The A's have made a point of locking up their core players as they target 2028 for their move to Las Vegas. Over the past 14 months, they've signed extensions with Brent Rooker, Lawrence Butler, Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson. They're looking to continue that run, as both Martín Gallegos of MLB.com and Mark Anderson of The Associated Press wrote this week that the team could still try to get deals done with Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers.
The extensions serve a couple purposes for the A's. They lock in what could be an elite lineup with less concern among the fanbase about them tearing the roster down the way they did after the 2021 season. They're largely backloaded deals, which raises the team's competitive balance payroll (based on annual value) to avoid a revenue sharing grievance without costing as much in salary while they're playing in Sacramento.
The A's have increased their short-term spending with Luis Severino signing and trades for Jeffrey Springs and Jeff McNeil, but their projected $139MM luxury tax number is dramatically higher than their actual $88MM estimated 2026 payroll (via RosterResource). The bills will come due down the line, at which point the organization is projecting a revenue spike from their new stadium.
All four of the recent extensions look like nice bits of business for the team -- Wilson's in particular. They could have a tougher time finding agreeable price points with Kurtz and Langeliers. Both have strong leverage, and they're represented by a pair of agencies that rarely sign extensions. That said, let's take a look at what kind of prices it might take to get talks rolling.
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All I know is that if you want to lock up Kurtz, it’s going to be a lot.
Oh yeah. I think it’s going to be 200 million+.
Probably very similar to Roman Anthony’s
More.
Yup. Contract would need to be similar to the Anthony, JRod, or Witt Jr deals and it would need to be signed before the start of the season otherwise I don’t think a deal will get signed at all. One more AS season and its going to be difficult to convince Kurtz to give up any of his free agent years, especially on discount.
Assuming no regression in his game, imagine the contract a 28 year old Nick Kurtz would get on the open market.
I could see them keeping Kurtz till his 4th year then trade him and switch soderstrom back to first base or by then maybe Tommy white will be ready to take over as cheap, budget option. White was chosen in same 2924 draft as Kurtz and known for being a college slugger himself, so you would think he’d be ready for majors within a couple years in some role. In Keith laws updated A’s top prospects said Devin Taylor has 30 hr upside and white 25 hr but both with pitch recognition issues and limited defensively
I feel bad for former Oakland A’s fans that ownership waited until the team left to start spending money.
Then A’s ownership started treating fans terribly around 2017. They were okay prior to that. Not always great but competitive. In 2017 I noticed a big difference in how they treated Season Ticket holders. When Covid hit in 2020 they stepped up and really crapped on season tickets holders and it was downhill until the move. It seemed deliberate. But I’ve said it before, MLB, Selig, Manfred and the Giants too turned up the hatred. The departure, looking back, seemed planned. MLB and the Giants gave the A’s 20% of the Bay Area and most of it was not good locations while the Giants took 80%. Sad and angering what baseball has done to the A’s
Fisher took over from Lew Wolff as the control person of the A’s in November of 2016.
All of the done deals, so far, are team friendly and there’s lots of room left.
Rookers age comparied to all the other young ones, they should trade him for acouple young studs(SP+?).
They wouldn’t get a couple of young stud SP for Rooker.
@pile
I could absolutely see a small market team with a good farm, a good rotation in need of a power bat with a DH opening being all over him. He’s a 30+ hr guy on a team friendly multi- year deal. Something with Rooker and the Pirates Bubba Chandler sounds reasonable.
If I’m the pirates why am I bailing them out of their panic move extension on an aging dh, soderstrom on the other hand …
The other guy that they just extended for the the largest amount in club history less than a month ago? Yea they aren’t trading him either.
They already have a bunch of guys that are of the same caliber as Bubba Chandler. Why would they make the team worse and add a pitcher that would make zero difference?
Turned 31 in November is ageing yet pirates have been signing andrew mccuthcen multiple times. Don’t forget Rooker first full season was in 2023 at age 28 so not typical path to majors. Over those 3 seasons his 99 home runs are 10th best in mlb and 3rd in AL. Hed definitely get a top pitching prospect in return if that’s the asking price.
@oppo
Please show me ANY hitter, not in his arbitration years, they’d had 3 consecutive years of averaging 33 homers or year in the market for a team friendly deal better than 5$/78? You won’t find one. He’s only 31. Now lol at the ages of Alonso, Bregman, Schwabby, Suare? and others that were older and signed for a lot more than an average of $15 mil? Any small market team can afford that and he would likely be ready to move if needed. No one would be “bailing” the A’s out.
@piles
Please tell me where the “bunch” of these guys are stashed that are better than the top 25 prospect that’s mlb ready?
Based off of the stats he put up in the minors and majors, he is lined up with all of their mediocre starters last season. I don’t need to post the stats you can head over to BR and look at them. I don’t care that he is rated high. The A’s have constantly traded for “top 25 prospects” and they flounder. Prospects are just prospects. Unless it is a proven good starting pitcher it would just make that team worse.
I don’t believe that any of those contracts came with an NTC so the A’s can still trade any or all of those players when they start to get expensive.
Interestingly, 8/$150M is exactly what I wrote about (on Athletics Nation) as my best guess at an extension that could work for both A’s and Kurtz. I should also note I have little clue about these things and a broken clock is right twice a day.
Normally I would say the A’s should shy away from a gamble/commitment that big, but Kurtz is quite literally on a HOF trajectory so far and if he has a great 2026 the A’s won’t be able to afford an extension.
Bottom line: Kurtz is the guy I would take that plunge with, 1B and all, and give him the 8/$150M if he’s amenable.
can’t help but wonder when the A’s crap out .. all this spending becomes a mirage .. and maximizing profitability becomes the main focus again
Vegas will be still considered a small market team regardless so it’s permanent revenue sharing for their greedy owner l. But I bet he’ll sell the team within 5-10 years even if there’s a fee attached to it by mlb
@As
Las Vegas is more populous than Oakland, CA, with roughly 641,900+ residents compared to Oakland’s roughly 424,000–440,000 residents. In addition, from June to September, Vegas gets about 3.5 mil visitors. You really think the A’s haven’t considered that? And the population of the metro area is growing rapidly while the Oakland area is dropping. They should draw very well.
Point is it’s a small market based on media and tv currently. Which is part of market size and revenue sharing. Maybe that improves once they get baseball and potential nba team. I live in the Bay Area and family has a place in Vegas too so I’m aware of the tourist attractions and community. Bay Area as a whole has a population of over 7 million if all 9 counties are included. And personally I have no direct connection to Oakland other than supporting the A’s and warriors when they were there. And imo Vegas is super boring once you get off strip, basically residential communities, restaurants and strip malls, suburb type life. Doesn’t compare at all to living on the Bay Area plus I can’t handle that extreme weather. Also how many tourists will go to games ? I believe currently a good chunk of mlb fans in Vegas are dodgers fans. Maybe they’ll switch once they get a local team but who knows. Dodgers unlimited funds and the popularity aren’t lessening anytime soon
Is revenue sharing grievances truly based off of competitive balance payroll as opposed to actual payroll (as suggested by the article)? If so, that is an issue they need to solve as well. Actual payroll is present day, and team can just backload and never pay the end of those contracts by trading those players away while reaping the real time rewards of revenue sharing.
A’s are building a very good base team here – they are going to be quite a surprise this year.