A's Zack Gelof Eager to Get Back to Training for 2025

Jason Burke | Oct 15, 2024

Sep 20, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; Oakland Athletics second base Zack Gelof (20) fields a grounder during the third inning against the New York Yankees at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images / Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images

Zack Gelof's 2024 season with the Oakland A's wasn't what he wanted it to be. The 24-year-old hit .211 with a .270 OBP, 17 homers and 25 stolen bases, and as the season wound down, he said that he found a little comfort in knowing that this was his floor.

Whether or not there is a worse season that the A's second baseman could have, Gelof doesn't want to find out. During the last couple of games at the Coliseum, he told A's on SI about how he plans to start his training for 2025 on October 17. He has a date picked out, and it's before the MLB postseason is even over.

After the A's final game in Oakland, Gelof, who has connections to the Coliseum through his parents, was still buzzing about the game he was just a part of. "Going out to warm-ups was exhilarating. Barry Zito singing the national anthem, I got goosebumps. Man, if that doesn't get you fired up to play baseball, nothing does." You could feel his love for the game as he spoke, which should make it less surprising that he wants to get back out there.

Now, Gelof wasn't planning on heading right into getting ready for 2025. First, he has a vacation planned. Somewhere tropical.

The plan isn't to hit until after Thanksgiving, but he wants to get started in the weight room as soon as possible. "It's basically my movements. I need to train a different way to make sure that I'm getting into the ground. You look at all the great hitters in the game, they all have that downward movement through the ball."

Gelof was attempting to make some adjustments throughout the course of the season, but now, with a few months off to reset and work on getting the mechanics down, he's hoping to come back as a better version of himself.

"I've hit this way my whole life, so I think getting exposed pretty bad, while also still competing, it feels tough. But you look at a guy like Greg Maddux, he had like a 5.20 ERA in his first full season. Not saying I'm gonna be near Greg Maddux, I'm not a pitcher, but I think it's part of my story and I've just gotta own it."

One of the goals with his new program will be to lower his strikeout rate. "I'd like to lower my strikeout rate to [Luis] Arraez, but I'm not going to be training like him," he said with a smile. Gelof's strikeout rate at the end of the 2024 season was 34.4%, which ranked in the first percentile in all of baseball. The average for second basemen in 2024 was 20.4%, while the average league wide was 22.6%.

"I just gotta get the best out of my body and just be simple and use my athleticism to just be consistent every day."

For what it's worth, Maddux had a combined 5.59 ERA across his first two seasons in the big leagues, spanning a total of 186 2/3 innings. In his third season he was named to his first All Star game.