Oakland Athletics: All-Decade Team for the 2010s

The Oakland Athletics have embraced the underdog mentality that the league has forced onto them. Here are the top players of the decade from the perennial surprise playoff squad.

To the outside world, the Oakland Athletics relentlessly seem to find a way into the playoffs despite not having any of the star power that some of the bigger market teams have.

For residents of Oakland, being the underdog isn’t anything new.

The Oakland A’s have been disregarded for what feels like the better chunk of the 21st Century. But the reality is that the A’s have been a model of consistency, even with so many moving roster pieces each and every season.

The team made five separate appearances in the MLB playoffs since the turn of the decade — a figure which matches last decade.

In that time, the A’s have had to swallow some heartbreakers — a rivalry with the Detroit Tigers and their stacked starting rotations, one of the most gut-wrenching Wild Card games in MLB history against the Kansas City Royals, and so on.

Entering the 2020s, things are looking brighter than ever.

In many regards, the A’s are entering the new decade with the same storylines as they have been for many years.

They’re poised to build a new stadium. They’ve got young, talented stars who are serious candidates to be extended. They have rookie reinforcements looking to break out this upcoming season.

There’s a new sense of passion and drive thanks to a reinvigorated front office that includes Dave Kaval, the man who’s pushed transparency with fans while also welcoming new, innovative ideas on how to make attending games more of a complete experience.

The cards are aligned to have the A’s become the anointed son of the city.

The Golden State Warriors headed across the Bay. The Oakland Raiders never had any serious interest in staying in Oakland.

If there was ever a chance, this upcoming decade would be it for the Oakland A’s.

Stadium plans progressing would be correspondingly met with extensions to guys like Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, and the like. It would mean an even more consistent, winning product put on the field.

But regardless of what happens in the next few years, the past decade has been a good one for the A’s. They won over 93 games in four different seasons.

As David Forst and Billy Beane continue to shuffle the deck, we take a look back at the top players for the Oakland A’s in the 2010s.