2025 MLB All-Star Game: Building the Best Athletics Lineup

Fox Sports

10-07-2025

The Athletics brought you the Bash Brothers, Run Ricky Run, Moneyball, and some epic pitching mustaches. Its origins are in Philadelphia and had a brief stop in Kansas City, but this team thrived in Oakland. It deserved better than getting uprooted from the East Bay.
Despite all of this moving around, though, the A's have had sustained success – including nine World Series titles – and produced some tremendous players.
Manager: Connie Mack
Connie Mack is a rarity on this list, in more ways than one. A player, then a manager who doubled as an executive, but also as a manager with a career record of under .500. Part of that is an issue of volume, however: Mack ran the A's for 50 seasons, from their 1901 inception through 1950. He managed them for 7,466 games: a .484 win percentage only counts for so much when it's attached to eight World Series appearances and five World Series championships. No other A's manager has 1,000 wins — Mack boasts 3,582 of them.
Starting pitcher: Catfish Hunter
Catfish Hunter debuted for the Kansas City Athletics in 1965 at 19, the year after going pro. It took time — and a move to Oakland — for him to get his feet fully under him, but once he did, Hunter was brilliant. At his peak, he posted a 2.68 ERA over four seasons, winning the 1974 Cy Young with an AL-best 2.49 ERA and MLB-leading 25 wins. Hunter starred in the playoffs: the A's won the '72, '73 and '74 World Series, and he threw 80 innings of 2.24 ERA ball with a 7-1 record in those playoffs.
Reliever/closer: Dennis Eckersley
Dennis Eckersley revolutionized the closer's role, turning it into a one-inning assignment meant to shut the door on opponents. That his performance and usage spurred on copycats and changed the game is undeniable. Eck pitched in 525 games for Oakland, finishing 456 of them while racking up 320 saves — all first among A's pitchers. His walk rate (1.3) is lowest in A's history, and his K/9 of 9.3 second despite the strikeout-averse era he pitched in. Eckersley won the 1992 Cy Young and MVP as a closer, with a 1.91 ERA and 51 saves.
Catcher: Terry Steinbach
Terry Steinbach caught some fantastic A's pitching staffs, including the 1988, 1989, and 1990 teams that all made it to the World Series. Steinbach could handle a pitching staff and his defensive work, but he could also hit: he spent 11 years of his career with Oakland, and his 107 OPS+ was even better than it looks. In '87, backstops hit a collective .244/.303/.384 — Steinbach, meanwhile, batted .284/.349/.463. While Oakland won "just" one of three World Series he appeared in, it's hard to blame him: Steinbach hit .281/.340/.382 in the postseason.
1B: Jimmie Foxx
For 11 seasons, Jimmie Foxx played for the Athletics. He had what was a borderline Hall of Fame career just in those years before he even exited his peak: 61 wins above replacement, 1,492 hits, 302 home runs, 1,075 RBIs, and a .339/.440/.640 line. Despite heading to Boston afterward, Foxx still ranks second among A's in WAR, and if not for Al Simmons would be first in all three slash stats, as well. As is, he's only behind Mark McGwire in homers, and if anyone bests his 175 OPS+, they'll be a Hall of Famer, too.
2B: Max Bishop
Max Bishop was overshadowed by Jimmie Foxx, but he had plenty to offer the Philadelphia A's, too. He led the majors in walks with 128 in 1929, allowing him to post a .398 on-base percentage despite a down batting average year (.232). He'd amass 1,046 walks in his 10 years with Philly, which was first all-time among A's until Rickey Henderson surpassed him most of a century later. It wasn't just walks: Bishop was a defensive star, decades before there were Gold Gloves to signify that, but in 1931 alone he added over two wins with his glove.
3B: Eric Chavez
The "Moneyball" A's deserve loads of credit for changing the emphasis of front offices, but one thing that's sometimes lost is that, in addition to finding undervalued players, like those who could draw a ton of walks, the A's also had the likes of Eric Chavez, who was about as traditionally excellent as you could get. A six-time Gold Glove recipient who hit .280/.357/.513 during his five-year peak, Chavez was a star in the early aughts. As his bat slowed and defense briefly dipped due to injury, that changed, but he was an exceptional third baseman.
SS: Miguel Tejada
Miguel Tejada won the 2002 AL MVP, picked up his first 968 hits with Oakland, hit almost half of his home runs with them, and batted .270/.331/.460 to go with his quality defense. He played in 1,152 games in a row before a broken wrist ended that streak — one that carried over from his time with the A's into his free agent deal with the Orioles. Tejada was a star for some time, earning 40 wins above replacement from 1999 through 2006, and was a major reason why the "Moneyball" A's succeeded as much as they did.
OF: Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson had experience as "Mr. October" well before he was ever given that nickname. In five playoff years with the A's, he hit .271/.344/.475 with five home runs, 15 RBIs, and 32 hits. He was part of the three consecutive World Series winners in '72, '73 and '74, even earning the World Series MVP in '73. Before ever donning a Yankees' uniform, Jackson hit 269 of his 563 homers with the A's, and batted .262/.355/.496. He led the AL in strikeouts in four consecutive years there, too, but it never seemed to slow him down.
OF: Jose Canseco
Jose Canseco won the 1986 Rookie of the Year award after exploding onto the big-league scene with 33 homers, and he just kept going up from there: in '88, he led the majors with 42 dingers, a .569 slugging and 170 OPS+, and then led in homers again in '91 with 44. Canseco would bounce around the league for years after his time in Oakland was up, but before then, he put together nine years with 254 home runs — the fourth-most in A's history — and became the first-ever 40 home run, 40 stolen bases player in Athletics' and MLB history.
OF: Rickey Henderson
Rickey Henderson was an inner-circle, all-time great player who spent 25 years with major-league teams (and quite a few elsewhere afterward on the independent scene). If you got rid of his time with the Yankees, Padres, Mets, Mariners, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Angels, and Dodgers, and left him with just the A's, that itself would be a Hall of Fame-caliber career. In 14 years with Oakland, Henderson hit .288/.409/.430, stole 867 bases — that would be good enough for fifth all-time — and reached base 3,050 times, which would have tied Joe DiMaggio's entire career for 197th in MLB.
DH: Mark McGwire
Mark McGwire's post-A's career received the media attention, owing to his breaking Roger Maris' single-season home run record with 70 in 1998, but he spent more time in Oakland — 12 years to five with St. Louis — and had himself a hell of a start to a career there, too. McGwire hit 363 home runs for the A's, the most of any of their players, while batting .260/.380/.551. He was one of the Bash Bros. with Canseco, and appeared in three consecutive World Series, with the A's winning in 1989 when McGwire hit .343/.368/.486 against the Giants.
Honorable mention Bob Melvin (manager)
Tony La Russa (manager)
Dave Stewart (starting pitcher)
Chief Bender (starting pitcher)
Vida Blue (starting pitcher)
Lefty Grove (starting pitcher)
Eddie Plank (starting pitcher)
Rollie Fingers (reliever/closer)
Mickey Cochrane (catcher)
Gene Tenace (catcher)
Mark Ellis (2B)
Eddie Collins (2B)
Sal Bando (3B)
Frank Baker (3B)
Matt Chapman (3B)
Marcus Semien (SS)
Bert Campaneris (SS)
Eddie Jost (SS)
Joe Rudi (OF)
Yoenis Cespedes (OF)
Dave Henderson (OF)
Al Simmons (OF)
Dwayne Henderson (OF)
Jason Giambi (DH)
recommended
Item 1 of 3 Get more from the Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more in this topic