The Athletics have been quite active this offseason but aren’t necessarily done adding to the roster. General manager David Forst tells Jessica Kleinschmidt of the A’s Radio Network that he’s still hopeful to make another addition or two, specifically mentioning the rotation as one possible area.
Ahead of their 2025 move to West Sacramento, the A’s have signed Luis Severino and Gio Urshela, acquired Jeffrey Springs, and extended Brent Rooker. The team’s rotation now features Severino, Springs, JP Sears, Joey Estes and Mitch Spence. Other candidates on the 40-man roster include J.T. Ginn, Osvaldo Bido, Gunnar Hoglund, Jacob Lopez and Ryan Cusick. Lefty Ken Waldichuk and righty Luis Medina are on the mend from Tommy John surgery and will open the season on the injured list, but the former could be an option in the second half. (Medina’s surgery was performed in August, likely taking him out through the end of the 2025 season.)
The flurry of offseason dealings has “boosted” the Athletics’ payroll to … $64.5MM in terms of total salary owed. Their luxury ledger is a bit higher, thanks in large part to the fact that Severino and Rooker are on backloaded deals. RosterResource projects the A’s around $97MM in CBT considerations. They’re reportedly aiming to pull north of $105MM in hopes of avoiding a grievance from the MLBPA tied to the appropriation of the funds the team receives through revenue-sharing. The A’s previously lost their revenue-sharing status for similar reasons and were only reinstated as a recipient under the 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement. They haven’t topped $83MM in luxury obligations since.
Some free agents will balk at the notion of playing their games in a Triple-A park, though as the A’s showed with Severino, that can be bridged with a far more substantial contract than most expected entering the winter. Forst’s club feels like a particularly good fit to take on a somewhat unwanted contract in the rotation as well.
The D-backs would welcome the opportunity to shed Jordan Montgomery’s $22.5MM salary. Ditto the Phillies and Taijuan Walker (two years, $36MM) and, presumably, Tigers and Kenta Maeda ($10MM in 2025). The Yankees are shopping Marcus Stroman ($18MM in 2025, conditional $18MM player option for 2026 if he pitches 140 innings) and are willing to pay down some salary. The Cardinals could move Steven Matz and the final $12MM he’s owed in the last season of a four-year deal. The Twins are open to offers on Chris Paddack and his $7.5MM as they look to scale back spending. Rangers righty Jon Gray ($13MM) has seen his name kicked around the rumor circuit this winter as well. Put more concisely, there’s no shortage of arms who’d fit that bill, but the list of clubs willing to take on such a contract isn’t large. That puts the A’s in a decent position.
Another addition to the rotation would further make the A’s more respectable than many will give them credit for entering 2025. A rotation fronted by Severino, Springs, Sears and a to-be-determined outside acquisition could at least be competitive, health permitting. The lineup features not only the excellent Rooker but emerging outfield contributors JJ Bleday and Lawrence Butler. Catcher Shea Langeliers only posted a .288 OBP but swatted 29 homers this past season. Young players like Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom and Zack Gelof have shown potential. Mason Miller is one of the game’s premier closers.
Based on that foundation, it’s at least within the realm of possibility that the A’s emerge as a surprise club in 2025. That makes any forthcoming additions all the more interesting. The team’s budget for the actual cash payroll isn’t known, but their current $64.5MM projection is about $1.5MM ahead of last year’s paltry $63MM mark.
Get Stroman and make the Yanks pay the bill!
Unless they pull off a miracle deal Stroman is gonna be another pitcher being paid by NY to play for another team just like AJ Burnett.
Burnett was a bonehead deal by Cashman who then tried to clear the decks when he realized how poorly he had chosen. But even in that deal AJ was good in his first year (2009, where they took it all).
Mike,
It was a bad deal overall but he was also pretty decent in 2009 and pitched a great game 2 in the WS which was huge since they lost game 1 at home to Philly/ Cliff Lee’s dominance.
I wouldn’t undo that deal with Burnett at all. He was worth every penny based on game 2 of the World Series.
100%, AJ made his money for with one game.
The market for pitchers like Stroman is established at about $15MM this offseason. It’s the vesting option that’s the problem. Pay down $4MM for 2025, and another $4/5MM in 2026 if it vests.
I’d frankly hold him as he’s currently the 6th starter and he’d be fine in that role. They don’t want to pay him though.
Because at the Yanks tax bracket it’s about $30MM per for Stroman.
They have AAA guys who can fill in as the 6 man.
The point is the A’s need to spend more so getting Stroman would fit, though I think the yanks would probably still have to toss in 5mil or so as per that last report. But the A’s have some players I’d be interested in like Max Shuemann or Estuary Ruiz.
Probably would not get any of them. Likely a package of prospects. Ruiz could be traded though or Seth Brown. Bleday has CF locked down in my opinion. Shuemann is a great backup for Jacob Wilson and Gio Urshela. Don’t see him leaving.
A Seth Brown if/of player isn’t terrible either tbh.
If he is in usual form, he can hit 30 homers in Yankee Stadium
That doesn’t mean they want to pay for other teams cast offs.
Y’all got Montas, Canning, and a reliever for your rotation…don’t look too far for castoffs.
What does the Mets have to do with the A’s budget? I’m sure the Mets would love for the A’s trade for Marte and his salary but that isn’t happening either.
The Mets proved there’s plenty of room on major league rosters for castoff/not great starters. That’s what. Stroman is no worse than the three I mentioned.
If Stroman didn’t burn his bridges with the Mets he might be an option for them.
@salzilla
Really?! You expect them to take on the Yankees mistake AND give up a prospect that you’ve heard of? Not going to happen.
Stroman’s a major league quality pitcher getting a comparable salary to what other teams have doled out to similar pitchers this offseason. Just because the Yankees don’t need him now, doesn’t mean he’s worth nothing, especially if we’re going to pay out a bit. You think we’re going to pay out and receive nothing when we have holes to fill? Doubtful.
@Stymee
“Really?! You expect them to take on the Yankees mistake…”
Stroman wasn’t a mistake. He ranked 82nd in ERA and 93rd in FIP for pitchers with over 100 innings with a league worst defensive infield behind him as a ground ball pitcher. Those numbers position him as a middle rotation guy or high end back of rotation guy. Those guys are worth about $18 million. Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil took leaps forward in their development and were better than Stroman. That doesn’t make Stroman a bust. That makes him quality depth, from which you trade to make your overall team better.
150 innings of 4.5 era ball doesn’t come cheap.
I doubt they will trade Ruiz.
The A’s have a real nice team setting up, JJ Bleday is going to have a big season. Langeliers hit nearly 30 homers. Rooker and Butler are potential all stars. Ruiz should be a premier table setter if he can get back to 100% – Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, Zach Gelof and Jacob Wilson. They are stacked.
Unfortunately, almost all of their SP prospects have proven to be busts. Sears, Estes, Hoglund, Cusick and Waldichuck are all closer to DFA than they are to being legitimate starters.
Severino and Springs are both high risk players with injury histories. Their rotation is teetering on being the worst in the league.
Unsure how that works out for the A’s, they really need Bido to develop. The most promising prospect on the A’s farm.
They soured on Ruiz, doubt they’d say no to trading him.
I don’t know why, he’s had a good season in ’23 and missed all of ’24. Unless his knee is shot and he can’t steal bases anymore. I pegged him to lead the league in SBs before the ’24 season. A couple other players to compete with for that mark but he still could be a premier lead off hitter.
Looked to be more than that. The behind the scenes talk was that he was demoted for showing support for protesters against ownership.
That could be a legitimate reason. That’s too bad because he could have been a good player for them. For the record, I’d defend Ruiz and his right to have an opinion on the strengths and weaknesses of ownership. With that insight, it will be interesting to see how the situation plays out.
A lot of that talk was right out in the open. Early in the season, he wore that Dive Bar armband in support of the protests. The Athletics sent him down to Las Vegas as punishment. At the time they sent him down, he was the hottest hitter on the team, and nobody else was close. By sending him down, they robbed Oakland fans of the opportunity to see him at his best. He continued his hot streak. (I’m a Las Vegas Aviators season ticket holder). In 11 games, he hit .326 with three home runs and seven stolen bases. One of those home runs was the longest HR of the year in all of minor league baseball. Unfortunately, you won’t see him credited with that because the Aviators screwed up completely. The Las Vegas Golden Knights’ practice facility, City National Arena, is right next to the Aviators stadium. Ruiz hit a monster blast over the scoreboard and out of the park. It landed on the roof of City National Arena. At the game, the announcer told the crowd that the StatCast equipment measured it at 502 feet. However, it somehow got reported as 319 feet. That’s 81 feet short of the center field wall. That would have been a bloop single. There was no reason for him to be in Triple A, other than as punishment for the armband.
Thanks for the insight. I can only call as I heard from 3k miles away in NYC. Yeah Ruiz was whitehot, I followed along through fantasy baseball. It was shocking when he was send down. What do you think his status is now? Available or they’re holding?
I think he’s too talented to trade away, but you never know with the As.
A lot of former Yankees, Stroman would fit in. How much they pay down. Increase level of talent coming back. A’s have not been at minimum spending salary for years. Have really screwed over their fans.
The As are going for it, trying to climb out of the bunker.
i find it super funny how oakland’s rotation and starting depth is built on former yankees pitchers. Jp sears, severino, medina, spence, waldichuk….. might as well add stroman too
Stroman is a horrible choice for the A’s. That vesting contract means any acquiring team doesn’t even know how much they’re going to have to pay him.
That 2026 player option might be an issue
Okay David Justice
I mean, I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that they will add a back of the rotation starter in free agency between $8-12 million so they can get over that $105 million tax threshold so they PA doesn’t file a grievance
All these additions to the a’s must be stirring up season ticket holder interest among both of their fans!
Well, I’m one of their fans but season tickets aren’t happening. Traffic between the Bay Area and Sacto. sucks. Haven’t heard back yet from the other guy.
The ballpark in Sacramento only holds up to 14,000 and they’ve almost sold out of season tickets. It actually kind’ve sucks for fans like me because it’s going to actually be expensive/difficult to get tickets
Sadly, that’s probably 7000 more season tickets than they’ve sold in years…
You’re probably right
They did sell out
They averaged about 14,000 fans per home game last year which is max for their temporary home. I bet the team see that as a wash.
Yeah the A’s only averaged 11k fans in 2024, and that’s only because some games had big crowds from a fireworks events or a Yankees/Red Sox opponent. Most games were 5k fans and super depressing. Getting 14k excited loud fans every night will be a lot more fun to watch
They got the attendance they paid for. It was clear they made no effort to retain their fans or generate new ones.
You laugh but if they were spending like they are now, more people would have shown up.
With every action it’s clear as day they pulled a Major League, doing whatever it took to get out of Oakland and essentially give them the finger.
And why? Because they didn’t give the billionaire his handout. Meanwhile, if they had, people like you would be on here to pitch a fit about how Oakland gave money to a billionaire when they need to be investing in police and schools. You can’t have it both ways.
The problem with your theory is that they sold most of those tickets before they started spending.
Among John Fisher’s biggest crimes is creating this impression to casuals that the Oakland A’s don’t have a fanbase. When he bought the team, they were averaging about 26k/game for 5 years. And that was playing in an old stadium and competing with the Giants and their brand new stadium. He never made the slightest effort to grow that and it’s mostly gone down since. Why anybody thinks he’s the guy to steward this now second-rate organization into a new market where there are no A’s fans is beyond me.
I’m glad it must be killing John Fisher to have to spend money (even though he will be making money because of it).
Oh for sure, but this is great for baseball. He is going to make a lot of money in TV revenue with now getting 100% shared revenue. He could also just sell the team to Lacob and make a huge profit as well.
actually he’s only spending revenue sharing money, none of his own…
Yeah he gets no credit here. Spending only to avoid grievance and revenue sharing money they have never spent in past, that he pocketed.
I actually like Bido as the 5th if they can get a veteran guy as their 4th. Having Spence and Estes as long men in the bullpen would be great.
Agreed here
I third this, Bido and to a lesser extent Basso looked very interesting as rotation pieces last year
Yeah Bido showed great potential.
Taijuan Walker …. c’mon down!
-signed all phillies’ fans
I do not think TWalker is a legitimate get for the A’s. The Phillies would need to include serious prospect capital and still pay down a good portion of Walker’s salary, which would defeat the purpose. Walker is effectively untradeable. Three or four weeks into ST the Phillies will know if he has rediscovered his splitter, and some velocity. If not, I think there is a decent chance he is released before OD.
Don’t think “serious draft capital” is warranted? Phillies pay 10mil down (20 total) for a low level lottery tix.
A’s clear that “grievance monetary line” and IF Walker rebounds to a #4 type flip him for another low level type.
The universe will have to align a bit, so I keep my eyes to the sky….
Yes – pitching is expensive and Taj was certainly decent only a year plus ago. But I do think that they need to bring him to camp so that scouts can see if he got some mojo back before they trade him. Right now, the Phils will have to pay too much down to make it work and they might as well just use him as depth. If he looks healthy and has added some velo back then he becomes much more viable.
No dude. Phillies would need to include “serious prospect capital’ just to get another team to take on Walker’s contract or even part of Walker’s contract. Walker has negative trade value even if the Phillies pay down half his contract.
First, steve, the Phils are not going to unload Taj along with “serious prospect capital”. 2nd – these things are always fluid. Today, there probably is not a deal out there that works for the Phils, as his rate is discounted enough that they should just keep him as depth.
As things ramp up and teams develop needs, if Taj looks solid then it becomes a much more viable deal for them to unload a useful portion of the contract, with no need to send along prospect capital. Teams need pitching.
My reply was to the other post, not yours. Yes, agree TWalker is not going anywhere.
they should aim to get a prospect or even another ML bat as an add-on for taking on a guy like Stroman or Montgomery.
Lots of low cost arms still available in free agency without having to give up anything in trade.
While the A’s are not likely going to be looking at guys like Flaherty or Pivetta (though they should) someone like Jose Urquidy brings tremendous upside if they could get him
Pivetta would be awesome for the A’s, I’d love that
Paddack, J. Gray, Maeda, Matz has some value with some money coming back for players at end of the above list (More money coming back for Stro and T. Walker) – Some money between 5 and 10M and/or lesser prospects
There are other pitchers that are FAs that have value on a 1 year deal.
Also sign Urquidy to a 2 year contract (age 30.2 by ST)(He had TJS in June 2024 and will barely be able to contribute in 2025) with incentive leaden contract
Montgomery would be a good idea to bring in but he probably has a partial No trade clause and wouldn’t agree to go to the Athletics
Looks like they are actually trying a little. Maybe if they had done this a few years ago they would have remained more competitive and had better attendance in Oakland. I don’t know why the league allowed Fisher to use the exact plot from the movie Major League to tank the team and then use poor fan attendance as an excuse to move out of town. Fisher should be forced to sell the team and Manfred should be banished to somewhere deep in outer space.
They let him do it because they know that Oakland is a ‘dead town’ and they can’t support an MLB franchise long term including stadium & infrastructure costs. The A’s & Raiders were successful in the 70’s & 80’s because ticket prices were reasonable, Oakland was a livable city and teams didn’t care much about their facilities back then. As professional sports grew, so did the need for nicer venues and the Raiders had to move due to stadium issues. They came back and tried it again, but ran into the same problems and finally left Oakland for good. The Warriors needed a new facility but the city refused to help pay for enough of the stadium’s infrastructure costs so they moved across the Bay to SF. The same exact thing was happening with the A’s, so the owner found a new location that would cover a reasonable amount of the costs off its new stadium needs. The Oakland local government has been very short-sighted in these decisions and it has come back to bite them. Also, most of Oakland has fallen into a state of disrepair, so MLB had no issues leaving Oakland despite the decades of success the A’s had there when it was a nicer and safer place to live.
Jesus too much wrong here to know where to start. Anybody reading this, just know that most of this is completely inaccurate. It’s weird that this person is clearly making stuff up, starting with the fact that the Warriors moved because of some stadium dispute with the city. They never had an issue with Oakland, and in fact they still have facilities there. Joe Lacob, Warriors owner, has an open offer to buy the A’s to keep them in Oakland. Oakland was working with the A’s to build a new stadium at Howard Terminal and in fact did everything asked of them, including raising the necessary funds. Fisher is the one who pulled out, and not surprisingly nearly 2 years later he still doesn’t have firm plans in Vegas, including actual cash ready to pay for the stadium. Finally, boy for a dead town it sure is tough to buy a house in Oakland, lol. It’s weird that so many smart people want to spend $2 million to live in a dead town. Also recently ranked the number one food city by Condé Nast, but no you’re right…totally dead.
As usual, people are frightened. Frightened of each other, frightened of.themselves, frightened of God.
Its frightening.
But they’re too scared.to.talk.about it……
The Rangers should contact them about Tyler Mahle.
Waldichuk and a minor leaguer to the Twins for Paddack
it would be more like Paddack and a minor leaguer for Waldichuk
Forst must be ecstatic actually being able to improve his team instead of tearing it down per usual
His last rebuild trades was trash. Olson trade. Then Murphy but flipping Contreras to Milwaukee for ruiz. Actually if they kept Contreras that wouldve looked like a good deal. Bleday- puk deal with ended up good. Rooker waiver claim but he was also on 3 other teams prior
Rooker being passed over by 3 other teams makes it even more impressive, no less. Those others didn’t know what they had.
Most teams couldn’t afford to wait for him to figure it out. The A’s had all the time in the world as they were actively trying to lose and kill their fanbase.
I have a feeling, with a normal Spring Training, that Montgomery will have a bounce-back year. If that happens, he can opt out of the last year of his deal and a team can offer him the QO.
I had a feeling that they would spend these 8-10mln on a reliever, but I’d be ok with a starter like Turnbull, Quintana or even Hoffman. I don’t really want a typical innings eater like Gibson or Rea, they already have enough depth and guys that can provide that and would benefit from playing time like Spence, Estes, Ginn or Basso. Hart could be another interesting option, he could be cheap enough that they could spend money on him and then add a quality reliever.
please take Matz or Mikolas from St. Louis
Did you miss the part where they want to get better?
MLBA Players Association should reject and recommend against the A’s playing in a minor league stadium in West Sacramento.
The most obvious solution to the A’s stadium dilemma
would be for the A’s to share the SF Giants home ballpark,
Oracle Field, for their 81 home games for the next few years.
It is only a 20 minute plus drive or trip on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) for A’s fans. The A’s also have many, many fans on the San Francisco side of the Bay.
.
Oracle Park shared stadium Giants-A’s could have been arranged, endorsed, encouraged by a STRONG Baseball Commissioner, something MLB, apparently, does not have.
Why was this not done `10-20 years ago?!
It was very likely not implemented because it would have drawn larger crowds for both the Giants and the A’s teams and fans and it would have exposed the FALSE NARRATIVE of the Giants, A’s , MLB and MLB Ownership that the SF Bay Area could not support 2 MLB teams.
Shared stadiums have been done successfully in many other cities and professional sports. Some teams have eventuall opted to stay in shared stadiums. Other teams have opted to build their own new stadiums in the same 2 team regions.(Clippers built new privately financed Arena in Orange County and ended their stadium sharing with the Lakers and more.
That shipped has sailed. Not only would sharing an 81-game home schedule for two teams be a logistical headache, no MLB potential hosting franchise wants to share their territorial rights and risk cannibalizing their own revenues.
@sportsfano – The Giants would never have agreed to any of those ideas
A’s have been pretty active in the offseason. I look forward to seeing them in the World Series in 2025.
The A’s have stated that if they host playoff games it will not be in the minor league ballpark. Fortunately we all know that the Giants stadium will be available haha
“There are rich teams and there are poor teams. Then there’s fifty feet of crap, and then there’s us.”
Looks like the Athletics have emerged from the pile they were buried under!
Ha apparently so
If they MUST spend money to get to the threshold, Stroman would be a good addition. He pitched to a 3.09 ERA away from Yankees stadium and he only has 1-2 years on his deal. Yankees only want a large pie back too.
If I’m the A’s. and I’m spending Revenue Sharing money (the best kind, the free stuff where competing is unnecessary) I don’t want a retread with a bad contract unless I get a bushel of prospects. Might as well be a opportunistic buyer
Give me Pivetta
A smart move would be to send someone like Luis Medina to the DBacks for Montgomery, a #15-20 prospect plus maybe 5-10 million dollars, and then flip Montgomery to another team while eating most of the rest of the contract.
Plenty of clubs would jump at Montgomery at $5million.
Dbacks are looking for a RH slugger and RP with closing experience so Medina may not be a good fit. Also, I’m not familiar with Medina, but a quick glance at his stats show that he’s on the wrong side of MLB average for SO%, BB%, EV, HH% and GB% so he may not get the return you’re hoping for. He’s young so maybe he hasn’t fully developed into the MLB SP he will become down the line.
This also seem like a Golden Opportunity for a creative GM like AJ Prellar to loop the A’s into any deal that involves reducing payroll. The A’s ought be able to add a number of prospects in return for paying the freight.
The Dodgers would likely be willing to attach a younger starting pitcher to Chris Taylor’s contract, so for a similar dollar amount as the overpaid pitchers who were mentioned, they get a younger option like Gonsolin, May, Miller, or Knack, with some upside that the younger pitcher could provide some long term value, opposed to a one year veteran stopgap.
Dodgers would probably do the same thing in a trade with the Marlins if they need to get their payroll high enough to remain eligible for revenue sharing.
The A’s are kinda my pet team this year, they have a lot of interesting things going for them. Finally have a strong lineup coming together. I just hope, the comparisons are so easy to make, that this isn’t like the Marlins splurge when they moved into their new park then quickly pivoted and sold it all off and went back to being irrelevant.
The Marlins spent money to actually try to compete. They just did it terribly. The A’s are spending money so they can avoid a Players Union grievance. John Fisher spent 20 years destroying this team. He’s also run his soccer team into the ground. Would be the wildest turnaround ever if he suddenly turned into the Cohen of the west (not ever gonna happen).
I could see the Tigers dumping Maeda on them and he goes on to have an amazing season.
They should get Stroman and someone else whose last name begins with S. That would be fun to have an entire rotation like that. I wonder if it’s ever happened before. All 5 guys in the rotation that shared the same first letter of their last name.
Why is Forst smiling even though he works for one of the worst organizations in baseball? Because he knows he makes more money than almost all of West Sacramento’s players.
They should have made the A’s move to LA.
LA could take on 2 more teams -at least one.
Much more Dodger muscle and there’s not much fun in it. Rooting for a David, I guess is
……inspiring….. ?????
Not much really……
“Presumably” should not have commas around it when used in that context.