Graveyard Baseball: Oakland A's / Seibu Lions Series: David MacKinnon

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The Saitama Seibu Lions signed another foreigner with Oakland A's ties as he became available after the 2022 season. As with many, Japan becomes a different opportunity.

David MacKinnon

Tenures: 2022 with the Oakland Athletics, 2023 with the Seibu Lions

Statistics with Oakland: 6 games, 14 PAs, .000/.071/.000, 0 HRs, 0 RBIs

Statistics with the Seibu Lions: 127 games, 514 PAs, .259/.327/.401, 15 HRs, 50 RBIs

Born and raised in the Greater Boston Area, MacKinnon was a multi-sport athlete in baseball and soccer. His skills carried over to the collegiate level where he was at the University of Hartford.

Despite having "no power" as he often remarked, MacKinnon's baseball skills were noticed in his senior season and the Los Angeles Angels drafted him in the 32nd round of the 2017 MLB Draft.

He worked his way up the ladder of the minor leagues and made his debut in the Major Leagues as a call up in Anaheim in June of 2022. It was here where he got to be teammates with MVP winners Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.

MacKinnon appeared in 16 MLB games with the Angels as a part time infielder, where he has a promising first month but cooled off in July. In perspective, it was an improbable journey to go from a small University with dissolving sports programs to the Majors.

The Angels designated him for assignment in August and the Oakland A's claimed MacKinnon off waivers. After spending some games in Las Vegas at the AAA level, the A's called him up later in the month to fill a roster space due to an injury to OF Ramon Laureano.

With Oakland, MacKinnon only appeared in six games with no hits recorded and one walk having 14 plate appearances. He scored two runs, with one after a walk and a second time as a ghost runner in extra innings. He was optioned down to AAA at the conclusion of August and non-tendered by the A's after the 2022 season ended.

The Lions signed MacKinnon to be an everyday infielder and he appeared as a starter for majority of the season, with games at 3B and 1B. His fielding and soccer skills in particular showed, giving the team's infield a boost for any ground ball pitchers.

The 2023 season was a forgettable 5th place year for the Lions where their offense lacked power and hitting for average, yet MacKinnon was one constant through all of this and he was second on the team in HRs with 15 despite having "no power".

He was thrust into the cleanup role in several games even though he's not built as a power hitter. MacKinnon was not a flashy hitter, nor slugger, but was consistent at hitting his own weight while also providing occasional pop and even brought a different observation to the strike zone and approaches to how Japan does baseball. Because of his defense, his WAR was north of 2.0.

The Lions ended up letting MacKinnon go when at negotiations by offering something so low as a sign to say they had no desire to keep him. The Lions pretended to be "in negotiations", but with no contract signed for a lengthy time after the December 1 deadline, his departure was already inevitable without formal announcement.

The Lions later signed Jesus Aguilar with the hopes of finding an infielder who can hit for home runs and have potential to be a slugger.

For the 2024 season, he signed with the Samsung Lions of KBO, a League where former teammate Dietrich Enns also joined.

MacKinnon kept himself professional and did a great job of fan service even it became public he would take the trains home. Even I was able to find both he and Bo Takahashi on a ride before we parted ways for a meet up after a game.