Baseball Insider: Athletics in prime position to recover from tailspin

Well, you've got to hand it to the Oakland Athletics for finding different ways to remain in the spotlight.

From the first half of the season, the A's controlled the AL West as they began their quest for a third consecutive postseason berth. But that wasn't enough. They traded for not one, but two aces in July, signaling a drive for a World Series.

Then they endured a nose-dive that would have been one of the worst collapses in the game and did not secure a playoff berth until the final day of the regular season.

But the Athletics, to their relief, are in. They open the postseason Tuesday when they travel to Kansas City for the American League wild card game.

Their presence in the postseason is not a relief to opponents. They might be the AL team best equipped to reach the World Series.

So what if they closed out the regular season by going 16-30?

"All the naysayers and the negative vibes, they're all gone now. We got in," A's outfielder Josh Reddick, who finished the regular season on a 16-for-33 tear, told media after Sunday's win. "I've been saying it for months: Two division titles, out Game 5. Get in with the wild card, win the whole thing."

On Aug. 9, Samardzija led Oakland to a 9-4 victory over Trevor May and the Twins. They were 72-44, four games in front of the Angels. Then came the dive.

They stopped hitting. They started pressing. They began to lose a slew of close games. They relinquished their AL West lead to the Los Angeles Angels. Beane took heat for the Lester trade, which sent cleanup hitter Yoenis Cespedes to Boston.

They were ahead by 10 games in the wild-card race Aug. 10 but needed the final day of the regular season to reach the playoffs.

"There was a lot of weight on our shoulders leading up to it, because for a team that had 14 consecutive winning months, to play two months in the fashion that we did was tough," Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. "We weren't used to it. It was foreign territory, and it was perplexing to everybody."

The way they've closed out the regular season has taken away from the total body of work.

The A's can score runs, even without Cespedes. They can prevent runs with that pitching staff. And, while their 111 errors are 29th in baseball, errors don't tell the whole story, and Oakland is an above average defensive team overall.

They will have to prove they are a complete team in a very interesting group of contenders. The Royals have a great defense and power arms in the bullpen but have been inconsistent offensively. The Angels have a productive offense but injured ace Garrett Richards is a big blow. Baltimore is a slick-fielding team but will injuries to catcher Matt Wieters and third baseman Manny Machado finally catch up to the Orioles? And slugging first baseman Chris Davis will miss the first eight postseason games while serving a drug suspension. It's a group Oakland could navigate through.

Now that the playoffs are here, Lester takes his big-game reputation into a must-win game at Kansas City. And the A's can follow him with Samardzija and Sonny Gray — a threesome that can match up with any opponent — the scenario Oakland desired when it made the trades.

It's a new season, and new life, for the A's. And they just might be equipped for a run to the World Series.