Beane has A's poised to contend in 2015

Billy Beane has put the Oakland Athletics in a position to chase their third division title in four years, despite perplexing many outsiders with his busy offseason.

Call the general manager's flurry of moves to bust up 2014's 88-win team a retool or restructure, but it was never a rebuild. 

Oakland moved out All-Star talent, but the organization still had quality players on hand to put together a team capable of approaching last season's win total - with the right infusion of outside help. 

The polarizing GM has acquired the necessary support his team needed to contend by trading for Ben Zobrist and Yunel Escobar on Saturday, obtaining Brett Lawrie and pitching depth in December and signing Billy Butler to a three-year deal earlier this offseason. 

Related: A's acquire Zobrist, Escobar from Rays

Remember, Oakland was a first-place 54-33 team July 5 before Jeff Samardzija, Jason Hammel or Jon Lester ever threw a pitch for the A's.

Here's what Oakland's lineup looked like on the second day of the 2014 season (2014 stats): 

Here's how it could look in 2015 (*denotes offseason acquisition): 

Beane was second-guessed for gutting his 2011 team, and he responded by winning the AL West the next season. He's hoping to replicate that success in 2015.

"What's being said and written now was dusted off from what was written three years ago," Beane said in December. "In some respects, it's a compliment."

The A's don't have as much power as last season with Josh Donaldson, Yoenis Cespedes and Brandon Moss elsewhere - a trio that combined to hit 71 homers for Oakland in 2014. But the team should have really good infield defense with Escobar, Zobrist and Lawrie, and the latter two are expected to provide strong offensive production as well.

Zobrist, a two-time All-Star, is versatile - like fellow offseason acquisition Marcus Semien, he fits Oakland's tendencies to shuffle lineups and employ platoons - and has been worth 5-plus WAR, per FanGraphs, in each of the last four seasons. He ranks fifth among position players in WAR since 2011, and has hit .271/.360/.434 (.348 wOBA, 125 wRC+) over that span. 

While Zobrist can't replicate Donaldson's bat, he comes close to matching him in overall value. 

The oft-injured Lawrie, entering his age-25 season, hit 292/.343/.470 (.359 wOBA, 129 wRC+) over his last 50 games. He hit for more power, too, swatting a career-high 12 homers, while his isolated slugging percentage (.174) clocked in at a three-year high.

Butler's 2014 was a disappointment, but he has a career OPS of .808. And while Ike Davis has never really taken off and can't hit lefties, he blasted 32 homers in 2012 and owns a career .813 OPS vs. righties.

Although Oakland's rotation isn't as formidable as it was at year's end, the team should welcome back two productive members of its 2013 staff in Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin (both recovering from Tommy John surgery) at some point in 2015. They'll join a rotation headlined by Sonny Gray, one of the game's top young arms.

Questioning Beane after he moved a number of his best players in a wild offseason is fair. But despite the way the A's got to this point, they appear poised to contend in 2015. Beane deserves the credit for that.