From 2018-21, only four teams in Major League Baseball won more games than the A's. They'd navigated a lean stretch from 2015-17 that saw them rattle off three consecutive last-place finishes in the AL West and come out on the other side with a swiftly acquired/developed core. Matt Olson, Matt Chapman and Sean Murphy were top-100 draft picks. Sean Manaea, Chris Bassitt and Frankie Montas were key pieces in the returns received for Ben Zobrist, Jeff Samardzija and Josh Reddick/Rich Hill, respectively. Mark Canha was added via the Rule 5 Draft (technically in a trade with the Rockies). Ramon Laureano was acquired from the division-rival Astros for a song.
The staying power of that core, as is ever the case with the low-budget A's, was finite. In early September 2021 -- much to the chagrin of some A's fans; my apologies -- MLBTR looked ahead to the massive slate of arbitration salaries facing the then-Oakland club and wondered whether another broad-reaching teardown was nigh, given the escalating cost of that core.
That rebuild indeed came to pass. Over the next calendar year, each of Olson, Chapman, Manaea, Bassitt, Montas and Lou Trivino were traded for prospects. The following offseason, Murphy, A.J. Puk and Cole Irvin followed. Canha, just like Marcus Semien and Liam Hendriks a year prior, departed for no compensation. Sam Moll went at the 2023 trade deadline.
The plus side seemed to be a bevy of new prospects who could potentially accelerate the rebuild process and help get a contending group back on the field sooner than later. If you'd told A's fans on Opening Day 2022, after that miserable offseason rebuild, that the 2025 club would be an on-the-rise team with an exciting core of hitters, they'd likely have begrudgingly accepted that another rebuild paid dividends.
Except ... that's not really the case. It's true that the A's are winning in 2025 and look more exciting than they have in four years -- but they've reached this point not because of that rebuild but rather in spite of it. Let's take a look back at the rebuild, the missteps along the way, and the manner in which this nucleus came together despite a series of whiffs on the trade market.
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drafting jacob wilson was brilliant. might be ROY
and kurtz looks like the best pick outta 2024
I do like Wilson and Kurtz. The A’s have a bright future, but I think the A’s would have taken Chase Burns if they could have done so over Kurtz.
Go, Sacramento A’s.
West Sacramento
They’re winning the WS first year in Vegas
You can’t miss that badly if you were a blind monkey throwing darts at a list of random minor leaguers. But if you wanted to hold down arbitration salaries of the prospects you’re getting in return, you would ask other teams for exactly the prospects they got. In other words, it’s easy to make a case that the rebuild’s general failure was financially driven and intentional. Now that they have hope on the horizon in Vegas, they are gettiing more serious about bringing in quality players. And that’s how you end up above .500 at the end of April.
That’s even if they do make it to Vegas.
Where else will they wind up>?
Who knows, but they don’t even have all the funding for a ball park there yet and it was supposed to break ground next month and be ready in 3 years. That sure as hell isn’t happening right now.
You think? There appears to be a heckuva lot of news about the things underway or completed for the Vegas site. It might take a little longer than expected but I don’t see how this thing is stoppable now.
Their 1st round picks have been good. Yeah they haven’t got a thing beyond those rounds but the biggest benefit from being bad is the top picks
The Pirates rebuild was a dud too and they’re losing
go figure
LAWRENCE BUTLER!
The Destroyer of the Reds. I am a Reds fan, but I think the A’s will be big time winners soon.
That wasn’t a rebuild that was an owner cheaping his way out of a city. To call it anything else is lying to yourself.
hard to get the best value for your assets when it’s a garage sale.
Meanwhile, the Pirates “rebuild” was lauded by talking heads just a couple years ago and instead has so many holes in it, they might as well burn it all down again
A couple of real MLB types on their roster and nothing coming up from the farm anytime soon. Scouting and Player Development departments are the height of incompetence.
You’d think they could have gotten lucky in developing at least one of the kids
Their biggest problem is that they flat out refuse to spend any money at all.
18-15. Move Bleday out of CF and trade for a replacement, bring in a starter, and this is a wild card team.
Edit: use Bleday as a platoon corner OF, don’t just kick him off the team.
Denzel Clarke is the A’s next CF’er
Correct. Clarke is looking good in AAA and is a much better defender than Bleday in CF.
Their defense isn’t good need to figure it out and need another SP , the rebud trades were terrible but finally maybe healthy then hoglund, ginn might be those guys