'We just want to win': Noda, A's eye step forward in '24

MESA, Ariz. -- He established himself as a rookie last season, but Ryan Noda isn’t dwelling too much on his sophomore year expectations.

Like all of the A’s, particularly as their Spring Training opener approaches, Noda just wants to win.

The 2022 Rule 5 Draft pick battled last spring to make the team and then emerged as the everyday first baseman and one of the American League’s better rookies. Sure, building on that is all well and good, but for a team that won just 50 games, the view ahead is much broader as the A’s open Cactus League play Saturday at Hohokam Stadium against the Rockies (12:05 p.m. PT, listen live on MLB Audio).

“I’ve got to keep getting better,” Noda said after hitting drills on Thursday, before quickly recalibrating the bigger picture. “My whole thing is we just want to win. Last year we didn’t win a lot, and for me, I think it was just a failure. We all know it. We all worked this offseason. We all kept tabs on each other to make sure we’re all doing the same work, getting in the gym, getting in the cage, working on the right things.”

The left-handed hitter slashed .229/.364/.406 in 2023, but his 77 walks led all MLB rookies and his .770 OPS ranked ninth among rookies with at least 400 at-bats. Go ahead and add Noda's 22 doubles and 16 home runs to the totals, and the dude knows how to get on base.

Most of Noda’s action came while batting second in the order, but he did bat leadoff in 21 of his starts as a rookie with a healthy .776 OPS in the top spot.

That knack for finding a way on base could see him batting leadoff more in 2024.

“It can play into that, definitely,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said Thursday. “I don’t think that the leadoff spot has to be a guy that has speed. He’s definitely a guy you want to get on base as much as possible. We’ll look at that as an option.”

Not that Noda didn’t check into camp with a specific to-do list. He and Kotsay talked throughout the offseason about two bugs in Noda’s game right now: his backhand defense at first base, and those pesky 170 strikeouts in 406 at-bats.

“I don’t think he had his best year. He had a good, solid year. I think he can get better,” Kotsay added. “He’s focused on that, and hopefully those areas improve.”

Elsewhere on the infield is newcomer Abraham Toro. The A’s traded for the 27-year-old in the offseason.

Toro is versatile at the plate as a switch-hitter and also in the field. He’s played more than 100 games at both third and second base in a five-year Major League career that includes stints with the Astros, Mariners and Brewers before landing in the Bay Area.

Competition for third base looks wide open in camp, and that’s the position Toro says “feels more natural.”

“The biggest difference is the arm slot when you throw,” he said. “When I’m on third, I’m throwing over the top; at second is more like sideways a little bit. Even when I’m playing catch, that’s what I work on.”

It’s yet to be determined where Toro will make those throws from, but it’s certain that those throws will make their way to Noda at first.

It’s also yet to be determined from where in the batting order Noda will take his swings.

“Wherever they put me, they put me. If it’s leadoff, second, third, seventh, whatever,” Noda said with a smile, having also learned as a rookie what battling leadoff can get you.

“A couple times on the road, it’s a little weird. The clean box was a little different. Usually there’s already a couple digs in there. I got used to it.”