and established himself as my third baseman of the future, and the playoffs have played out much differently for him this time around. He now has the biggest at bat of his career in game 5 of the World Series and he delivered.
BANG. Two run shot off Snell to give them a surreal 3-run lead in the first inning.
The third inning came along and Xavier Edwards had another moment in which he hit an RBI single to plate JJ Bleday. Coby Mayo got another hit and was able to score on a clutch RBI single from who else but Jac Caglianone. Snell departed the game after allowing 5 runs in 3 innings. Grochet buckled a bit as he gave up 3 more runs, but did not break as he finished a strong quality start after 6 innings.
The bullpen entered in the 7th inning of game 5 of the World Series and it was time. The bullpen was a travesty when I first inherited the team. It remained a weakness for two years and cost us the playoffs last season. It was my biggest priority in the offseason and at the trade deadline and it was now their moment. Did I do my job in securing pieces to pitch ahead of Mason?
The short answer to your question is…yes.
Cade Smith tossed 1.2 perfect innings and was relieved by Jared Koenig (0.00 playoff ERA) who finished the 8th inning cleanly. My guys got the ball to our superstar closer with a two-run lead in tact. The nerves are through the roof. Mason Miller was the first big contract in this era of A’s baseball. I made sure that he knew his value before I even made a single move to add to the team. It was always Mason Miller. It had to be, right? Surely he couldn’t hurt me in a situation like this.
And he didn’t. Two strikeouts and 1 perfect frame later, Mason Miller has closed out the game and the Montreal A’s are WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS.
Down go the Dodgers as we outscore them 22-14 over the course of 5 games and bring home the hardware. I absolutely did not expect to win the World Series in 3 years with this team, but I knew it was possible after season 2. It was such a fun and awesome leap into relevancy and it set the stage for pure dominance in 2027. So many big names were on the move around the league, but I kept pushing for needs I felt would fit the squad. The bullpen ended up being one of the best ever assembled and my rotation went from a massive liability to arguably our biggest strength.
Brent Rooker evolved into a perennial MVP (he even won Postseason MVP this year) while youngsters like Caglianone and Coby Mayo seem to be right behind him. Xavier Edwards was a shifty speedster acquired to be an experimental stop gap in the middle infield and he developed into a master of thievery, a huge piece of my core and now the literal World Series MVP.
I will include a full breakdown of stats in the next chapter as the end of this one must solely focus on the championship winning Montreal A’s. The city of Montreal got a new team, stadium and now a parade all within two years.
I can not describe how high the vibes are here and with the quality and age of this core, this may only just be the beginning of something historic. I smell a dynasty here, but no matter what happens, this team accomplished something in 2027 that no one else can take away from them. They swept the major awards, won 114 regular season games, went 11-1 in the postseason and won the whole damn thing.
Like it or not, they are champions.
LET’S GO A’s!
