Why the Athletics Have to Spend More in Free Agency This Year

Well, you can officially stop adding Athletics players to your trade ideas. Although this team has been mostly a joke over the past couple of years, things are different this offseason.

After inking pitcher Luis Severino to a $67 million deal, the A’s were in the mix for Max Fried, who landed with the Yankees. An interest in a level of player that we have not seen from the A’s in some time raised plenty of questions.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that the Athletics were one of the most aggressive teams for Fried. If you are puzzled and asking yourself why, you are not alone.

The A’s largest free agent contract before Severino was Yoenis Cespedes back in 2012, so why are they now trying to add big-money free agents?

Bottom line, the A’s have to increase their payroll to the $105 million range in order to avoid a grievance from the players association. Essentially, the A’s have to spend more than 150% of their revenue sharing money (roughly $70 million) on their payroll.

So, where do they stand and how can they get to this threshold of around $105 million?

Current Payroll Situation

The A’s only have four players who are not pre-arbitration in 2025. Luis Severino ($20M AAV), Brent Rooker (projected $3.5M),T.J. McFarland ($1.8M), and Seth Brown ($2.7M). If you take Spotrac’s projections on the rest of the 40-man roster, the A’s would be around $56 million, other sites have them closer to $54 million. Regardless, the A’s have to spend.

These projections are not exact but close enough to work with. Of course, they do not include any trades that might happen. Keep in mind, for every player they add, one most come off the 40-man as well, presumably deducting roughly $800,000 (pre-arb contract) from their total.

Options to Increase Payroll

Usually, a team can go out and simply overpay for a player and the discussion is over. However, with the A’s ownership not having a solid reputation, playing in a minor league park, and eventually moving to Vegas, the situation is not as attractive as most overpays you might see.

If the A’s prefer to keep flexibility down the road, they could just load up on one-year deals.

Pay the prove-it deal or bounce-back types more than any other team and hope the player is desperate enough to sign. Target relief pitchers who tend to land in obscure situations more than other positions.

While I am sure we will see some of those signings, trades might make even more sense.

We see the salary dump trades more in the NHL and NBA where bad teams are trying to reach a salary floor. Well, the A’s essentially have a salary floor so the same principle can be applied.

Astros pitcher Ryan Pressley is due $14 million this year and the Astros are trying to move on. Jordan Montgomery is in a similar boat and is due $22.5 million. Nick Castellanos has two years left and $20 million per season. The list goes on.

Maybe the angle is to bring in veterans, think Max Scherzer or Justin Turner, on one-year deals with the sales pitch of moving them to a needy contender in a few months. I could see a couple of guys who have limited options buying into that idea. Yoan Moncada, who is familiar with bad organizations, could be a fit if the money is right.

Another option is looking to lock up internal options. There was a report that the A’s are interested in a long-term deal with Brent Rooker. Shea Langeliers, JJ Bleday, Lawrence Butler, and others could also be interested in some sort of deal that keeps them with the organization long-term.

Doing these deals would increase payroll now while also (in theory) getting the player at a team-friendly number in what would be their first or second year of free agency.

To me, this should be step one. You have a solid group of young and emerging talent. Lock a couple of players up, increase payroll, and have a few names locked in for the early Vegas seasons.

The only issue – do these players want to stick with the Athletics?

I know money talks, which is ironic to say when talking about the A’s, but at some point I wonder if players just want to be in a different organization.

At the surface, it is hard to see reasons as to why a player would want to stay long term but we do not know nearly enough about each individual situation.

Conclusion

While it is not unusual to see a player chase the money and sign with what looks to be a bad team or fit, the A’s situation is too unique to assume that is the easiest way forward.

Can the front office convince their own players that the future will be better than the past and get them to sign up long-term? Hard to say.

I do not think this A’s team is all that bad. By no means are they good, but the roster is not barren of talent. Ideally, the A’s look to actually improve their roster and compete instead of simply taking on bad contracts to float to that $105 million number. I’ll believe it when I see it.

In a world where John Fisher created an unattractive situation by being cheap, he’s now going to have to spend higher than market value and still cross his fingers that players say yes. Good.