The Future Of 3B Continues To Baffle

Third base, the gig for March 27th and beyond, has no shortage of candidates. It’s the A’s handling of the positional battle that is puzzling. To wit:

Max Muncy

Muncy appears, as best one can tell, to be the front runner and yet his spring training showing (at least on radio where admittedly my eyes are a bit questionable) seems like “more of the same” not “this man has turned the corner”. Specifically, many errant throws some of which have been rescued by his 1Bman and a couple that have gone for errors.

Muncy has always had questions around his defense no matter where he has played on the infield, so the issue hasn’t been “Is he good enough?” but more “Can he improve?” So far there isn’t much indication that despite working out with Matt Chapman and Alex Bregman this off-season, Muncy is ready to be a defensive asset behind a pitching staff that needs to keep balls in the park and rely on good defense.

Brett Harris

Harris makes sense for this particular unit that has heavy hitters galore but needs to improve on defense considerably from 2025. Harris is the best defender of the bunch competing for the job and yet it’s unclear to what extent he is even competing.

Harris is usually mentioned around 3rd or 4th when the 3B depth chart is discussed, behind Muncy, Darell Hernaiz, and even newly acquired Andy Ibañez. It feels as though the A’s internally just don’t believe in Harris enough as more than a utility infielder even though he plays the best 3B.

Darell Hernaiz

It looks like the A’s are giving Hernaiz, a dark horse candidate coming in, a fair shot at proving what he can do. Trouble is Hernaiz just doesn’t profile as a starting 3Bman. He lacks the power/slugging you normally expect at the position and 3B is not his most natural position.

Hernaiz is probably adequate defensively there, and can hold his own against LHP, but it’s a stretch to pencil him in every day there even if he has a terrific spring — which he has had so far. In all likelihood he is what the A’s seem to believe Harris is: a strong utility infielder candidate but not a starter at 3B.

Jacob Wilson/Leo De Vries

Here’s where it gets — or stays — weird. De Vries is on a fast track to the big leagues, one whose timeline accelerated when he showed up big for AA Midland in the 2nd half of 2025 and which has only sped up more for his strong showing in the Cactus League so far.

If there is one thing I’m comfortable saying without fear of contradiction it’s that when De Vries is called up to the big leagues the A’s will not put both him and Jacob Wilson at SS. Something has to give. That being said, as of March 4th, the number of innings either of them have played off of SS in the big leagues, AA, or spring training, is a cool zero.

This creates a potential problem in that you can’t really consider De Vries for a position change to a spot he has never played and ask him to learn it on the fly as a 19 year old rookie. Wilson could more easily shift over to 3B as he played there in high school and early college, but it’s been a few years and at least publicly no one has broached the subject with a guy who started at SS for the American League in last year’s All -Star game.

So the A’s seem a bit ill equipped for a De Vries call up unless — please no — Wilson hits the IL, and to compound matters De Vries is only looking closer and closer with each passing day. In any event, clearly neither of these two will be at 3B on March 27th, begging the question of who will.

Best guess? Muncy, hopefully hitting more like he was batting in July than in his first go-around and most probably relying heavily on Nick Kurtz to keep his fielding percentage from cratering.

Have the A’s planned or mapped this out adequately? And how is it going to play out as the season unfolds? You tell me.