These aren't your Athletics of a decade ago, when their division champion teams were loaded with stars like Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson. Only one member of the 2013 A's was as much as a four win player, and only three others joined him in being a three win guy. Thus, it's simultaneously difficult and easy to choose the four horsemen of the Oakland Athletics.
Josh Donaldson
Were you really expecting someone else? Donaldson burst onto the scene out of nowhere in 2013 for the A's, finishing four in the AL MVP voting and hitting .301/.384/.499 with 24 homers in his first full season in the majors. The performance was spectacular and unexpected, but I'm not sure how much of a repeat A's fans can count on in 2014.
Donaldson isn't a young pup – he turned 28 in December. A lot of his offensive value came from a high BABIP (though not an absurdly high one), and his overall value was boosted by some incredible defense at third base. That doesn't mean he won't be valuable – his defense during a major league callup in 2012 was solid, and his walk and strikeout rates are better than acceptable.
However, expecting another seven win season from a 28-year old former catcher might be expecting a little too much. He'll probably have another good year, and the A's don't need him to be super-human, but I don't think Donaldson will continue to perform like a top-level MVP candidate.
Sonny Gray
Gray might end up being Oakland's best starter in 2014. Last season, Gray only threw 64 innings in the majors, and topped all but two A's starters (Bartolo Colon, Dan Straily) in fWAR. His 25.7% strikeout rate was better than every pitcher in Oakland's staff aside from closer Grant Balfour, and would have ranked tenth in all of baseball among starters last year, just ahead of some guy named Kershaw.
Obviously it's a small sample, but Gray's minor league numbers in 2013 back up his dominance. An understated aspect of his brilliance is his high ground ball rate, which puts teams in a tough position to do much of anything when combined with his high strikeout rate and low walk rate. For an A's rotation that lacks a true top-end starter, Gray's emergence and development could be the most interesting thing to watch in 2014.
Josh Reddick
Despite only dropping from 4.5 to 2.7 wins over the past two seasons, Reddick's 2013 performance was one of the more disappointing falls of the year. Reddick only played in 114 games thanks to a right wrist injury that eventually required surgery, and his home run output fell from 32 to 12.
But despite that loss in power, likely caused by the wrist, Reddick was still an excellent defender in left field. He managed to both increase his walk rate and decrease his strikeout rate. He stole nine bases at an 82% clip. Even with that enormous drop in power, Reddick was still a valuable player for Oakland, and if the wrist injury truly is behind him and the power returns, he could be an even more complete player in 2014 with his other skills blossoming in 2013.
Jed Lowrie
Lowrie was finally healthy in 2013, and what do you know – he had a great season, hitting .290/.344/.446 with 15 home runs. Lowrie's continued health, and at least average production, is important to the A's because they don't have much in the way of a replacement. If the inevitable Jed Lowrie injury occurs, the A's will be in between a rock and a hard place.
Oakland's middle infield backup is Nick Punto, who has a vastly different skill set when compared to Lowrie. Those 15 homers Lowrie hit last year were just two shy of the 17 that Punto has hit over his entire career. Punto has had a wRC+ above 100 just once in his career, and he's only had a .320 wOBA twice in his career. If anything happened to Lowrie, the A's would have a tremendous loss on offense. While Punto is a much better fielder than Lowrie, I'm not sure it's able to close the massive chasm that exists between each player's offense.
