The A's are leaving Oakland for a Triple-A ballpark in the Sacramento area in 2025, potentially putting them at a competitive disadvantage in free agent talks this offseason.
Speaking at the University of Southern California's Sports Business Association Sports Business Summit on Thursday, A's manager Mark Kotsay conceded the move is already impeding talks with one free agent.
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"At USC's SBA Summit, Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said the A's were talking to (Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher) Walker Buehler but he didn't want to play in Sacramento," Kasey Kazliner of Annenberg Sports Media wrote on Twitter/X.
According to Kazliner, Kotsay went on to say that the A's current personnel "ultimately doesn't care" about the move because "they're a baseball team first."
But for those who feared a temporary uprooting to Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento would be a hard sell for free agents, Thursday's news served as tacit justification.
The A's went 69-93 last season, a far cry from contention but still a 19-game improvement over their disastrous 2023 season (50-112) in Oakland. Kotsay will enter his fourth season as manager in 2025, and there are signs the A's are slowly emerging from their latest rebuilding effort.
It is telling that the A's are engaging Buehler, a 30-year-old right-hander who made the National League All-Star team with the Dodgers in 2019 and 2021. Although he went 1-6 with a 5.38 ERA in the 2024 regular season, Buehler was a different pitcher during the Dodgers' run to the championship.
A’s manager Mark Kotsay admitted they’ve talked to #Dodgers free agent pitcher Walker Buehler about signing with the #Athletics
— Michael J. Duarte (@michaeljduarte) November 21, 2024In four postseason games (three starts), Buehler went 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA in 15 innings. All of the runs he allowed came in a single inning of Game 3 of the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres. He ended October with a streak of 13 consecutive scoreless innings — including the ninth inning of Game 5 of the World Series, which the Dodgers won to clinch the eighth championship in franchise history.
A multi-year contract for Buehler would give him a much longer runway to return to the form he showed prior to his second Tommy John surgery, which wiped out the entirety of his 2023 season, and much of his 2022 and 2024 seasons as well.
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Signing a player like Buehler would also give the A's a veteran presence to serve as a leader as the team looks to return to the postseason for the first time since 2020.
But the uncertainty around the franchise's relocation figures to be an obstacle — not just for Buehler but other prospective free agents, as well. The A's are planning to relocate to a new stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada for the 2028 season.
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Most of the financial details relevant to building the park on the site of the former Tropicana Hotel and Casino haven't been revealed. In the meantime, the 14,000-seat Sutter Health Park is hardly an attractive venue for marquee players who reach free agency between now and 2027.
The A's have already been forced to get creative in their business efforts off the field. Now, they will have to get creative in their rebuilding efforts on the field as well.
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