2:45PM: The Athletics suffered a major blow this afternoon when the club told reporters (including Martin Gallegos of MLB.com) that second baseman Zack Gelof will begin the 2025 season on the injured list. Gelof, who was hit by a pitch on his right hand earlier this week, underwent x-rays to determine the severity of the issue. That testing revealed a hamate fracture, and Gelof is expected to undergo surgery in Los Angeles tomorrow.

Gallegos adds that while the A’s did not provide a specific timetable for return, manager Mark Kotsay noted that former Oakland first baseman Matt Olson suffered a similar injury in 2019 and returned to action on May 7, though Kotsay added that Olson’s timeline was “pretty accelerated.” That seems to suggest that the A’s aren’t expecting Gelof back until sometime in May at the earliest, though a more specific timetable for his return could be available once he’s gone under the knife.

Even if Gelof misses only a month, that’s a tough blow for an Athletics club that was surely counting on the 25-year-old as a big part of the club this year. While Gelof struggled in 2024 and slashed just .211/.270/.362 in 138 games while leading the AL in strikeouts, he posted a fantastic rookie season with the club the year prior with a 132 wRC+ in 300 trips to the plate. Even if Gelof’s 2025 season fell somewhere in the middle of 2023’s 132 figure and the 82 wRC+ he posted last year, that would still make Gelof a quality regular on a young, up-and-coming A’s club that needs a lot of things to go right if its going to contend in a crowded AL West this year.

Fortunately for the A’s, however, the club does have a viable replacement for Gelof at second base in Luis Urias. The club signed Urias to a big league deal just before camp opened last month, and he responded by crushing the ball during Spring Training with a sensational .333/.429/.524 slash line in 49 trips to the plate. Still just 27 years old, Urias was a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport during the early days of his career with the Padres, and enjoyed a few seasons as a solidly above average regular with Brewers when he slashed .244/.340/.426 in 269 games with the club from 2021 to ’22.

Urias took a step back in 2023 and had to settle for a bench role with the Mariners last year, but hit quite well in a part-time role with a 107 wRC+ in 41 games despite a worrying 31.2% strikeout rate that was by far the highest of his career. If the infielder can get his strikeouts under control in a return to regular at-bats with the A’s this year, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him return to the form he flashed with Milwaukee that made him an above-average regular. 2024 rookie Max Schuemann also appears likely to make the club’s Opening Day roster in a bench role and could help cover second base on occasion, though he’s struggled to hit much at the big league level and in Spring Training. Darell Hernaiz could be a potential depth option in the middle infield after he struggled through 48 games in his rookie season where he slashed just .192/.261/.242 with a wRC+ of 50 despite solid defense all over the infield.

Another potential option, according to Gallegos, could be top infield prospect Max Muncy breaking camp with the club. Muncy, not to be confused with the former Athletic and current Dodgers third baseman of the same name, was the club’s first-round pick in 2021 and impressed in 50 games at Triple-A last year when he hit .278/.374/.491 in 203 trips to the plate. Muncy’s spent most of his professional career at shortstop but has experience at second base as well, and after an impressive camp where he’s held his own to post a .290/.391/.395 slash line in 23 games it’s not impossible to imagine the club opting to be aggressive with Muncy and include him on the Opening Day roster. Even if the club opts to stick with the plan to start Muncy in Triple-A for the beginning of the season, a strong start there combined with early-season struggles from Urias could theoretically convince the A’s to reverse course.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

• The Rays no longer having a deal to build a new stadium (2:15)
• If the league is pressuring Stu Sternberg to sell the Rays, but why didn’t they do the same with John Fisher and the Athletics? (6:40)
• The Rangers dealing with injuries to Jon Gray and Cody Bradford (recorded prior to the Patrick Corbin signing) (14:05)

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

• Who is a more likely trade acquisition for the Mets, Sandy Alcántara of the Marlins or Dylan Cease of the Padres? And who would command a larger trade package? (20:50)
• Should the Pirates trade one of their catchers? (24:20)
• How realistic is it that the Mariners have better offense than last year and are in position to use their prospects for deadline upgrades? (28:40)
• Should the Yankees try to plug holes with veterans or give playing time to younger guys? (34:25)
• The Tigers are trying Javier Báez and Spencer Torkelson at different positions. Are they trying to increase the trade appeal of these players or delude themselves into thinking they could actually provide value? (38:25)

Check out our past episodes!

• Lawrence Butler’s Extension, Gerrit Cole’s TJ, And Rays’ Ownership Pressured To Sell – listen here
• Jose Quintana, Luis Gil’s Injury, The Nats’ TV Situation, Salary Floor Talk, And More! – listen here
• Atlanta’s Pitching Depth, Iglesias, Jobe, Castillo, And More! – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy Bill Streicher, Imagn Images

There was never much doubt about the first three. Severino has been almost exclusively starter dating back to his 2015 debut. He has had some injury absences and some wobbles in his performance, but he just posted a 3.91 earned run average over 31 starts for the Mets last year. The A’s gave him a three-year, $67MM contract in November, the largest guarantee in franchise history, hoping that he would serve as a veteran anchor for the starting staff.

Springs emerged as a viable rotation candidate with the Rays in 2022, starting the year in relief but eventually posting a 2.46 ERA over 135 1/3 innings. Tommy John surgery wiped out most of the past two seasons but he returned to the Rays last year and had a 3.27 ERA over seven starts. That was enough for the A’s to send three young players and a competitive balance round pick to Tampa in order to acquire Springs and Jacob Lopez. Sears made 64 starts for the A’s over the past two seasons with a combined ERA of 4.46.

The last two spots were a bit more up for grabs. Estes had a decent but not overwhelming season in 2024, his first extended look in the majors. He tossed 127 2/3 innings over 24 starts and one relief appearance with a 5.01 ERA. His 16.9% strikeout rate was well below average but he demonstrated strong control with a 5% walk rate. He’s had a decent spring, with 11 2/3 innings of six-run ball, a 4.63 ERA. He’s only punched out eight opponents but also given out just one walk and hit one batter.

Bido tossed 63 1/3 innings for the A’s last year over nine starts and seven relief appearances with a strong 3.41 ERA. His 10% walk rate was a tad high but his 24.3% strikeout rate was a bit above average. This spring, those rate stats have been similar, as he has struck out 25.4% of batters faced and walked opponents at an 8.5% clip. The 9.24 ERA certainly looks ugly but that’s mostly due to one really bad outing. Against Cleveland on March 7, he tossed 3 1/3 innings and allowed eight earned runs on nine hits, including four home runs, despite notching four strikeouts against just one walk.

Spence was a Rule 5 pick last year and worked out well. He logged 151 1/3 innings over 24 starts and 11 relief appearances with a 4.58 ERA. His 19.4% strikeout rate was subpar but he limited walks to a 6.4% clip and also got grounders at a strong rate of 48.4%. In the small sample of his spring work, his results have backed up slightly. He has only punched out 14% of batters faced while his grounder rate is down to 43.6%.

The spring stats are all miniscule samples but it seems Bido and Estes have edged out Spence for the final two rotation spots. As mentioned, Bido’s 9.24 ERA is rough but mostly inflated by one awful game. Since his strikeout and walk numbers are in line with last year’s, that is probably going to be overlooked as a blip. Estes has broadly posted numbers fairly similar to what he did last year. Spence, meanwhile, has seen his strikeout rate drop from an already subpar level. Again, we’re not talking about meaningful sample sizes here, but the A’s had to make a decision.

A club’s opening-day rosters are only a snapshot in time. Over the course of a long season, things will change and the mix will surely look different over the coming months. That’s especially true on a pitching staff, where injuries are almost inevitable. Spence will be in the bullpen for now but will likely have opportunities to get into the rotation later, as he did last year. The A’s will also have guys like Hogan Harris, J.T. Ginn, Gunnar Hoglund, Ryan Cusick and Lopez jockeying for opportunities. Brady Basso and Ken Waldichuk will start the season on the injured list but could factor into the mix later in the year.

Murdock was the fourth player selected in December’s Rule 5 draft. (The A’s had the fifth pick, but Colorado passed at #2.) The A’s took the reliever out of the Kansas City farm system. Murdock divided his 2024 season between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha. He worked to a 2.22 earned run average over 24 1/3 innings at the former level. Murdock posted a 3.76 ERA through 38 1/3 frames in Triple-A. He combined for a 27% strikeout rate and a huge 59.7% ground-ball percentage, though that came with an alarming 15.4% walk rate.

The control was presumably the main reason that Kansas City decided not to add Murdock to their 40-man roster. It’s common for pitchers as tall as he is to struggle to consistently line up their mechanics. The A’s were clearly intrigued by his combination of plus whiff and grounder rates. Murdock has managed seven strikeouts with five walks over 7 2/3 innings of three-run ball this spring. He has gotten grounders on three-quarters of the batted balls he’s allowed.

Teams need to carry their Rule 5 picks on the MLB roster or injured list for the entire season to retain their contractual rights. They’d otherwise need to place the player on waivers and, if he clears, offer him back to his original organization. Murdock will likely begin the season in a low-leverage relief role. With Michel Otañez beginning the season on the injured list, the A’s have José Leclerc and T.J. McFarland lined up as their top setup options in front of star closer Mason Miller.

Ruiz, 26, was the Athletics’ primary center fielder in 2023 and swiped a gaudy 67 bases that season but did so while batting only .254/.309/.345 in 132 games (497 plate appearances). Though he was one of several key players acquired in the Athletics’ slate of rebuild-focused trades — regrettably coming over in a three-way deal that sent star catcher William Contreras, whom the A’s could’ve kept, to the Brewers — Ruiz has fallen a ways down the team’s depth chart since that original acquisition.

Injury played a role in his drop down the pecking order, as he missed the bulk of the 2024 campaign with a wrist strain. Ruiz logged 29 games and 65 plate appearances in the majors and delivered only a feeble .200/.270/.382 output at the plate. He hit .345/.425/.596 in 73 minor league plate appearances last year, but he’s long had eye-catching numbers in the upper minors that haven’t carried over to MLB, where he’s a .243/.297/.343 hitter in 598 plate appearances. Ruiz didn’t do himself any favors this spring, hitting .121/.171/.152 in 35 trips to the plate during Cactus League play.

The A’s locked Lawrence Butler up on a long-term extension and saw JJ Bleday turn in a breakout performance at the plate last season. That leaves two of their three outfield spots spoken for in the long-term. Bleday is miscast as a center fielder, so perhaps there’s room for Ruiz to work his way back into that role, but prospects like Colby Thomas, Denzel Clarke and Henry Bolte are all on the cusp of MLB readiness as well. At least for the early stages of the 2025 campaign, it looks like the A’s will go with a left field platoon of Seth Brown and Miguel Andujar.

In the rotation, Ginn heads back to Triple-A on the heels of a tough spring. The righty’s final outing was excellent — four innings of one-run ball with seven punchouts — but he still served up 13 runs (11 earned) in 13 innings while walking 12.5% of his opponents. The 25-year-old is a former second-round pick whom the A’s acquired in the trade sending Chris Bassitt to the Mets. He was hit relatively hard between Double-A and Triple-A last year but turned in a decent blend of strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates (21.2%, 8.8% and 54.1%, respectively). He held his own with a 4.24 ERA in his first 34 MLB frames last summer as well.

With Ginn being sent out, it increasingly appears as though the Athletics’ season-opening rotation will include Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, JP Sears, Osvaldo Bido and Mitch Spence. A late injury could always change that, and the A’s still have one possible rotation alternative in camp in the form of Joey Estes, who’s had a decent Cactus League run this spring.

Hernaiz, acquired in the trade of Cole Irvin to Baltimore, became a long shot for the roster after the A’s signed both Gio Urshela and Luis Urias to major league contracts this winter. Jacob Wilson and Zack Gelof are lined up in the middle infield, while Urias and Urshela can handle third base and move around to multiple infield positions. Hernaiz hit well in Triple-A last year (.331/.376/.493) but mustered only a .192/.261/.242 line in his first 135 MLB plate appearances. His spring output wasn’t much more encouraging — .194/.302/.306 in 43 plate appearances — so he’ll had back to the minors for more work.

Otanez made his Major League debut last season, and posted a 3.44 ERA over 34 relief innings.  A 13.2% walk rate stood out as a red flag, even if that number is actually an improvement over the even more ungainly walk rates Otanez posted over his seven minor league seasons.  However, Otanez has also racked up a lot of strikeouts at every level, including an eye-opening 36.4% strikeout rate in the big leagues.  Otanez was one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the majors last season, averaging 97.8mph on his fastball.

The Athletics intend to use Otanez as one of Mason Miller’s setup men this season, but this shoulder injury will now delay that plan for what is hopefully only a short while into April.  Tyler Ferguson and new acquisition Jose Leclerc now project as the top setup options, and Gallegos feels Justin Sterner might be the favorite to win the bullpen job left open by Otanez’s absence.

In other A’s injury news, southpaw Brady Basso is set to start a throwing program on Wednesday in the next step of his recovery from a shoulder strain.  Basso has been shut down since March 5, though it doesn’t appear his shoulder strain is too serious, as the Athletics think there’s a chance he can start up minor league games soon after Opening Day.  Infielder Brett Harris is facing a longer absence from an oblique strain, as it doesn’t appear he will play in any games before Spring Training is over even though he has restarted some baseball activities.

It’s possible that the Butler deal is the first of multiple A’s extensions in Spring Training. General manager David Forst told Evan Drellich of The Athletic a couple weeks ago that the team had opened talks with a few players. With Butler signed, closer Mason Miller should arguably be the team’s top extension candidate.

Miller told Foul Territory’s A.J. Pierzynski on Friday afternoon that he’s open to talks but hasn’t heard from the team about the possibility. The A’s control the hard-throwing reliever for another five seasons. Miller will qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player next winter. He’d go through that process four times unless he signs an extension.

The A’s may not be eager to commit to a reliever, even one as dominant as Miller, whom they already have under control for a half-decade. There’s downside associated with the general volatility of relief pitching. Miller’s stuff is so exceptional that he’s a safer bet than almost any reliever to remain effective, but there’s more of a risk from a health perspective. He battled shoulder and elbow injuries and pitched fewer than 40 innings in the minor leagues.

[Related Front Office Post: Who Else Could The A’s Look To Extend?]

Forearm tightness wiped out most of his ’23 season and was the main reason the A’s moved him out of the rotation during the 2023-24 offseason. Miller stayed healthy last year aside from an incident where he fractured the pinkie on his left (non-throwing) hand, which reportedly occurred when he hit a training table in frustration after a poor outing. That’s presumably not a concern moving forward, but as baseball’s hardest thrower, he certainly puts a lot of stress on his elbow and shoulder.

There have been a handful of extensions for relief pitchers in the 1-2 year service bucket. Miller would almost certainly look to set a new standard for that class if the A’s were interested in an extension. Emmanuel Clase’s five-year, $20MM guarantee is the current record. That deal, which was signed in April 2022, included a pair of $10MM club options to extend Cleveland’s control window by two seasons. Clase was coming off an outstanding first full season, turning in a 1.29 ERA with 24 saves and 74 strikeouts in 69 2/3 innings. Miller struck out 104 hitters with a 2.49 earned run average over 65 frames last season. He went 28-31 in save chances.

Clase’s deal is a three-year old precedent that has turned into an extremely team-friendly contract. Clase also wasn’t on track to reach Super Two status, which meant he was two years from arbitration and had a much lower earning power through that process. Arbitration salaries escalate annually, and Super Two qualification sets a higher baseline for future raises. Clase didn’t have Miller’s injury history, but the Cleveland closer had served a performance-enhancing drug suspension in 2020 that added a different risk to his profile.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

• The Athletics signing Lawrence Butler to an extension (1:55)
• The Yankees losing Gerrit Cole to Tommy John surgery (10:00)
• The Mets losing Francisco Alvarez to hamate surgery (19:20)
• The Rays’ stadium and ownership drama (24:00)

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

• Will the Cubs win the NL Central and how would you rank the AL Central clubs? (34:25)
• Will the spring injuries lead to some deals and keep the hot stove burning into April? (41:35)
• Should fans of the Dodgers be worried by how many old/injury-prone players are on the roster? (47:50)

Check out our past episodes!

• Jose Quintana, Luis Gil’s Injury, The Nats’ TV Situation, Salary Floor Talk, And More! – listen here
• Atlanta’s Pitching Depth, Iglesias, Jobe, Castillo, And More! – listen here
• Alex Bregman, The Padres Add Players, And No Extension For Vlad Jr. – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Bowman, 25, was initially drafted by the Yankees but was one of four players who came to the A’s via the August 2022 trade that sent Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the Bronx. After that deal, he posted some decent Double-A numbers but struggled in his first taste of Triple-A.

He appeared in 152 minor league games from the start of 2023 through July 28 of 2024, mostly at Double-A but with four Complex League games in there as well. In his 705 plate appearances during that stretch, he walked at an 11.8% clip and kept his strikeouts down to a decent 20.9% pace. His combined .272/.369/.450 batting line led to a 125 wRC+. He also stole 73 bases in 81 tries and lined up defensively mostly at second base but with stints at third base, shortstop and center field.

He was promoted to Triple-A for the final few weeks of the 2024 season and struggled, hitting just .218/.284/.308 in a 38-game sample. But with the speed, defensive versatility and the decent offense at Double-A, the Reds perhaps saw enough for Bowman to carve out a utility role at the big league level, so they nabbed him in the Rule 5 draft.

That gave him a chance to break camp and make his major league debut but Bowman hit .120/.267/.120 in his 30 plate appearances this spring. That’s a small sample size but was apparently enough for the Reds to change course. Per Rule 5 regulations, the Reds would have had to keep Bowman on the big league roster all year or else put him on waivers. Any claiming club would have been bound by the same rules as the Reds, so it appears no other club was willing to give him a 40-man spot. Bowman will instead return to the A’s and give them some extra non-roster depth.

March 7: Butler’s deal will pay him a $3MM signing bonus and $2.25MM in 2025, Evan Drellich of The Athletic reports. He’ll then earn salaries of $3.25MM, $5MM, $8MM, $10MM, $14MM and $16MM from 2026-31. The Athletics’ option checks in at $20MM and comes with a $4MM buyout. The contract also contains escalators that can push the option value north to $26MM, per the report. In all, Butler can max out at $87.5MM over eight years if he hits all those escalators and the option is picked up.

March 6: The A’s are in agreement with right fielder Lawrence Butler on a seven-year, $65.5MM extension, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. There’s a club option for an eighth season. The contract buys out at least two free agent seasons, while the option covers a third would-be free agent year. The team has yet to announce the signing, which is pending a physical. Butler is represented by CAA Sports.

A sixth-round pick out of high school in 2018, Butler struggled over his first couple minor league seasons. Things clicked for him in Low-A in 2021, and he continued to hit his way up the ladder. The lefty hitter reached the majors in 2023 and hit .211 over his first 42 games. While he got out to another relatively slow start last year, a monster second half demonstrated his potential.

Butler raked at a .300/.345/.553 clip with 13 homers and 32 extra-base hits after the All-Star Break. Among qualified hitters, he ranked 10th in wRC+ over that stretch. The nine more productive batters in the second half are stars: Aaron Judge, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bobby Witt Jr., Yordan Alvarez, Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Francisco Lindor, Jackson Merrill, and teammate Brent Rooker.

It’s impressive company, though it’s worth noting that Eugenio Suárez and Gavin Lux were among those closely behind Butler in second-half production. Three months is still a relatively small sample size. Butler went into last year’s All-Star Break as a career .205/.260/.337 hitter. He had fanned in almost 30% of his plate appearances to that point. He sliced the strikeouts to a tidy 19.8% clip in the second half. The whiffs began to creep back up in September, though he still managed a .280/.330/.409 in the season’s final month.

The A’s believe he’ll build off that strong finish. Butler ended the season with a .262/.317/.490 slash across 451 plate appearances. He hit 22 homers and went a perfect 18-18 on stolen base attempts. While most of his playing time came against right-handed pitching, he more than held his own in unfavorable platoon settings. Butler hit .291 with five homers in 89 plate appearances against southpaws.

Butler led off for Mark Kotsay throughout the second half. He has sufficient on-base skills to hit atop the lineup or the power to slot into the order’s middle third. He’s an effective baserunner who’ll play every day in right field. Statcast and Defensive Runs Saved each graded him as a league average defender over 955 1/3 innings. Butler has solid speed and arm strength, so he probably has the tools to be an above-average corner outfield defender. He started 32 games in center field as a rookie, but he only played four MLB innings there last season. JJ Bleday will play up the middle on most days.

The A’s had Butler under club control for five seasons. He wasn’t on track to reach arbitration for another two years. There have been a few recent extensions for hitters in that 1-2 year service bucket. The Pirates inked third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to an eight-year, $70MM guarantee in 2022. The Rockies signed a seven-year, $63.5MM extension with shortstop Ezequiel Tovar last spring. The Nationals hammered out an eight-year, $50MM agreement with catcher Keibert Ruiz two seasons ago.

Butler has shown a higher offensive ceiling than all those players had at the time of their deals. They’d each been top prospects and played more valuable positions, though. Tovar and Hayes were already plus defenders. Butler’s deal puts him alongside the Hayes and Tovar contracts. That’s a reasonable landing spot. Butler locks in a significant sum that hedges against injury or regression. The A’s buy into his breakout relatively early. If they’d waited until next offseason, another strong season would probably have pushed Butler’s asking price beyond nine figures.

The A’s have now signed three of the four largest contracts in franchise history over the past few months. Their three-year, $67MM free agent deal with Luis Severino stands as their biggest ever. They signed Rooker to a five-year, $60MM extension with a sixth-year club option. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, this is the first time the A’s have extended a pre-arbitration player since their $10MM deal with Sean Doolittle in April 2014.

The spike in spending has coincided with the franchise’s three-year move to Sacramento. They’ve reportedly needed to get their competitive balance tax number to $105MM in order to avoid a grievance from the MLB Players Association regarding their use of revenue sharing funds. They’d already achieved that between deals for Severino, Rooker, and reliever José Leclerc, as well as the trade for starter Jeffrey Springs.

Butler joins Rooker as the only players under contract through at least 2028, the scheduled opening of their Las Vegas ballpark. The option extends their control window through 2032. Butler would hit free agency after his age-31 season if they exercise the option.

It’s possible this is the first of a handful of spring deals for the A’s. General manager David Forst told Evan Drellich of The Athletic last month that the team had opened talks with multiple players. MLBTR highlighted a few of their extension candidates in a post for Front Office subscribers last week.

Image courtesy of Imagn.

“For the Athletics, this partnership is more than just a jersey patch—it’s the beginning of the transition to our new home,” A’s owner John Fisher said in a press release. “This is a chance to wear our hearts on our sleeves for the next three years before bringing the vibrant spirit of our new home front and center across our uniform.”

Steve Hill, the head of the LVCVA, tells Evan Drellich of The Athletic that the deal will pay the A’s $8.25MM over the next three seasons: $2.5MM this season, $2.75MM next year, and $3MM in 2028. Hill acknowledged that it’s rare for a team to don an advertisement for a city in which they’re not currently playing.

“Frankly, one of the reasons that something like this hasn’t been done, at least for a team that’s moving, is that they’re still in the city they’re moving from,” Hill told Drellich. “We couldn’t have done this with the Raiders (who moved directly from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020), for example, because it would have just been rude. They’re in the city they’re moving from, and that’s kind of in your face, just not appropriate. But because (the A’s are) moving to Sacramento for three years before coming here, it opened up that possibility of doing that.”

The A’s plan to break ground on their 33,000-seat stadium in Las Vegas within the next few months. The team released their latest set of renderings for that facility on Thursday (link via Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal). Newly-hired club president Marc Badain told Drellich on Thursday that he has “no doubts on that at all” when asked if the ballpark will be ready in time for the 2028 season.

“We are excited to welcome Marc to the Athletics,” A’s owner John Fisher said in a statement. “His vast experience, particularly his work on the opening of Allegiant Stadium and overseeing the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas, makes him a great addition to our team at this pivotal moment. His leadership, commitment to the community, and ability to oversee transformative projects will be key as we look to build a strong and successful future in Southern Nevada.”

Badain served as president of the Raiders from 2013 to 2021. At the start of that time frame, the Raiders played their home games in Oakland Coliseum, sharing the facility with the Athletics. Looking for a new stadium, the Raiders started to explore the possibility of moving to Las Vegas in 2015. Those plans gradually became reality and the move was approved in 2017, though the Raiders stayed in Oakland through the end of the 2019 NFL season, moving into their new stadium in Vegas in 2020.

Badain then resigned in 2021. Per a report from Daniel Kaplan and Tashan Reed of The Athletic in October of 2021, Raiders owner Mark Davis said that “accounting irregularities” prompted the resignation. He said the team “overpaid our taxes…we paid more than we owe,” a matter that “may have started in Oakland.” Badain has since been working with the Oak View Group, trying to build a hotel and casino complex with a venue capable of hosting an NBA team.

Controversial finish aside, there are some clear parallels between his Raiders tenure and the current state of the Athletics. The A’s are in a similar position to where the Raiders were a few years ago. The baseball club is planning to play out of a new stadium in Vegas starting with the 2028 season. They failed to work out a deal to stay in Oakland beyond the end of their 2024 lease of the Coliseum, so they are going to play out of Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento for the 2025-27 seasons. That is normally the home of the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the Giants. The A’s and River Cats plan to share the park for the next three years.

The detour to West Sacramento is a notable difference, but the journey of the two franchises is otherwise quite similar. Since Badain has already steered one franchise from the Oakland Coliseum to a new facility in Las Vegas, the A’s seem to be banking on his experience to guide them through the process in the coming years.

“I’m honored to join the Athletics and help guide the team into a new era of success,” Badain said in the news release. “Las Vegas is a city that celebrates innovation and excellence, and I’m excited to work alongside the team, the fans, and the community to create something extraordinary.”

While Basso wasn’t guaranteed a spot on the Opening Day roster — he still has a pair of minor league option years remaining — his solid rookie showing in 2024 put him in position to genuinely compete to break camp. A 16th-round pick back in 2019, Basso pitched the first 22 1/3 innings of his MLB career last season and logged a 4.03 earned run average with a 20.4% strikeout rate, 5.4% walk rate and 42% grounder rate. That came on the heels of a 4.55 ERA, 27.5 K% and 6.3 BB% in 93 innings (18 starts, four relief appearances) between Double-A and Triple-A.

The Athletics currently have Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs and JP Sears locked into rotation spots. Last season’s Rule 5 pick, Mitch Spence, very likely pitched his way into the fourth rotation spot with a nice rookie effort. Basso was in competition with Osvaldo Bido, Joey Estes, J.T. Ginn and Hogan Harris for a remaining rotation spot. It’s also possible he could’ve cracked the bullpen as a second lefty alongside veteran T.J. McFarland.

Through the first few weeks of camp, Basso had only strengthened his case. While Ginn, Bido and Estes have been hit hard and Harris has struggled with his command, Basso has rattled off 4 1/3 scoreless — and hitless — innings. He’s only allowed one of 14 opponents to reach (a walk) and had fanned four batters. Things can change in a hurry in a small spring sample, but to this point he could scarcely have done more with the opportunities he’d been given.

The A’s will have more information on his timeline for recovery in the days and weeks ahead, but a shutdown at this point effectively takes him out of the running for the Opening Day roster. If there’s a strain of any real significance, Basso could be a 60-day IL candidate the next time the team needs a 40-man roster spot, but that’ll hinge on the forthcoming prognosis and recovery timetable.

“What we talked about with Tyler is continuing to keep that skill set,” Kotsay told Gallegos. “It gives us an opportunity to have a player that provides maybe a role for us that would allow maybe another bench spot.” The A’s will use Shea Langeliers as their starting catcher for the third consecutive season. They would gain some bench flexibility if they’re comfortable with the 23-year-old Soderstrom as Langeliers’ backup. Otherwise, he’d be the primary first baseman.

Soderstrom was drafted as a bat-first catching prospect out of high school in 2020. His bat pushed him quickly through the minor leagues. He’s a .272/.339/.532 hitter in the minors. Soderstrom hasn’t found anywhere near that level of success against big league pitching. He owns a .204/.282/.354 line with a 27.4% strikeout rate over 351 plate appearances.

Most of his big league work has come as a first baseman. Soderstrom has caught a little more than 1200 innings over four minor league seasons. He made 15 starts behind the dish for the A’s during his 2023 rookie season. He got another 21 starts as a catcher in Triple-A last year, but they didn’t give him any MLB starts there.

The youngster’s only MLB catching experience last year was a four-inning appearance in a game in which that day’s starting catcher Kyle McCann was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning. Langeliers was the designated hitter. If the A’s wanted to have him catch after pulling McCann, they’d have forfeited their DH for the rest of the game. Soderstrom, who had started at first base, moved to catcher.

The A’s clearly didn’t feel his glove was up to par last year. They kept McCann on the major league roster as the backup all season. Langeliers started 123 games, second-most at the position behind Cal Raleigh. McCann made the other 39 starts. Soderstrom’s four-inning appearance was the only catching work by any other player.

The A’s already shook that up last month, designating McCann for assignment while acquiring Jhonny Pereda in a cash trade with Miami. Langeliers and Pereda are the only primary catchers on the 40-man roster. That’d very likely be Kotsay’s season-opening duo if they’re still apprehensive about Soderstrom’s glove. If they’re comfortable with Soderstrom behind the plate, he could pick up around 40 starts there while playing first base on days when Langeliers is rested. That’d allow the A’s to option Pereda and carry another infielder or outfielder on the active roster.

McCann cleared waivers and is in camp as a non-roster invitee. The A’s could reselect his contract at any point, but he’s behind Pereda on the depth chart. The 28-year-old Pereda only has 20 games of major league experience. He’s a .293/.385/.408 hitter over four Triple-A seasons and has a stronger defensive reputation than McCann brings.

"We’ve had conversations with a couple other players other than (already-extended DH Brent Rooker), and those talks are ongoing," Forst told Drellich. "It is an important thing for us to lock guys up (heading) into Las Vegas and make sure that we keep the core of what we think is a really good young team together, ongoing."

MLBTR covered Butler's extension candidacy at the time of Drellich's report. With Forst's comments in mind, it's worth taking a speculative look at who else the A's may try to sign over the next few weeks.

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