SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Mark Kotsay sees a new era ahead for the Athletics, and not just because they’ve left their longtime Oakland home and will play in West Sacramento for the next few years until a new ballpark is ready for them in Las Vegas.
The A's manager watched the team sign pitcher Luis Severino to a $67 million, three-year contract this offseason — the largest deal in franchise history. The right-hander can opt out and become a free agent again after the 2026 season.
Severino's arrival was followed by the acquisitions of third baseman Gio Urshela and left-hander Jeffrey Springs, creating a different feeling among coaches and players heading into 2025.
Kotsay sees the free agent activity as both an opportunity to improve the roster while the A's await their move to Nevada, and a way to take full advantage of MLB revenue sharing.
For the first time since the current collective bargaining agreement began in 2022, the A’s are to receive 100% of the amount due under the revenue sharing formula. If a team's luxury tax payroll is not at least 150% of what it receives in revenue sharing, the burden of proof in a grievance alleging violation of revenue sharing rules would shift to the club from the players’ association.
“I understood where our current payroll was and with revenue sharing, where we needed to be, so I did anticipate some spending in terms of the long-term nature of the spending. That doesn’t shock me,” Kotsay said Monday at an informal meeting in Sacramento not far from Sutter Health Park, the minor league stadium that will serve as home to the A’s for the next three seasons.
“I do think that with this move ownership is understanding where we need to be in 2028, what we want to accomplish when we move into that new ballpark. My hope is we accomplish that prior to moving into the new ballpark, which is to win and get into the postseason and really start producing some championship type of seasons.”
It’s a major change in attitude for the A’s, who have been one of MLB’s cheapest teams when it comes to spending. The ballclub routinely let its own free agents get away without so much as an offer, and rarely pursued costly players on the open market.
That seems to have changed now that the team is no longer playing in Oakland.
“I was like, ‘Heck yeah, let’s get it going,'" said A’s outfielder JJ Bleday, who along with Brent Rooker and JP Sears attended the meeting in Sacramento. “I think it shows we want to compete. It shows we want to make it to the postseason and we want to do everything we can to have a winning ballclub.”
It’s a far different approach than the one the A’s have had for years. Kotsay learned that the hard way during his first season as the club’s manager in 2022.
“In ’22, my first experience managing was to tell Matt Olson he had been traded, which was the direction of the ballclub,” Kotsay recalled. “Now season four is to welcome Luis Severino, who has been given the largest free agent contract in (franchise) history, which is completely opposite. So I couldn’t be more excited about going into camp.”
Kotsay recently returned from an 18-day vacation with his family to Asia. He is in the process of trying to find a place to live in or near Sacramento, like a lot of his players.
It’s an offseason ritual not foreign to the A’s.
“I know a lot of guys are trying to figure out apartments or figure out whether they want to be in the city, how close they would be to the ballpark,” Kotsay said. “It’s nothing new for us because most of us didn’t live in Oakland, so every season we’d come back looking for a new place.”
As part of his afternoon in the state capital, Kotsay took a tour of Sutter Health Park. He and several A’s players also had plans to go to Golden 1 Center to attend the Sacramento Kings’ NBA game against the Miami Heat.
“Surprised by how comfortable it felt,” Kotsay said of Sutter Health Park, which also serves as home for the Triple-A River Cats, a minor league affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. “I think it’s one of the nicer Triple-A ballparks that I’ve gotten to experience. And the renovation part of the process is going really well. The timeline is up against it a little bit but they’ve guaranteed us that it’ll be done. I left there and felt pretty good about it.
“The excitement level is there. They want to come out and see baseball at the major league level.”
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