Schlepping gear is a rookie’s responsibility, passed down draft class to draft class. Carrying the music, though, became the privilege of one special rookie.

Midway through the 2017 season, after hearing Matt Chapman’s all-encompassing musical selections blaring over the weight room speakers, veteran outfielder Matt Joyce knighted Chapman “DJ Rookie.”

“But I didn’t mind it,” Chapman said. “Now it’s a blessing and a curse, because I’m still carrying the music.”

Step into the A’s clubhouse on any given day and Chapman’s carefully selected Spotify playlists are likely booming from the speakers above. After a win, on the bus after a loss, during meals, as batting practice background and at off-day golf excursions, the mood is always up, and the musical taste eclectic.

Tame Impala, ODESZA, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Snoop Dogg, J. Cole.

Now in his second full season, Chapman is not just the A’s de facto leader and king of the Aux cord, but the guy helping redefine the rhythm of how third-base defense is supposed to be played.

Let’s go beyond the music.

* * *

A mid-August series loss to the Cubs in Chicago cast a harsh light on Chapman. He was officially in a mini-slump, batting .043 over his last 13 games. A quick trip to the South Side for a series against the White Sox and a now-famous buzz cut from Chad Pinder got Chapman back on track.

He went on an eight-game tear that included six home runs, his 30th of the season hit off Alex Gordon in Kansas City. Chapman, ever the improving hitter — with all the tools that, once refined, will make him elite — is homing in on a more consistent bat path, a steadier approach.

But somewhere between all those frustrating outs he got a call from a friend, Astros third baseman Alex Bregman.

Bregman and Chapman were teammates and roommates with Team USA in 2013. Both were selected in the 2014 MLB draft and watched each others’ at-bats from the hot corner throughout near-identical minor league careers on opposing teams. The third basemen haven’t stopped watching each other.

“We love competing against each other, but we’ve also been friends for a long time, so we always make sure we’re helping each other out,” Bregman said.

Bregman watched film of Chapman’s latest at-bats, as he typically does when he has time, and called in with some observations: Chapman was pulling off the ball, Bregman said, and he had some drills Chapman could utilize. Breaking down swing mechanics is straightforward; they’d done this together before.

But when Bregman asks for defensive insights from Chapman, the conversation gets jumbled.

“I’ve tried (to give advice) defensively, but I’m not that good at explaining it, I guess,” Chapman said. “And he’s so good it’s hard to do. What am I going to tell him that he doesn’t already know?”

For all the new defensive metrics that exist, sometimes a great defensive player can be boiled down to pure superior instincts, athleticism and maybe a little luck. Maybe it’s not a matter of knowing; great defenders just do.

Bregman and Chapman are considered among the best third basemen in baseball — both were Gold Glove finalists, with Chapman winning in 2018. The pair lead all AL third baseman on the SABR Defensive Index this year. Chapman’s 13 score leads all AL defenders, regardless of position.

A Baseball America poll of managers, scouts and executives ranked Chapman as the best defensive third baseman with the best arm. Bregman was ranked the second-best third baseman.

So, Bregman has taken to emulation over conversation. He noticed Chapman plays deeper on the infield, almost like a shortstop. The league average for third basemen is 116 feet from the batter. Chapman stands back from the batter 121 feet on average. Bregman started taking a few steps back, too. (He averages about 118 feet back).

“I think we play the deepest third base in baseball,” Bregman said. “He’s getting more balls. The downside is, when you get more, you have a chance to screw them up.”

Chapman, 26, is redefining how to play the position. The league-wide trend that favors a swinging-for-the-fences at-bat over laying down a bunt justifies his deep positioning. More importantly, he has the goods to back it up.

He ignores instincts typically required of a position chained to the fundamentals, instead choosing to utilize unparalleled lateral movement and quick feet to make the most difficult plays look like cake. He’s more “one-handed with the baseball than most guys,” said A’s coach Matt Williams, a four-time Gold Glover winner at third base for the Giants and Cleveland.

It’s freakish, yet his teammates notice that other players are trying to carry Chapman’s tune.

“I’ve noticed, just seeing highlights, guys playing deeper than I’m used to seeing,” A’s first baseman Matt Olson said. “People aren’t going to be able to play as deep as him just because he has the best arm. That’s what gives him the freedom to do that. He knows he can get a slow ball to him and still throw the guy out, and not every third baseman can do that.”

Even if Chapman sparks a third base revolution, the end results just aren’t that easy to copy.

Don't let all the home runs distract you from br fact that Matt Chapman did this (and Matt Olson made two low key stellar defensive plays in the 8th) pic.twitter.com/6TQMp3bEGU — Shayna Rubin (@ShaynaRubin) August 16, 2019

“It’s not something you can teach, it’s innate,” Williams said. “His hands are separate from his body, regardless of what position his body is in, you can’t teach that stuff. If you can, somebody should let me know because I don’t know how. To make somebody play like him would be a disservice to that person.”

Chapman has the green light to ignore fundamentals. Why play at a safe distance and get behind the routine grounders and let sharp ground balls find gaps when Chapman can take a quick step at that sharp grounder, turn his body, backhand the ball and gun it to first all in one swift motion consistently?

“Fundamentally, it’s not what most folks teach, but it’s the way he does it,” Williams said.

The eyes tell us Chapman’s tricky third base dance pays off. The stats, too.

He’s saving runs, and any ball in his inexplicably huge range of infield dirt is playable. His 11.4 Ultimate Zone Rating ranks first among third baseman, with Nolan Arenado in second with a 6.8. His 17 Defensive Runs Saved ranks first, too.

Chapman doesn’t bother with the numbers.

“I go straight natural instincts,” Chapman said. “I haven’t been shown a number about analytics on anything. I don’t even know how to read that stuff.

“I know the A’s are analytically heavy, I just think that’s the front office. Those guys use that stuff and it works for me because I fall into that category, but they don’t give us any of that. I think they just keep it simple.”

As Olson said, it is Chapman’s arm that allows hims to play so deeply and cover so much ground. Chapman said he once threw a ball 98 mph.

“It’s probably one of the best arms on the team,” Olson said, “and I’m including pitchers.”

It all adds up to a play like this becoming routine.

“We’re so spoiled, that’s just standard. I don’t know that anybody in the big leagues that can make that play besides Chapman,” Chris Bassitt said after that late-August game against the Giants. “No disrespect to anyone else. What he does every single day, he makes greatness look boring.”

* * *

Chapman is a NorCal guy now, but he is SoCal by nature. He was born in Victorville and grew up in Lake Forest. He played baseball at El Toro High. Arenado also played there; he was two years ahead of Chapman.

Chapman has been watching Arenado play since Little League.

“I just tried to emulate him,” Chapman said. “I tried to copy everything he did and do it like him and I think that made me better.”

Chapman doesn’t think he has surpassed Arenado as a third baseman — “I’ve never been better than Nolan, but I’m working towards it” — but from him he has learned to lead by example.

Manager Bob Melvin saw Chapman grab the reins soon after his promotion to the majors in June 2017. In one game, when Angels catcher Juan Graterol was accusing the A’s of stealing signs, Chapman took it upon himself to address Graterol directly (and ended up getting ejected).

But leadership is just in Chapman’s DNA. Success bred it from Little League through his college years with Cal State Fullerton.

“I’ve always been OK with making my own decisions,” Chapman said “And every team I’ve been on, I’ve wanted to be a leader and be one of the guys they look to. I want to be that guy, but it’s not something you go and take.”

This season is hardly Chapman’s breakout year. He was looting hits and collecting RBIs from the moment he stepped on the Coliseum grass two season ago.

It was clear then, and clear now, that Chapman would be the face of a massive youth movement in Oakland — along with Olson, Ramon Laureano, A.J. Puk, Sean Murphy, Jesus Luzardo. Frankie Montas, Franklin Barreto and Pinder.

There’s just something about Chapman’s style, the risk and fun all wrapped into one, that permeates the clubhouse. DJ Rookie is just DJ Chapman now, but the same energy that ignites the clubhouse through his music emanates from Chapman himself.

Chapman, with agent Scott Boras, voiced his desire to stay in Oakland. He isn’t arbitration-eligible until 2021, and any new streams of revenue the A’s can create (like, say, a new ballpark) could help them keep for many years.

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Oakland A’s senior adviser Sandy Alderson expected to be named New York Mets team president “I told the A’s I want to stay here and I want them to give me a contract,” he said. “So that’s up to them, not me.”

With Khris Davis signed, the A’s assure their attention has turned to locking in Chapman longterm.

And with how quickly he not only adapted to life as a big leaguer, but planted the seeds of reformation and set an absurd standard for how third base should best be played, how could they not?

With a transcendent talent like Chapman, even the most frugal of organizations should want to stand up and face the beautiful music.