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The Oakland Athletics have taken to Linkedin to celebrate employees within the organization. One of those individuals was the team’s Director of Scouting, Eric Kubota.

Which begs the question of how come? Kubota has been with the A’s franchise for 35 years with 37 total years of experience. He has been the Director of scouting for the past 18 years. Curiously he has not scouted well or drafted well in his tenure.

Oakland has not drafted a good hitter and even worse though is that only two pitchers were successful, Sonny Gray the 18th overall pick in 2011 and Andrew Bailey a sixth round pick in 2006.

In recent years Oakland has drafted Austin Beck who drew comparisons to Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout. He has not shown that potential, and he has fallen down so far on the franchise’s prospect ratings that he is no longer in the top 30.

Kubota and the A’s drafted ‘University of Oklahoma center fielder, Kyler Murray seventh overall in 2018. He elected to play in the National Football League instead. During that time there was also the infamous reaction to his decision by Jen Rainwater.

From that draft only two players have made the major leagues. One was Jonah Bride who was a 23rd round selection and is currently on the injured list and Alfonso Rivas who got traded to the Chicago Cubs for utility man Tony Kemp.

As for who was drafted in 2017 three players have made it to the big show. Nick Allen who is known more for his impressive defense than his bat, Mickey McDonald made his debut in 2022, appearing in four games and managed to walk twice before being sent back to Las Vegas. Greg Deichmann got his chance with the Cubs in 2021 with 30 at-bats, he was sent over in a trade that brought left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin to Oakland.

A.J. Puk got drafted in 2016 and has struggled to stay healthy. His comparisons at one point were to that of Randy Johnson unfortunately he has never lived up to those high expectations. 2022 has been the healthiest for him, and he has struggled of late though. Daulton Jefferies has also been plagued by injuries and is currently on the injured list after having surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome.

Catcher Sean Murphy won a gold glove in 2021, yet has never found any success as a hitter. He has some of the worst at-bats in Major League Baseball and many A’s fans will never forget about the game ending triple play against the New York Yankees.

Quite possibly the best move the A’s made in regard to trading a drafted player was sending Brandon Bailey to the Houston Astros for outfielder Ramon Laureano.

Bailey made five appearances for Houston in 2020 and is currently in the Cincinnati Reds organization. Meanwhile, Laureano quite possibly is on his way out via trade since he is one of the few players on Oakland’s roster that has value.

As part of a three-team trade Eli White went to the Texas Rangers. He is currently hitting .200 in 2022 with three home runs and 10 RBI, and he has stolen 12 bases. The only other player that has made it was a 17-round selection, Seth Martinez. So far in 2022 he has a .96 ERA for the Astros, he has struck out 16 while walking seven.

There are only two other players really worth mentioning. Matt Olson who got traded to the Atlanta Braves. While he was great defensively he was never consistently good offensively. Kubota drafted him in 2012 as the 47th overall pick.

Matt Chapman is the other name, and he put himself up there with Nolan Arenado as the best defensive third baseman in all of baseball. Offensively is where he struggled especially after suffering a hip injury towards the end of the shortened 2020 season. He was drafted 25th overall in 2014 and has since been traded to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Under the direction of Kubota Oakland has never been shy about trading away prospects for the short term goal of making a run at the playoffs. The most famous example of this is when Yoenis Cespedes got traded to the Boston Red Sox. Shockingly even though Jon Lester was one of the most successful pitchers in recent memory when it comes to the postseason, and he left with a lead, Oakland still managed to lose that Wild Card game.

There was also the Josh Donaldson trade that brought short stop Franklin Barreto to Oakland from the Blue Jays. He was the big prize in the deal, yet he was hardly given a chance to succeed in Oakland. He eventually got traded to the Angels for Tommy La Stella.

Barreto is now part of the Astros organization.

When Kubota traded Ben Zobrist to the Kansas City Royals, the A’s acquired left-hander Sean Manaea. He will get remembered for throwing a no-hitter against the Red Sox. He also did not pitch well in big games. This is what he has done in his only two postseason starts he has an ERA of 11.37, giving up eight runs on nine hits in 6.1 innings. Oakland also traded him, and he is now a San Diego Padre, reuniting with former Oakland manager Bob Melvin.

Still quite possibly the worst mistake that Kubota made was not upgrading the short stop position in any of the years when Marcus Semien was on the roster. While he certainly improved in that respect he arguably was one of the worst defensive players in franchise history, and it was not shocking when Semien signed with the Blue Jays in 2021 he got moved to second base. He has since signed a much more lucrative contract with the Rangers and has struggled offensively so far.

With no playoff success to speak of, the lack of talent in the farm system or currently on the roster, it is time for the A’s to part ways with Kubota.

 

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