BOSTON -- Two years ago, while playing for Double-A Midland, Lawrence Butler got a call from Athletics manager Mark Kotsay.

It wasn’t the call, the one telling Butler he’d been called up to the Majors, but rather a call to address some areas that Kotsay believed Butler needed to work on during a spell in which the then 22-year-old “wasn’t living up to” Kotsay’s standards.

“I think I surprised him,” Kotsay said, “that at the time, a Major League manager [was] reaching out to a Double-A kid, talking about the importance of the work ethic and what it would take to be a big leaguer, especially playing for me.”

The call marked the first of many productive conversations between the two and sparked a strong relationship that extends to the present day.

Fast forward two years, and Butler i

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