'Evolving' Langeliers looks to maintain momentum

MESA, Ariz. -- All this talk of positive momentum coming from the Athletics as they enter Spring Training stems from their 39-37 record to end last season, and a key part of that second-half surge was Shea Langeliers.

Over that final 76-game stretch from July 1 on, Langeliers appeared in 65 of those contests and hit .247 with a .789 OPS, 14 home runs, 10 doubles and 39 RBIs. That success came on the heels of a June swoon in which the 27-year-old catcher batted .184 (14-for-76) for the month in what was becoming a concerning slow start at the plate.

So how did Langeliers get himself right?

“I stopped worrying about my swing so much,” Langeliers said. “Sometimes I get so in my head about breaking down video and what my swing looks like. I blame failures on my actual swing rather than what pitches I’m swinging at or my approach or wondering if I’m locked in in certain situations. Second half, I just went strictly approach-based on what I’m trying to do at the plate and worried less about my swing.”

A’s bench coach and director of hitting Darren Bush is known as the resident hitting whisperer around the clubhouse. When a hitter is in a funk, he’s the man they seek for a cure. But even though Langeliers was scuffling, Bush did not see a need for any major tweaks. What he saw from the backstop were sound mechanics at the plate and a swing that generated plenty of hard contact.

“I thought he swung the bat extremely well in the early part of the year,” Bush said. “It’s just he was hitting the ball at guys and things weren’t falling, but he was still tops in the league in hard-contact rates. … Then, over time, it started to level out.”

The advanced numbers will back up Bush’s beliefs. For the 2024 season, Langeliers’ average exit velocity (91.3 mph) ranked in the 84th percentile of hitters in MLB, while his barrel rate (12.8 percent) ranked in the 87th percentile. However, the gap between his expected batting average (xBA) of .241 and actual batting average of .224 was the 29th-biggest difference of any hitter in the Majors.

In other words, Langeliers was a bit unlucky for a large part of the season, even before he started to feel like he was making better swing decisions at the plate in the second half.

“A lot of guys say all the time that this game is mental,” Langeliers said. “The more you play it, the more you understand what they’re saying. It’s less physical than what you think, and I think that’s going to be a big thing for me.”

Langeliers has been a mainstay of an A’s club filled with mostly inexperienced players over the last few years, so you might sometimes forget that he only has two full big league seasons under his belt. On top of that, he has had to balance that time trying to find himself as a Major League hitter with going over scouting reports with pitchers and several other duties that come with being the everyday catcher.

“It’s extremely difficult because you’re just trying to stay in the big leagues,” Bush said. “He’s having to do this on the offensive and defensive side. It takes a special player to separate the two and be successful. … Now Shea has had enough time where he’s confident in his mechanics and what he’s doing. Now we can move on to the next phase of, ‘OK, let’s focus on pitch selection against which guy and how we’re going to do it.’ He’s evolving.”

Launching 29 homers -- second-most among Major League catchers last season behind only Seattle's Cal Raleigh -- is only scratching the surface of the type of hitter the A’s believe Langeliers can be. Once the main touted prospect acquired from the Braves in the 2022 Matt Olson deal, Langeliers progressed his way through the Minors as a complete hitter who anchored the middle of whatever lineup he was in.

After those encouraging signs to end last season, the A’s expect that version of Langeliers to show up and boost an already potent lineup alongside sluggers such as Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler.

“I think Shea can be an All-Star this year,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “That approach he showed in the second half, I think that’s going to continue to grow. He was a well-rounded hitter in the Minor Leagues. The big leagues is tough and they expose some weaknesses. He’s worked really hard on closing things up. … My expectations of Shea are really high.”