Matt Chapman Reflects on Oakland Years Ahead of A’s Return
On June 14th 2017, Matt Chapman was pissed.
He was scratched from the Triple A Nashville lineup despite collecting nine hits in his previous three games. But when manager Ryan Christenson told him why, the infielder’s mood shifted.
The next day, a 24-year-old Chapman rolled into the home entrance of Oakland Coliseum for the first time. It was a drive he’d make hundreds of times during his five seasons with the Athletics, to a park where he played his first MLB game, got his first hit, and dinged his first homer. But now, five years after that initial arrival, Chapman has another first, finding the stadium’s road entrance.
“It's gonna be weird,” Chapman said. “I was thinking about like riding on the bus over there and going in on the visitor side. It'll be weird, just because I pulled into that place so many times.”
When Oakland visited Toronto earlier this season, Chapman saw his old teammates and coaches. He reconnected with Tony Kemp and Chad Pinder and received his 2021 Gold Glove Award presented by A's manager Mark Kotsay. But Monday's Blue Jays game will be the first time he’ll be back in the city of Oakland since Chapman was traded to Toronto in Spring Training for a package of prospects. He’ll see with the stadium staff he grew close to, the clubbies he still texts, and the Athletics fans he now empathizes with.
“I think it’s not easy to be an A’s fan,” Chapman said. “Sometimes you have your favorite guys and they get shipped off to different places. It’s just kind of a, you know, a cycle.”
Chapman has lived through that Oakland competitive cycle. A month after his MLB debut the A's, who would finish the year 75-87, began a deadline sell-off, trading Sean Doolitte, Ryan Madson, Sonny Gray, and other veterans.
Five years later, it was Chapman's corner infield teammate and friend Matt Olson who kickstarted the teardown, when he was flipped to Atlanta and signed a mega-extension with the Braves. Showing up to a delayed Spring Training, Chapman had a feeling a domino would drop and when Olson was dealt, the “writing was on the wall,” he said. Two days later, Chapman was traveling to Dunedin to join the Blue Jays.
The competitive windows and cycles of rebuilding happen for almost every franchise, but in Oakland the fans are hyper aware of it, Chapman said. The A's have never had an Opening Day payroll over $100 million and the largest free agent contract handed out in Oakland was a three-year $30 million deal to Billy Butler in 2015.
"Credit to those fans for sticking in there," Chapman said. "They deserve a good team out there and to continue to have a team there."
In between the selling, though, the A's have had success. In Chapman's four full seasons in Oakland, the A's made the playoffs three times, winning the AL West and a playoff round in 2020. With a core of Chapman, Olson, Chris Bassitt, Frankie Montas, and Marcus Semien, Oakland posted 97 wins (or a 97-win pace in the shortened 2020) for three straight seasons.
"Ever since me and Olson and some of those guys got there, we didn't stop winning," Chapman said.
Those victories are what Chapman's most proud of, looking back at his time in Oakland, as playoff appearances are extra-special with the A's, he said. With a payroll half the size of some of the top teams and a constant retool cycle, being on the A’s gives you a bit of a chip on your shoulder. When you played Chapman’s Oakland team, specifically, you “knew you were gonna get a fight every day," the third basemen said.
"We were always the underdogs, we never got any credit," he said. "So to be able to go out there and do what we did and defy some of the odds, that was cool."
Even joining a Blue Jays team that entered the 2022 season near the top of World Series odds, Chapman doesn't lose that underdog Oakland chip. Chapman's success in Oakland is a reason he'll be applauded and celebrated during his A's return on Monday, but he's still looking for more.
"I've never been more motivated to have a good season and help a team win," Chapman said. "Wherever that is."
Mitch Bannon is a baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated covering the Toronto Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates.Twitter: @MitchBannon