A’s prospect Zack Gelof set to play a major role for Team Israel in WBC
Since they selected him in the second round in July 2021, the A’s have had second baseman Zack Gelof on a fast track. In less than two years, he’s already reached Triple A and played an Arizona Fall League season. This spring, he’s adding two more advanced courses to his baseball education — a full major-league spring training and a spot in next month’s World Baseball Classic. By the end of the year, he could be taking his final exam in Oakland.
Bobby Crosby, the 2004 American League Rookie of the Year and Gelof’s manager last season with Double-A Midland, knows a thing or two about fast tracks. He says Gelof’s mental approach to the game and preparation allowed him to handle the challenge of jumping to Double A for the start of his first full professional season.
“He’s a guy who’s ultra-confident, but not cocky,” Crosby said over the weekend. “Other players gravitate toward him — older players gravitate toward him — because he just has that aura about him that he knows he’s good, but he’s fun to be around.
“He didn’t look at it like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m in Double A my first year,’ like a lot of guys would. He looked at it like, ‘OK, that’s where they are playing me. I’m gonna do my thing.’ It’s an advanced mentality.”
If the team social accounts are any indication, the A’s aren’t shying away from promoting Gelof — their consensus No. 2 prospect — as a future face of the franchise. He’s been prominently featured on team tweets and Instagram posts this spring, including this one announcing the lineup for Sunday’s Cactus League tilt.
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) February 26, 2023
It’s not hard to see why Gelof is held in such high esteem. Since going 60th overall to the A’s in 2021, Gelof has hit .287/.371/.490 with 25 homers and 23 stolen bases in 132 games spread over Low A, Double A and Triple A, flashing a tantalizing power-speed dynamic at the plate and athleticism in the field. It was that athletic profile that drew the interest of the decision-makers for Team Israel for the upcoming WBC. Gelof is one of two A’s non-roster invitees (reliever Jake Fishman is the other) who will suit up for Team Israel next month.
“He’s gonna be a huge part of our team,” Ian Kinsler, manager of Team Israel, said on Sunday. He pointed to Gelof and Cubs prospect Matt Mervis as two key elements to the left side of Team Israel’s infield.
“They’re gonna make a big impact on our team,” Kinsler said. “They’re gonna be coming up to bat in big moments. I think Zack is ready. I think they’re both excited. It’s gonna be fun to get to know them and watch their style of play.”
Gelof’s style of play may give Kinsler some deja vu moments of himself as a younger player. Kinsler, who hit 257 home runs and stole 243 bases in a 14-year major-league career that included four All-Star appearances, was a big part of a wave of power-hitting second basemen who helped change the position profile from slap-hitting table setters to middle-of-the-order forces, a group that also included Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia and Robinson Canó.
“Zack, as far as I know, profiles as a guy that fits that same mold,” Kinsler said. “I’m gonna get to know him and hopefully I can give him a couple pieces of information that he can take with him and make him a better player.”
Gelof shies away from comparing himself to any other player, but Crosby sees a lot of similarities between the two.
“It’s a really good comp for him,” Crosby said. “They’re similar in a lot of ways. I mean, Kinsler could do it all.”
Kinsler is heading up a star-studded Team Israel coaching staff that includes former MLB manager and A’s bench coach Brad Ausmus, former MLB coach and manager Jerry Narron and former All-Star infielder Kevin Youkilis. Team Israel enters the tournament as a heavy underdog, playing in the same Miami bracket as tournament heavyweights like the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
“We have a really good staff and I think our team is going to surprise some people,” Kinsler said. “It’s not as flashy as some of the other teams in our pool, but we have some good players and some guys that are excited about playing (in the tournament) and that’s really a bonus for us.”
Kinsler played in the WBC as part of Team USA in 2017. He says the tournament will be a significant development tool for younger players like Gelof.
“There’s really no difference between those (WBC) games and a major-league playoff game,” he said. “They’re very similar, the energy, the excitement. Honestly, the WBC might even be more of a raucous atmosphere than some playoff games. It’s really good for the young players to get in there and experience that and learn from it.”
Gelof is looking forward to the challenge of going up against players like Sandy Alcántara, Julio Rodríguez, Miguel Cabrera and Francisco Lindor.
“It’s pretty hard not to get excited about representing my heritage over there and getting to face some really good ballplayers,” he said. And he’s not buying any talk that Israel will go away quietly in the tournament. “Anytime you get to face some great teams like that, you want to be competitive and win,” he added.
Gelof leaves for Miami on March 6, but for the moment, his focus is solely on his first full big-league spring training after last year’s lockout-shortened camp. He’s been working with the second base group, soaking up knowledge from veterans Tony Kemp and Aledmys Díaz as he looks to improve at the position.
Gelof made the transition from his college position at third base to second last season, a change that Crosby feels best suits Gelof’s defensive strengths. Although Gelof’s 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame is more typical of a third baseman, Crosby says Gelof’s arm action and the way he moves his feet are better fits at second. Gelof has embraced the position change.
“I’m actually really excited about it because I think I can use my athleticism a little bit more at second base,” he said. “I feel like I could definitely excel at second base, especially using the athleticism that I think people don’t even realize I have.”
The change didn’t come without some challenges. On May 26 last season, he dove for a ball while playing second and suffered a subluxation of his left (non-throwing) shoulder. The injury cost him six weeks. Despite being sidelined, Gelof remained an active part of the RockHounds’ clubhouse. Many players drift away from the team and their daily routines when they are injured, but Gelof was an exception.
“He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around,” Crosby said. “He has a big-league mentality.”
Gelof admits it wasn’t easy to deal with an injury mid-season. “You don’t get another spring training when you come back from an injury,” he said. “I think my first game back, I got one fastball, and then the rest of the day was off-speed stuff. So no one really feels bad for you coming back from an injury like that.”
The injury impacted his pre-game hitting routine the rest of the season as he had to protect against re-injuring it, but the biggest hurdle Gelof says he had to overcome when he returned was an initial hesitation to dive for balls at second. “I felt really bad for the pitchers I was playing behind once I came back,” he said. “It’s like, I tried to get there. But you know, just in the back of your head, you don’t want to dive.”
Gelof was able to break out of that mental slump by forcing himself to make a play on a ball he initially thought he had no chance to reach.
“It was almost too far to dive for, but I was like eff it, I’m going to try for it and see if I can get it. And I did,” he said with a laugh. “It was almost kind of a joke in the dugout, like, ‘Yes, like you did that, and you got up.’”
Back to full strength now, Gelof enters this season on the doorstep of the big leagues. With Kemp, Aledmys Díaz, Jonah Bride and Jordan Díaz on the 40-man roster, there isn’t a clear path for Gelof to break camp with the A’s. But Gelof plans to force the issue as much as he can. He had a run-scoring single in his first spring at-bat before going 0-for-3 on Sunday.
Gelof has liked what he’s seen in A’s camp thus far.
“I haven’t been in other clubhouses, but there’s just a lot of talent in the clubhouse up there, as well as the young guys that are eager to help win at the big-league level soon,” he said.
Crosby thinks the days of Gelof helping the A’s win at the major-league level are nearing. Offensively, he says Gelof will continue to progress naturally based on his talent and the level of his preparation.
“I don’t see him getting stagnant,” Crosby said. “You’ll see a lot of guys, they reach their cap at a certain time or age and you’re like, ‘OK, this is what he’s kind of got.’ I don’t see that with him. I don’t think he’s close to his cap. I think he’s just going to continue to get better offensively.”
Defensively, Crosby believes Gelof has the tools to be a good second baseman, but he’ll need to continue to work on getting a quicker first step and speeding up his turns on double plays, while also just gaining experience reading the ball off the bat from the other side of the infield.
“But if that’s what you’re talking about, as far as what he has to work on, that’s pretty minute in the overall scheme of things,” Crosby said.
(Top photo of Zack Gelof: Courtesy of the Oakland A’s)
