On Monday, the Oakland Athletics held a season-ending press conference. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle and Joe Stiglich of NBC Sports were present, and both provided insightful takes on the words from A’s VP of Baseball Operations Billy Beane and GM David Forst.
Somewhat expectedly, it doesn’t seem as though the A’s are likely to add significant payroll or make any sort of all-in push towards contention this year.
“Next year, you want to improve,” Beane says (via Slusser), “but more than anything, if we can just get long-term pieces in — a process that was started this year and will continue on — I think we’ll feel good. If we have the opportunity for a playoff spot, of course, I think we’ve always been opportunistic, and we’ll look at the winter that way, but we do want to be disciplined long term.”
Slusser also adds that Beane expressed disappointment in the volatile development process of their young pitchers (which would include up-and-down seasons from Sean Manaea, Kendall Graveman and Jharel Cotton), but adds that the free-agent market for starting pitchers is too risky to plunge into. The A’s, according to Beane, want to build their pitching staff “organically.” 2016 first-rounder A.J. Puk and trade acquisition James Kaprielian are good bets to contribute to the A’s rotation in the near future as well.
However, the A’s believe that their offense is in very good shape for the future. Khris Davis hit 43 homers last season, and they have no plans to shop the slugger, per Beane (via Slusser). He’ll complement a young core led by Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Bruce Maxwell and Chad Pinder that has earned the faith of the front office. That group will only get stronger as additional minor leaguers join the MLB club. Highly-touted prospect Franklin Barreto could begin the season at Triple-A, for instance, but seems likely to contribute in 2018 as well.
Notably, the A’s brain trust is already looking at which members of the young core to lock up via long-term extensions.
“First, we want to make sure we’re identifying the right guys,” said Beane (via Stiglich). “I’ll just say it’s probably a conversation we’ve already started. We’ve had that discussion already. It’s going to be important for us to do it.”
Olson, Chapman, Manaea, and Ryon Healy all seem like candidates for these type of extensions (though Slusser notes that Oakland could choose to dangle Healy in potential trades for pitching help). The A’s appear to be acting more proactively on this front than the organization typically has in past years, and interestingly, Beane cites the new stadium as a factor.
“When you’re talking about building a club for a stadium that’s six years off, and if you’re talking about locking them up, then you’re looking to have to lock them up for a long time. So that’s sort of the trick and the balance that we have to address this offseason, if we’re going to embark on that… I think right now we’ve just got to operate that (the ballpark) is going to happen (on time). The other option is one we’ve done my entire career here, which is constant churn. I’m churned out.”
The A’s are treating their new ballpark as additional motivation to get a strong perennial contender together. They believe that by combining a team the fans are excited about with a move to a brand new stadium, they can give a major boost to a franchise that will continue to see revenue-sharing checks dwindle over the next few seasons. Beane cites the Indians’ success with a similar enterprise back in the 90s as the model for his plan.
“I think you have to be very proactive long before a stadium opens,” Beane said (via Slusser, in a separate article). “Listen, you have to get people excited about the product that’s going in a new stadium if you expect them to pay higher prices or even come at all. That’s really important. So for me, the model has always been the Indians. No one has done it since then nearly as well. If you wait too long and try to create a team a year before the stadium opens, most of them badly miss the mark, and we’ve got to take advantage of it.”
It’s been a tough couple of seasons for the A’s since an aggressive but ultimately disappointing playoff push in 2014. But if they can lock up some of their promising young players and continue to add to an intriguing foundation, the franchise could be well on its way to sustainable success sooner than later.
Is the ballpark actually confirmed?
Yes, they released a statement a month or two ago saying they have a spot for the new park
Does that make it a done deal or more of like a first step/next step?
First step/next step. It’ll never be that easy to build in California, unless they build in the middle of nowhere.
Beane has got to be the most overrated GM in all of MLB.
Cheap Owners. He’s doing great
Beane/Wolff, Huntington/Nutting, etc.
I agree, imagine what he could do with some money
Well, he’s not a GM soooooo
Is that comment an intentional non sequitur or are you trying to confuse those unfamiliar with your ratings system?
I’ve been critical of some of Beane and Co.’s moves but there has been some very good ones too. When you “churn” at the rate the A’s do you’re ultimately going to encounter some duds. I find most people who hate Beane are either frustrated A’s fans or people who think he wrote Moneyball.
the team got lucky with their “Big Three” of Hudson, Mulder, and Zito back in the late 90’s. they also drafted Bonderman – though traded him to Detroit before he had a few good to really good seasons for the Tigers. back then the draft went for as many rounds as teams felt like selecting amateur players. around that same time some guy wrote a book called MoneyBall and the legend of billy beane was born. I’ve also never understood why a guy who hit on 4 pitchers drafted out of literally hundreds of players while operating a team owned by cheapskate owners makes you a god among your GM peers, but billy beane somehow pulled a snow job over everyone
Seriously…
“Unsurprisingly, the A’s brain trust is already looking at which members of the young core to lock up via long-term extensions.”
Considering how few players have been extended, that is most definitely a surprise.
Yeah I think that was a product of some word juggling. I edited it. As Kyle alludes to later in the post, the A’s are being far more proactive in this instance than they have been with players in recent years.
I would love it if they could lock up their top guys for the long haul. The only problem is they would have to sign a minimum 6 year deal to be around for the new park in 2023.
why would a player want to sign a below-market extension with the A’s, when they can just suck up arbitration a couple years and then hit the FA bonanza?
It’s great to have a six-year lead time to prep for the team to move into a new ballpark, and I wish Beane well on his quest. Unfortunately the last two instances of parks opening did not go as well as their occupants had hoped in Miami and Atlanta.
1 year to deal with the community and get the land, 2 years design & approvals, 2 years construction.
Not a 6-year lead time, they’re planning on grand opening in 2023, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. 5 years + offseason.
Define how long”in the near future”is with Kaprielian…
Opening day 2019 could be a realistic timeframe. He’ll return either at the start or middle of next year and I’m sure they’ll want him pitching in the minors. If he returns and is good, I’d guess mid-late 2019 at the latest
Yea that’s what I was thinking…if he’s not dealt first.
The A’s only deal players before they get too expensive to keep. Kaprielian is a high upside prospect with a complete repertoire of pitches that would get paid league minimum for 3 years.
I don’t think Beane is overrated, it’s more of a case that he brought innovation to baseball, and now every team is using it. When that happens, the advantage is gone, and the drop in the standings should come as no surprise.
Well, he hasn’t won anything with his innovation. Exactly zero World Series titles.
Randomness is a pretty accepted equation of playoff baseball. The regular season record since Beane took over is pretty impressive for a team operating in the bottom of payroll every year.
Isn’t it annoying to have to continually remind people how random playoff baseball is? You’re a better person than I am or rather you’re more clutch than I am.
Beane is an incredibly VP, minority owner… However, the resources are not there yet… And again he is just a minority owner – tycoon billionaire John Fisher owns the A’s…
Things are changing.
I predict that In 2023 we will still be talking about potential sites for a new A’s stadium…which could happen “any day now”
Except that they have a preferred site now, and even the Coliseum is readily available to them should their attempt to build a Downtown Oakland ballpark fail.
From what I understand their private funding source will only finance a stadium at the Laney site.
It isn’t impossible to privately finance at the Coliseum site, but the downtown site with the increased traffic and exposure is a lot more enticing to stakeholders.
The reason they didn’t go with the most readily available option in the Coliseum site is because it doesn’t solve the issue of there being nothing to do besides watch baseball.