To Chili Davis, who is entering his second season as Oakland’s hitting coach, the important thing was not how much his hitters struck out, but when. The team grounded into only 97 double plays (23 fewer than the average team) and hit 195 home runs (31 more than the average team). Those numbers matter most to the A’s, who will not ask their hitters to change.

“I don’t want to throw negatives at them,” Davis said. “Yes, we struck out, and you don’t want to strike out. But I don’t want my guys to just go up there and pepper the ball. They have the potential to drive the ball.”

The A’s finally met their match in the postseason, striking out 50 times in a five-game division series loss to the Detroit Tigers and their power pitching staff. Oakland managed only 30 hits and 3 home runs in the series.

Home runs rose by 8 percent from 2011 to 2012, but generally, power is down. After nine consecutive seasons of more than 5,000 homers — starting in 1998, when the majors expanded to 30 teams — hitters have reached that mark once in the last six years. That suggests that power is harder to find, so teams want anyone with power potential to swing big.

“There’s still guys that are tough to strike out, but their game has to be like that in order to be in the big leagues,” Tigers catcher Alex Avila said. “Guys who can hit home runs and have any sort of power, teams are going to want them to hit home runs.”

Tigers General Manager Dave Dombrowski said there was far less stigma to striking out than there was when he started in baseball in 1978. That season, 21 players fanned at least 100 times. Last year, 111 did. The acceptance of strikeouts as a necessary byproduct of production is now ingrained.

Consider the Cleveland Indians, rivals of the Tigers in the American League Central. The Indians added four players this off-season who struck out at least 140 times in 2012: Drew Stubbs, Mark Reynolds, Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher. (They also subtracted one, Shin-Soo Choo.) The Indians’ new manager, Terry Francona, said his team would have speed, as well as power, to go with the strikeouts. He dismissed concerns of an older generation.