Lawrence Butler and the Athletics are set to face the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 6:40 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field, and Butler arrives with home run odds attached to the matchup. He was listed at +600 to go deep as of Tuesday afternoon, a number that reflects both the power he has shown and the uneven production that has gone with it.
Butler was hitting.230 with a.321 OBP and a.387 SLG, numbers that explain why the market has not priced him like a sure thing even after his recent burst. He had 16 home runs and 58 RBIs in 487 plate appearances, with 56 runs scored, 10 steals on 14 attempts, an 11.5% walk rate and a 26.1% strikeout rate. That profile is the reason his two-homer game against the Mariners stands out so sharply: he went 2-for-4 in that game, and it was the kind of performance that can quickly change how a matchup is read.
The Rays will counter with Griffin Jax, who is scheduled to make his 21st start of the season. Jax enters at 7-10 with a 3.71 ERA and 103 strikeouts in 99 1/3 innings pitched, giving the game a clear pitcher-vs-bat matchup to watch. For Butler, the question is not whether the power is real. It is whether the recent surge carries into a road game where the next clean answer will come only when the first pitch is thrown Tuesday night.
