Spare a thought for Athletics utility player, Max Schuemann, who has a unique and difficult job to do.
In 2024, Schuemann was the Athletics’ primary option at shortstop. Having moved on from Nick Allen and Kevin Smith, and with future All-Star Jacob Wilson not yet ready, Schuemann started 89 games at the position. This came despite him not being a full-time shortstop at any point in his career to date.
A true utility man, Schuemann started at every position other than catcher at least 14 times in his minor league career. And while his most played position was shortstop – starting 132 times there in 470 career minor league games – he also started 156 games across the three outfield positions in that span.
In college, this utilitarianism was even more pronounced. In his 100 career NCAA games, Schuemann played shortstop in a mere 23 of them. He was only ever a shortstop, sometimes. And yet last year, he was near-enough a full-time Major League one.
In 2025, though, Schuemann is back to the utility role. He has logged only 27.0 innings and two starts at shortstop, instead mostly playing at third base while covering six positions in total. However, while Schuemann was a versatile defensive player in the minors, just as he now is in the majors, there was one big difference between the two – in the minors, he was also allowed to hit.
Back To Being A Super-Utility Player
Schuemann made his Major League debut in 2024 having hit for a .832 OPS for the Athletics’ Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas Aviators. All offensive numbers from Las Vegas are to be interpreted in the context that they are always inflated, due to altitude and ballpark quirks that lead to plenty of home runs, yet Schuemann had been a decent hitter all the way up the ziggurat, posting a career .759 OPS in the minor leagues.
Major league pitching is a different animal, however. And in his rookie season, Schuemann’s numbers slumped to a .220 batting average, a .311 on-base percentage and a .619 OPS. Striking out close to one in every three at-bats, the relentless top-level velocity and movement was too much to handle. Schuemann nevertheless got plenty of opportunities at the Athletics tried to cobble together an infield in an otherwise-lost placeholder of a season.
This season, though, he is barely allowed to get to the plate. While Schuemann has played 33 games for the Athletics in 2025, he has only seen 45 at-bats in that time. He has started only nine games, doing so at four different positions, and of those nine, he has finished only eight.
Schuemann’s role is to be a defensive replacement when the line-up needs adjusting after a pinch-hitter comes in, and very, very occasionally spell Wilson at shortstop. He is the last man off the bench – never called upon to hit, not half of a platoon, only sometimes in to run the bases, and almost never viewed as a primary defender. He is the glue, but glue is something we only use when something else is broken, not because we want to use glue.
Let Schuemann Hit
It is therefore to Schuemann’s tremendous credit that he is performing admirably in that role.
As above, a small 45 at-bat sample size can carry with it tremendous bias. It is nevertheless of note that Schuemann has compiled a .804 OPS across those 45 at-bats, striking out only seven times and recording five walks to go alongside three stolen bases, two triples and a home run. For a man not getting any sort of consistent run at the plate, nor even really much in the way of an inconsistent run, he has performed beyond expectations at a task that is supposed to be about precise timing refined through sheer repetition.
Given his mediocre power numbers, Schuemann’s strikeout and fly ball rates have been too high for him to be a full-time position player at any position other than shortstop, where some offensive inadequacies are allowed. And as a shortstop, Schuemann is not a premier major league-calibre defensive player.
As a utility guy, however, Schuemann the Glue Man is doing exactly what is asked of him, and doing it well. Sometimes, very little is asked of him – sometimes, nothing at all is. Yet in providing coverage at every position and succeeding at the plate in his limited trips, Schuemann is performing well in baseball’s hardest role. A 20th round pick who signed for a mere $45,000 signing bonus like he once was would no doubt say to you that he would take any role in the majors that he could get, yet here is Schuemann in 2025, walking that walk.
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