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Athletics Designate Austin Allen For Assignment, Outright Mickey McDonald

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The A’s announced they’ve designated catcher Austin Allen for assignment. Reliever Jake Lemoine was also optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas as the team trimmed its active roster count from 28 to 26. Additionally, Oakland announced that outfielder Mickey McDonald, who was designated for assignment over the weekend, has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Las Vegas.

Like most of the players who have been DFA in recent days, Allen is out of minor league option years. That meant Oakland was left to either carry him on the active roster or take him off the 40-man and risk losing him to another club. With the roster cutdown necessitating sending two players out, the A’s have decided on the latter course of action.

Oakland acquired Allen from the Padres over the 2019-20 offseason in the deal that sent utilityman Jurickson Profar to San Diego. He has been on the 40-man roster in the two and a half years since then, although he’s only tallied 56 MLB plate appearances over 23 games. The lefty-hitting backstop spent most of the 2020 campaign at the alternate training site, then spent the bulk of last year at Las Vegas.

Stashing Allen as minor league depth wasn’t an available course of action this time around. He spent a few days on the restricted/COVID-19 lists but otherwise has been on the active roster, primarily as the #3 catcher. Sean Murphy is the obvious #1 backstop in Oakland. Christian Bethancourt, who signed a minor league deal and was selected to the majors when Allen hit the restricted list, has gotten into 13 games between catcher, first base and designated hitter; Allen has suited up just five times, an indication that Bethancourt had surpassed him as the #2 option. Veteran Stephen Vogt is currently on the injured list with a knee sprain but will be in that mix once he’s healthy.

Allen, 28, has only mustered a .195/.252/.288 line with a 37% strikeout rate in 127 MLB plate appearances. He’s never really had an extended opportunity to settle in, though, with his 34 games for San Diego in 2019 marking a career-high. The Missouri native has a massive .323/.365/.623 line in nearly 600 Triple-A plate appearances, including a .317/.351/.584 mark with the Aviators last year.

Vegas’ extreme hitter-friendly environment no doubt played a role, but it’s possible Allen’s strong minor league resume will convince another team to take a look. Prospect evaluators have generally not been enthused with his defense, but a team that views him as a capable gloveman behind the dish could be willing to devote him a roster spot as a bat-first depth option. Oakland will have a week to trade Allen or try to run him through waivers.

McDonald made his MLB debut last month, tallying six plate appearances over four games. He didn’t collect a hit but drew a pair of walks. McDonald has never previously been outrighted, so he’ll have to report back to Las Vegas and try to earn another look in the big leagues. The 26-year-old hit .333/.423/.438 in 228 Triple-A plate appearances last season, but he’s struggled in ten games there this year.

Athletics Activate James Kaprielian

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The Athletics announced that they have activated right-handed pitcher James Kaprielian from the injured list, with fellow righty Adam Oller being optioned to make room on the active roster.

Selected by the Yankees with the 16th overall pick in the 2015 draft, Kaprielian was sent to Oakland in the deal that made Sonny Gray a Yankee. He made his MLB debut in 2020, getting a cup of coffee that last 3 2/3 innings. Last year, he was able to throw 119 1/3 innings with a 4.07 ERA, 24.5% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. He spent some time on the IL with issues in his throwing shoulder and began this season on the shelf due to irritation in that shoulder again.

Over the offseason, the A’s shipped out a number of their veteran players, cutting costs and clearing the roster for cheaper players like Kaprielian. Tommy John surgery slowed his journey from through the minors, meaning that he now has just over one year of MLB service time. Now 28 years old, he won’t qualify for arbitration until after the 2023 season at the earliest. With Chris Bassitt and Sean Manaea having already been dealt and a Frankie Montas deal rumored to be next, pitchers like Kaprielian will be important for Oakland to build the rotation back up again. Other than Montas, the rotation currently consists of other pre-arbitration hurlers like Paul Blackburn, Daulton Jefferies and Cole Irvin.

Oller is also a part of that picture and will likely get another call to the bigs at some point. His first taste of MLB action didn’t go smoothly, however, as he has an ERA of 11.17 through his first 9 2/3 innings. Acquired in the Bassitt deal, he’ll head down to Triple-A Las Vegas and try to get some better results in preparation of the next big league opportunity.

A’s Claim Domingo Tapia From Royals, Designate Mickey McDonald For Assignment

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The A’s have claimed right-hander Domingo Tapia off of waivers from the Royals and optioned him to Triple-A Las Vegas, the team announced. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Athletics designated Mickey McDonald for assignment.

Tapia, 30, has not appeared with the Royals this season. He appeared with the Royals, Mariners, and Red Sox over the past two seasons, however. Tapia owns a career 2.61 ERA over 38 innings between the three teams, notching most of that experience with the Royals last season.

McDonald, 27, has walked twice but failed to notch a base hit in his first six plate appearances. The switch-hitter doesn’t hit for power, but he did put together a .305/.402/.390 line in 430 plate appearances with Double-A and Triple-A last season. He’s likely to pass through waivers and return to the A’s Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas.

A’s Activate Jed Lowrie

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The A’s announced they’ve reinstated infielder Jed Lowrie from the COVID-19 injured list. Fellow infielder Kevin Smith, meanwhile, is back from the 10-day injured list. In corresponding moves, Oakland optioned outfielder Mickey McDonald and returned right-hander Ryan Castellani to Triple-A Las Vegas.

Lowrie returns after a 10-day absence. He appeared in seven games before hitting the injured list, seeing action at each of designated hitter, first base and second base. The veteran has collected five hits and three walks through his first 23 trips to the plate. Smith was the A’s primary third baseman for the first couple weeks of the season. He started slow, going 5-31 with two walks and ten strikeouts before hitting the IL with a bone bruise in his left ankle.

Castellani was selected as a COVID “substitute” a couple weeks ago. That designation means Oakland could take him off the 40-man roster as they got healthier without exposing him to waivers. Castellani, who signed a minor league deal over the winter, worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings over three appearances with the big league club. He’ll try to work his back onto the 40-man roster permanently with Las Vegas.

Outrights: Stewart, Romero

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A pair of players recently designated for assignment have cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A.

  • The Orioles announced this afternoon they’ve outrighted corner outfielder DJ Stewart to their top affiliate in Norfolk. Stewart has a bit shy of the three years of MLB service required for a player to refuse the first outright assignment of their career. He’ll remain with the Tides — where he’d been on optional assignment before he was DFA last week — and try to play his way back onto the 40-man roster. A former first-round pick, the 28-year-old Stewart has appeared in 195 MLB games over the past five seasons. He owns a .213/.327/.400 line in 622 plate appearances, almost exactly league average offensive production by measure of wRC+. Coupled with below-average defensive metrics in both left and right field, that fine but unexciting output at the dish wasn’t enough for the lefty-hitting Stewart to hold his roster spot. He’s a .255/.353/.442 hitter over 773 Triple-A plate appearances.
  • Athletics right-hander Miguel Romero was outrighted to their highest affiliate in Las Vegas over the weekend, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. Like Stewart, he has never been outrighted before and doesn’t have three-plus service years, so he’ll stick in the organization as a non-roster player. Romero, also 28, has yet to make his MLB debut. Oakland selected him to the 40-man roster over the 2020-21 offseason, but he spent all of last season on optional assignment in Las Vegas. Romero was tagged for a 6.27 ERA with just a 15.7% strikeout rate in that extremely hitter-friendly environment last year. He’ll look for better results with the Aviators in an effort to get back onto the 40-man roster.

Ramon Laureano Begins Rehab Assignment

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The Las Vegas Aviators, the Triple-A affiliate of the Athletics, announced yesterday that Ramon Laureano was joining the club on a rehab assignment. He started last night’s game, batting second and playing center field. The outfielder was given an 80-game suspension in August, serving the bulk of that last year but with 27 games remaining going into the 2022 campaign. If everything goes according to plan, Laureano could finish the suspension May 8.

Since that suspension, the club underwent a fire sale in the offseason, trading away their best and most-expensive players for younger and cheaper ones. The center field duties have been largely going to Cristian Pache so far this year, acquired from the Braves in the Matt Olson trade. Pache has been living up to his glove-first reputation, playing excellent defense but hitting just .208/.222/.340, 68 wRC+.

In his time in the majors, Laureano has shown himself capable of being above average both defensively and with the bat. It’s unclear how the playing time in center will be divided up when Laureano returns, though the A’s will likely want to have both players in the lineup as much as possible. For Pache, regular at-bats will be needed for the 23-year-old to continue to develop as a hitter. For Laureano, the club will surely want him to get back into a groove after his layoff, which included core surgery in September, and re-establish himself as a trade candidate. Chad Pinder, Seth Brown, Tony Kemp, Stephen Piscotty and Billy McKinney have been rotating through the outfield corners and designated hitter slots so far this year.

Players who violate the MLB – MLBPA Joint Drug Agreement are placed on the restricted list and do not receive MLB service time for the duration of their suspension. Laureano is currently sitting on three years and 14 days, enough for him to have reached arbitration for the first time for this year. However, since he will end up missing about a month of this season, he will likely finish the campaign shy of the four-year mark. That means he won’t reach free agency until after the 2025 season, giving the club one extra year of control over him.

For a team like the A’s that’s taking a step back, that could be viewed as making him more or less likely to be traded. On the one hand, the extra year of control increases the chances that the club can return to contention within his time with them, making it sensible to hang onto him. On the other hand, Laureano will now be going through arbitration four times instead of three, giving him more chances to increase his salary. He’s only set to make $2.45MM this year, which isn’t a prohibitive sum, even for a low-payroll team like the A’s. But the past few months saw them trade away players projected to make salaries just a bit higher than that. According to MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, Matt Olson was going to be earning around $12MM this year, with Matt Chapman a touch lower at $9.5MM. Chris Bassitt was pegged at $8.8MM and Sean Manaea at $10.2MM. The club went into the offseason determined to unload those projected salaries and eventually did so. Over the next couple of years, Laureano could push his salary into that range and become a little pricey for the club, especially if Pache seems capable of taking over for him, as he likely won’t reach arbitration until after the 2024 campaign.

The Marlins were known to have interest in Laureano during the offseason as they looked to upgrade in center field. However, they may have found a solution in Jesus Sanchez, who has been providing cromulent defense while mashing at the plate. The season is still quite young, but Sanchez is hitting .340/.386/.623, 194 wRC+.

A’s Place Stephen Vogt On Injured List, Designate Miguel Romero For Assignment

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12:48pm: It’s a grade 2 MCL sprain for Vogt, per John Shea of The San Francisco Chronicle.

12:01pm: The Athletics announced several roster moves prior to today’s game against the Orioles. Catcher Austin Allen has been reinstated from the Covid IL. Christian Bethancourt, one of the substitute players that was called up to cover for the club’s recent roster shortcomings, has had that “substitute” designation removed from his status. Stephen Vogt, who left yesterday’s game with a right knee sprain, has been placed on the 10-day injured list. Right-handed pitcher Miguel Romero has been designated for assignment.

After a big selloff that saw the club ship out many of its best players this winter, the A’s made a couple of modest investments in veterans to fill out the roster. Vogt and Jed Lowrie each received a one-year, $850K deal to take some at-bats and act as mentors to the crop of youngsters who would be auditioning for roles in Oakland’s future plans. Vogt, 37, will now be on the shelf for at least ten days with this knee injury. The club didn’t provide a timeline on his expected return.

Allen was one of six Oakland players that landed on the Covid IL on Monday. He will be the second of that cohort to return to the club, after A.J. Puk was reinstated yesterday. Allen played well in 72 games at Triple-A last year, hitting .317/.351/.584. As several A’s have either gone on the restricted list or Covid IL in recent days, Bethancourt was one of the substitute players called up to help out. With Vogt now out for an undetermined amount of time, it seems he will stick around. Allen will likely be the backup catcher behind Sean Murphy, with Bethancourt serving as the third string backstop but also shuffling around to other positions.

Romero, turning 28 on Saturday, has been pitching in the Oakland system since 2017. From 2019 to 2021, Baseball America ranked him between #26 and #30 among the prospects in the system. The club added him to their 60-man player pool in the shortened 2020 season and then gave him a 40-man roster spot ahead of that year’s Rule 5 draft. He spent last year in Triple-A, making 13 starts and 15 relief appearances. Over 74 2/3 innings, his 6.27 ERA came with a 15.7% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate. Over 5 2/3 innings so far this year, he has a 9.53 ERA in that small sample. Despite those recent results, he still has options and could attract the interest of a team looking for pitching depth. In 2019, he threw 72 2/3 Triple-A innings with much better outcomes: 3.96 ERA and 25% strikeout rate, but a concerning 11.1% walk rate.

A’s Announce Several Roster Moves

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3:40pm: Martin Gallegos of MLB.com relays more information about Smith’s injury, which initially came without designation. It’s a bone bruise that Smith incurred during a slide on Monday night. He’ll be in a walking boot for an undetermined amount of time before returning to baseball activity.

1:39pm: The Athletics announced a series of roster moves this afternoon, with lefty A.J. Puk being reinstated from the Covid IL. Outfielder Mickey McDonald was selected from Triple-A Las Vegas. Infielder Kevin Smith went to the 10-day IL while southpaw Zach Logue was optioned to Las Vegas.

Puk was one of six A’s players who landed on the Covid IL on Monday, with no indication given at that time as to which players had actually tested positive and which were just close contacts or experiencing symptoms. With Puk being the first of that group to return, it’s possible that he was just a close contact and not one of the positive cases. Players who test positive are subject to a 10-day absence, though it’s possible to reduce that if the player has gone 24 or more hours without a fever, received a pair of negative PCR tests, and been given approval from a team physician and the MLB/MLBPA joint committee (a panel of one league-appointed and one union-appointed physician). Players who are experiencing symptoms but do not test positive can return in shorter order if their symptoms abate. The lefty had a rough season in 2021 but has started off well this year, throwing 4 innings with a 2.25 ERA, 31.3% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate.

As for McDonald, as soon as he gets into a game, it will be his MLB debut. Selected by the A’s in the 18th round of the 2017 draft, he was recently ranked as the #32 prospect in the Oakland system by Baseball America. BA’s report on the 26-year-old (27 in June) notes that he “fits the A’s mold as an older, under-the-radar performer without an obvious carrying tool.” They note that he gave up switch-hitting to hit exclusively as a lefty in 2021, with excellent results. In 106 games last year between Double-A and Triple-A, he hit .305/.402/.390 for a wRC+ of 113. He’s never hit more than two homers in a minor league season, but has made up for that lack of pop with good plate discipline and some speed (18 steals last year). He can play all three outfield positions and even a bit of third base. For an Oakland club that traded away many of their established players, McDonald will join the group of inexperienced guys getting an audition to see what they can do.

Smith and Logue were both acquired by the A’s from the Blue Jays as part of the Matt Chapman trade. Smith is hitting .161/.212/.226 over 33 plate appearances so far this year. Logue has thrown 1 1/3 scoreless innings in his first taste of MLB action.

A’s Place Six Players On COVID IL, Promote Three Players

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The A’s announced this evening they’ve placed six players — catcher Austin Allen, infielders Jed Lowrie and Chad Pinder, and pitchers A.J. Puk, Lou Trivino and Kirby Snead — on the COVID-19 injured list. Infielders Nick Allen and Christian Lopes and reliever Sam Selman have been added to the roster as COVID replacements.

Austin Allen, Snead and Puk were already on the restricted list. That’s the procedure for players not vaccinated against COVID-19 for teams traveling to Toronto, where the A’s played a weekend series. They weren’t counting against the 40-man roster at that point, which is why Oakland only brought up three replacements today upon losing Lowrie, Pinder and Trivino.

It’s not clear whether the latter trio of players tested positive or is out due to viral symptoms or contact tracing procedures. They join outfielder Stephen Piscotty on the COVID IL, where he landed last Friday. Under the league’s 2022 health-and-safety protocols, players who test positive are subject to a 10-day absence from the club, though it’s possible to be reinstated in less time if the player has gone 24 or more hours without a fever, received a pair of negative PCR tests, and been given approval from a team physician and the MLB/MLBPA joint committee (a panel of one league-appointed and one union-appointed physician). Players who are experiencing symptoms but do not test positive can return in shorter order if their symptoms abate.

Nick Allen, Lopes and Selman join the active roster as designated “substitute players.” The A’s will be able to send them back to Triple-A Las Vegas without having to pass Lopes or Selman — neither of whom had been on the 40-man roster — through waivers. All three players will at least get a big league look for the next few days as the A’s play without some regulars due to health and safety protocols.

Allen will be making his major league debut if/when he gets into a game. A third-round pick out of a San Diego high school in 2017, he signed for an overslot $2MM bonus and has been one of the better prospects in the Oakland system ever since. Allen has appeared among Baseball America’s list of the A’s top 30 farmhands every year since being drafted, and he currently checks in 7th on the organizational ranking. BA placed a rare 80 grade on his shortstop defense this winter, writing that Allen could be a Gold Glove-caliber defender at the toughest infield position.

Listed at just 5’8″, 166 pounds, Allen predictably doesn’t offer much from a power perspective. Yet if he meets expectations defensively, he won’t need to make much of an impact at the plate to be a viable regular. Allen has also posted a lower than average strikeout rate at every minor league stop, and he’s off to a nice start in 12 games with Las Vegas. Even if his current promotion proves brief, he could unseat veteran Elvis Andrus at some point this year. Andrus hasn’t done much offensively over the past few seasons, although he’s hit very well through this year’s first couple weeks.

Lopes is also up for his first MLB call. The 29-year-old has played ten minor league seasons since being selected in the 7th round of the 2011 draft. A right-handed hitter, Lopes owns a .265/.364/.422 line in parts of five Triple-A campaigns. He has appeared in the Blue Jays, Rangers and Diamondbacks farm systems and signed a minor league deal with Oakland this past offseason. He has experience at all four infield spots and both corner outfield positions, with the overwhelming majority of that time coming at second base.

Offseason In Review: Oakland Athletics

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Even before general manager David Forst kicked off the offseason by acknowledging a need to listen to trade offers on his core players, a large-scale teardown wasn’t hard to see coming. The A’s spent the bulk of the winter in trade talks that resulted in four fan favorites being dealt for prospects, and the lack of subsequent moves to reallocate the money they saved further underscores that this is a team looking at 2023 and beyond.

Major League Signings

Option Decisions

Trades and Claims

Extensions

None

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

The “Notable Losses” section of the introduction to this review would be a better foundation for a roster than several teams throughout the league currently have — Oakland among them. Heading into the offseason, the A’s had the option of paying their core arbitration class a projected $53.7MM, adding that to the guaranteed salaries of Elvis Andrus ($7.75MM, when including cash received from the Rangers) and Stephen Piscotty ($7.25MM) and then rounding out the roster with pre-arb players and whatever offseason additions they might’ve seen fit to add.

Surrounding the group of Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Manaea, Chris Bassitt, Frankie Montas, Ramon Laureano, Tony Kemp, Lou Trivino, Chad Pinder, Deolis Guerra, Andrus and Piscotty with pre-arbitration players would’ve left the A’s with a payroll in the $80-85MM range — a stone’s throw from 2019’s franchise-record Opening Day mark of $92.2MM. A’s ownership instead opted to tear it down and let longtime manager Bob Melvin depart for a three-year deal to manage the Padres.

From a big-picture standpoint, it’s easy enough to take each transaction in isolation and more or less see the merit behind it. Nine of the Athletics’ top 30 prospects at MLB.com came over by way of this quartet of trades, including half of their top ten. It’s a similar story at Baseball America and FanGraphs. Oakland’s farm system was generally bereft of high-end talent, save for a few names, and while no one is going to suddenly crown them the best minor league system in MLB, their farm is unequivocally improved. For a team that typically operates with notable payroll constraints, a deep farm is vital.

On the other hand, this is an A’s team that has gone 313-233 over the past four seasons — a .573 winning percentage that has kept them squarely in contention. The loss of Starling Marte and Mark Canha in free agency would’ve stung and left Oakland with some work to do in the outfield, particularly with Ramon Laureano suspended for the first month of the season. However, the infield, catching corps and rotation would’ve all been in fine shape. The bullpen and outfield, the two areas that would’ve needed the most attention, are typically deep in relative bargain options, and that was true this winter as well.

What’s done is done, however, and the A’s opted for the long-term approach. The trade of Olson brought Oakland a near-MLB-ready outfielder in Cristian Pache, who was given the nod as the team’s Opening Day center fielder. Pache and touted catching prospect Shea Langeliers could both be regulars in the Oakland lineup in the near future — depending on what happens with current catcher Sean Murphy — whereas pitchers Ryan Cusick and Joey Estes add a pair of interesting arms to the lower levels of the system. Cusick, in particular, is of interest given that he was Atlanta’s top draft pick just last summer.

He’s not the only 2021 first-rounder acquired by the A’s, though, as righty Gunnar Hoglund headlined the return for Chapman. Hoglund might’ve been a top-10 pick and the second college arm off the board had he not undergone Tommy John surgery during his junior season at Ole Miss. The Jays were happy to scoop him up with the No. 19 pick, and the A’s are surely all the more pleased to add him to their system. Like Cusick and Estes, he’s a ways from big league readiness, but that’s not true of the rest of Oakland’s return. Infielder Kevin Smith broke camp as their Opening Day third baseman, while lefty Kirby Snead is in the big league bullpen. Fellow southpaw Zach Logue received the call to the big leagues just today, and while he profiles mostly as a back-of-the-rotation arm, there’d be plenty of value in securing six years of a fourth starter if he indeed realizes that potential.

Likewise, the Bassitt trade has already produced one big leaguer in the form of righty Adam Oller. He’s not as highly regarded as fellow righty JT Ginn, also acquired from the Mets in that Bassitt swap, but he’ll give the club a rotation candidate to evaluate in 2022 and beyond. Ginn, meanwhile, is now ranked as the A’s top pitching prospect (fourth in the organization overall) at Baseball America.

Following the trades of Bassitt, Olson and Chapman — each of which happened in fairly rapid succession — all eyes turned to Manaea and Montas. As a one-year rental, Manaea felt particularly likely to be moved, but the broader focus was on Montas. The hard-throwing righty had just wrapped a career-year in 2021 and, following a declaration from Reds GM Nick Krall that neither Luis Castillo nor Tyler Mahle was expected to be traded, Montas became the undisputed prize of the pitching trade market. He drew interest from virtually every team in need of rotation help, with the Twins, White Sox, Yankees, Royals and several others connected.

Just as it started to appear the A’s would carry both Montas and Manaea to begin the season, however, Oakland struck an agreement to send Manaea to San Diego. In return, they received what many considered a surprisingly light package, landing infield prospect Euribiel Angeles and righty Adrian Martinez. Angeles posted a big .330/.392/.445 line as a 19-year-old against much older competition at two Class-A levels in 2021, and he’s out to a strong start with the A’s High-A club thus far. He’s regarded as the higher-ceiling name of the two, but Martinez posted huge numbers in Double-A last year and has now reached Triple-A. He has a good chance at cracking the Majors this season and, like Logue, could give the A’s a rotation option to consider as soon as this summer.

Suffice it to say, the A’s have considerably bolstered their farm system, though they’ve done so at the cost of any realistic shot of competing in 2022 (and perhaps in 2023 as well). They’ve also set the stage for further trades in the near future. Montas will again be one of the most in-demand names on the market this summer, health permitting, and the A’s will also have center fielder Ramon Laureano, right-hander Lou Trivino and others to peddle as contending clubs look for upgrades.

One name of particular intrigue is young catcher Sean Murphy, who swatted 17 home runs and won a Gold Glove last year — the first of what could be multiple Gold Gloves for the defensive standout. Murphy is controlled three years beyond the current season, but there was at least speculation he could be in play this past winter. With Oakland acquiring Langeliers, who possesses a similar skill set to Murphy but is younger and could be controlled at least six seasons, it’s fair to wonder whether parting with Murphy will now be easier. Add in that Murphy will reach arbitration eligibility next winter and that the Athletics’ top overall prospect is 20-year-old catcher Tyler Soderstrom (the No. 26 pick in 2020) — and it’s all the more feasible that executive vice president Billy Beane and Forst contemplate dealing from their surplus. There’s no urgency to move Murphy, of course, but his name will likely surface at this year’s deadline and, if he’s not moved then, in the offseason.

Beyond that veritable landslide of prospects and young big leaguers, the A’s didn’t do much of anything to strengthen the 2022 roster. The lack of any real spending further solidifies both the fact that this is viewed as a rebuilding year and that payroll concerns were a driving factor behind the trades of Olson, Chapman, Bassitt and Manaea.

That was also true with regards to the departure of Melvin, who had managed the club for ten-plus seasons. The veteran skipper was under contract for 2022, but the A’s allowed him to pursue the San Diego opportunity — reportedly at least partially due to concerns about the $4MM salary he’d been set to receive. Once Melvin departed, Oakland hired third base coach Mark Kotsay as skipper. Kotsay, who signed a three-year deal but whose salary is unreported, gets his first crack at managing after six years on Melvin’s staffs. He’s overseeing a young roster, one that wasn’t much fortified after many of the top players were dealt away.

The only two Major League contracts given out by the A’s were a pair of deals for old friends and fan favorites Jed Lowrie and Stephen Vogt. Lowrie provided league-average offense and poor defense at second base last year, but he’s been a DH and played the corners in his only four games thus far. Vogt hit poorly in 2020-21 with the D-backs and Braves, but he’ll give the team a backup catcher and the fans an old cult favorite to root on in what’ll likely be a lean season.

Perhaps in the end, the Athletics’ latest bevy of trades will ultimately yield a group that turns into their next core. It’s arguable this was a necessary course of action, given the team’s mounting arbitration class, but that’s only the case if fans accept that ownership can’t field a payroll even in the $80-90MM range, which ought to be a tough sell for fans considering all 30 clubs are now receiving upwards of $65MM annually in national television and streaming revenue alone. (That sum does not include local television deals, gate revenue, etc.) As Forst said at the onset of the offseason, “this is our lot in Oakland until it isn’t” — and it seems ownership is pretty content to maintain the status quo.

The A’s can push the company line these trades are necessary for them to compete, but it has long been apparent many of the players who drove their recent run of success would be moved to cut costs. Back in November, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported ownership desired a payroll of $50MM. After making the Manaea deal just four days before Opening Day, the team reached that level. Cot’s Contracts pegs the Athletics’ payroll at $47,953,333. Roster Resource estimates that it’s $49,866,025. According to Cot’s, it’s the second-lowest mark in MLB, ahead of only the Orioles. With that cheaper roster will almost certainly come a worse on-field product than A’s fans have enjoyed of late.

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