The Athletics announced their seven-year, $86MM extension with left fielder Tyler Soderstrom from their future home site in Las Vegas. That franchise-record deal followed last winter’s significant investments in DH Brent Rooker and outfielder Lawrence Butler.
Katie Woo and Will Sammon of The Athletic wrote this week that the A’s were interested in exploring extension talks with other players. General manager David Forst confirmed as much at yesterday’s presser, revealing without specifics that the team has opened some discussions.
“The idea of taking this group of young players and locking them up into a new ballpark has been something we’ve talked about for a long time,” Forst said (link via Mark Anderson of The Associated Press). “We were able to get Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler signed last year, Tyler now, and there are ongoing conversations with others. So this is kind of the blueprint for how we want to do this and how we want to open the ballpark in ’28.”
While Forst didn’t identify which players the A’s were trying to extend, there are a few obvious targets. Shea Langeliers has three seasons of arbitration eligibility. Respective Rookie of the Year winner and runner-up Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson have five years of club control. Langeliers is one of the best offensive catchers in MLB. Kurtz and Wilson look like franchise cornerstones at first base and shortstop, respectively.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Langeliers for a $5.1MM salary. His power production should pay well in the arbitration process, and he’d make between $20-25MM over the next three years if he continues at his recent pace. Langeliers is controlled through his age-30 season. Sean Murphy (six years, $73MM) and Cal Raleigh (five years, $99.4MM) have signed recent extensions in the same service bracket.
Langeliers wouldn’t match Raleigh even though that deal was signed before the Seattle backstop’s record-setting 2025 season. His camp could look to beat the Murphy contract, though. The former Athletic was a superior defender but didn’t match Langeliers’ power ceiling. Murphy was accordingly starting from a lower projected base in arbitration than Langeliers will be.
Extending Wilson and certainly making a run at Kurtz would require new franchise records. Wilson is well beyond the $65MM range for which Ezequiel Tovar and Butler signed with one-plus service year. He doesn’t have the same power potential that Jackson Merrill and Roman Anthony showed to command early-career deals of at least $130MM. That said, he’s an up-the-middle defender with elite contact ability who was 21 percentage points better than a league average hitter in his first full season. He’s arguably closer to Merrill/Anthony than he is to Soderstrom, and a nine-figure asking price wouldn’t be outlandish.
Kurtz would be the most difficult of the group to lock up. On a rate basis, only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani were better hitters this year. Kurtz has already banked a $7MM signing bonus out of the draft and collected nearly $1.3MM from the pre-arbitration bonus pool. He’s also a client of Excel Sports Management, an agency which has almost no history of signing pre-arbitration extensions. It’d likely require the A’s to offer more than double the Soderstrom contract just to get talks underway if they want to buy out multiple free agent years.
The A’s extension candidates beyond that trio would all be much cheaper but completely speculative fliers. Defensive stalwart center fielder Denzel Clarke and young starter Luis Morales showed promise but have very limited big league résumés. None of their top prospects — infielder Leo De Vries nor lefties Gage Jump and Jamie Arnold — have even reached Triple-A, and there has never been a pre-debut extension for a pitcher.
I would sign an extension for Langeliers. Wait until Kurtz and Wilson are arbitration players to sign. Morales and Clarke need to prove it more.
However, I don’t think Kurtz and Wilson will sign right now anyways because if they wait longer, like 1st or 2nd year in arbitration, then they would likely get more.
Langeliers is represented by the Boras Corp. They won’t extend him.
IMHO, you sign them now. The amount they get in arbitration won’t change much one way or another. I think it’s worth locking in generational wealth in exchange for 1-2 FA years.
The logic of signing them now is they have guaranteed money.
If you wait until arb they will get life changing money that makes it easier to gamble on themselves and therefore less likely to sign an extension.
Both players were early 1st rd picks, Kurtz 4 and Wilson 6. They’ve already gotten life changing money
If the A’s get a solid pitching staff, they could be a major threat in the AL. Lots of good position players.
Good for the A’s. They get a lot of hate on here and being a Bay Area guy/giants fan, I’ve never rooted against the A’s. I’m glad to see they’re at least trying. I’m glad they locked up Soderstrom, McNeil definitely has the A’s vibe. I’m curious what else they do this off-season.
Hopefully, Henry Bolte OF gets a shot to make the Sacramento squad some time in 2026.
baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=bol…
Give Kurtz and Wilson 15 year deals.
I love watching Wilson hit.
They have a nice core together right now. They need to bridge this group to the new city/stadium somehow. The problem is that their new stadium is going to play like Coors and we’ve seen COL struggle to attract pitchers to play in a launching pad. They’re going to have to out slug teams to win.
I think it’ll play more like the Diamondbacks stadium,than the Rockies but will be interesting to see
Kind of wild to make assumptions like that without a single pitch being thrown there. They can adjust the fence distances too.
Signing Wilson to an extension would be a mistake simply because of the presence of DeVries. Signing Kurtz would probably be more expensive than the A’s would like. I think Langeliers is probably the way they will go, although I personally think signing a catcher to an extension is a big gamble. Aside from top, top guys like Salvy Perez and JT Realmuto, the shelf life of a top catcher is rather short. Just look at Sean Murphy and going back a little bit Jonathan Lucroy.
I generally agree with what you said, but having too many shortstops has never been a problem in the history of baseball.
DeVries could be a bust. Never count on prospects outshining a proven young player. Besides they can always move him to 2nd or 3rd.
Lots of guys flame out after one or two good seasons. Signing either of them to large guaranteed deals would still be a big gamble
The careers of players with a rookie year similar to Kurtz only have 2 outcomes: elite, and super elite
DeVries will be a 2B/3B in this league. Wilson’s glove is better.
Forget about Nick Kurtz. He’s getting out of that organization as soon as he can, understandably so.
Hey better than playing for the rockies lmao
Not when you factor location, stadium, weather, a huge amount of A List celebrities are moving into the area directly around Coor’s Field (they’re calling the 3 blocks surrounding Coor’s Field ‘New Hollywood’ and more are moving in every week), etc.
Tren de aragua neighbors, too? This response is laughable. Colorado – like many blue cities – are not attractive to the general population. Put your lipstick away. The pig doesn’t need it.
A lot of Colorado is rural and hasn’t drunk the Brandon kool aid.
lmao yeah the team getting a brand new park is one you should definitely leave lmao you dont know ball
The A’s have made the playoffs 11 times since 2000. They certainly are not sitting our their laurels, a return to the 71-75 dynasty is near it looks like. A’s have an awesome GM.