MLB’s unnatural disasters has left the A’s ripped from their home.

Sacramento Athletics

2024 Record: 69-93

Cruising up the 5 from Anaheim to a location slightly further northeast than needed for the past 58 years, the Sacramento Athletics are the next stop on our AL West preview for the Mariners fan who likes to know what they’re up against. I’ll be referring to the A’s as “Sacramento” intermittently through this series and the next few years at least. If their owner John Fisher, a noted (albeit for failure) businessman best known for being born to the people who founded The Gap and inheriting shares in his parents company worth over $3 billion back in the early 2000s, wished to keep them in a big league ballpark in Oakland for the intervening years while he attempts to convince Las Vegas and Nevada to build him a ballpark in the next three years, they could have stayed. Instead, they’re in Sacramento, bunking up with the Triple-A River Cats of the Pacific Coast League in a stadium that seats just over 10,000 fans and can host around 14,000. Sacramento.
They’re on an on-field up-swing, though lurching from consecutive 100-loss seasons in 2022-23 to dropping 93 tilts is a bit like going from getting kicked by a horse to merely getting bitten by one. Because of Fisher’s tantrums, the Athletics were not only cratering on the field while attempting to move, but their eligibility for receiving revenue sharing from the bigger budget ball clubs was at risk due to their lack of evidential reinvestment on the field. They’ve made a number of signings and extensions to stave off that legal action, but this team still lacks much hope of run-prevention until the 9th inning.

Pitchers

2024 Team Statistics: 4.37/4.24 ERA/FIP, 11.9% K-BB%, 11.3 fWAR (25th)
Notable Additions: RHP Luis Severino, LHP Jeffrey Springs, RHP José Leclerc, LHP Jacob Lopez, RHP Noah Murdock
Notable Departures: RHP Ross Stripling, LHP Kyle Muller, LHP Alex Wood, RHP Austin Adams, 3B Abraham Toro, LHP Scott Alexander, RHP Joe Boyle

Do not spend extended time staring at this table if you are pregnant, may become pregnant, or wish to consider pregnancy at least on the table if you ever feel like you can afford a condo or a house and have the time and space for it. I like Luis Severino. Seems like a good guy, had an electric early career that’s faded due to multiple injuries out of stardom, but he worked hard to reinvent himself through essentially four exasperating seasons to finally return to form and consistency in 2024. If someone is going to get a performative “here’s much more money than anyone else will give you, come save us a fortune in legal fees and lost revenue” check, it should be a pitcher whose incredibly productive years came at the league minimum before a multitude of IL stints, with enough length on the deal to guarantee Severino 10 years in the big leagues.

It wouldn’t be surprising if he’s the only player in this rotation who meets that benchmark. Once a Mariners draftee, Sears has eaten innings dutifully but unremarkably for a couple years, something Spence and Estes both did admirably as well. For a team that took chances on Mason Miller and Joe Boyle, among other wild-throwing bullpen burners, the rotation is astoundingly low-ceiling. A trade acquisition from the Tampa Bay Rays in the offseason, Springs represents the most obvious possible emergent impact performer, as the southpaw has had immense success in a bullpen and limited starting role for years in Tampa. A career-high of 135.1 innings back in 2022, followed by injury-shortened seasons the past two years, sheds light on the skepticism inherent to the southpaw’s breakout. For years, the A’s crafted clubs to thrive in Oakland, utilizing their athletic infield and rangy outfield to blanket the park’s dimensions on behalf of grateful pitching staffs. This group could use that type of defense, but they’re not going to pick up the slack in the punchouts realm. They’ll also be short lefty Ken Waldichuk for at least some of the year, as he’s only just begun throwing in his Tommy John rehab.

Do you want the good news, the okay news, or the news you probably shouldn’t use? Mason Miller was possibly the most dominant reliever in baseball last year. Despite many health issues in the minors, he was able to hold up reasonably well in a relief role, and will assume maximum leverage use in 2025. Alongside him is Leclerc, no longer a Texas Ranger and no longer the top fiddle in the bullpen, but still a solid contributor who will be a setup man over the lights-out relief ace he was in his early 20s. The rest of the likely ‘pen is either unproven or inconsistent enough to have been passed up for work elsewhere. Southpaw McFarland is the quintessential lefty ground ball specialist, and will reprise his role with the A’s after solid performance a year ago, while Otañez at least has the stuff to join Miller and last year’s breakout-turned-deadline trade fodder Lucas Erceg, but there is an amount of herking and jerking in his delivery that I’m not holding my breath on greater command manifesting. Basso may be bound for the injured list with a recent shoulder strain, while the centerpiece of their return for Frankie Montas from the Yankees, Luis Medina, is also still on the mend from TJ.

2025 FanGraphs Depth Charts projections: 4.27/4.38 ERA/FIP, 8.0-3.2 K/9-BB/9, 8.5 fWAR (28th)

The Athletics are a trendy pick for a sleeper contender this year. Most of the reason for that comes in the position player group, which has much more cause for optimism. But this is, even more than the Angels, why I appreciate the Mariners’ rotation as it is right now. I’d take Reid Detmers and Yusei Kikuchi over every member of Oakland’s rotation and every pitcher named in this article, save for Miller. This is the type of pitching staff you’d build if, say, your owner was extremely excited about hosting Aaron Judge as a visitor in his team’s park. Hopefully they’ll save some homers for Julio and Cal as well.