Elephant Rumblings: Spring Training Countdown

Will the A’s continue to spend?

Happy Thursday Athletics Nation! While the official report date for A’s pitchers and catchers has not been released, most teams will report between February 10-14^th. This means we are just about 5 weeks away from the start of the 2025 season. The A’s first spring training game will be February 22 against the Padres in Peoria, Arizona. For those of us who may not know about this app, Here’s a link to a spring training countdown app. When most of A’s Nation reads this there will be (roughly) 33 days until pitchers and catchers report. But use the app to track it for yourself! https://www.springtrainingcountdown.com/

There’s great news out of Oakland Athletics camp yesterday, as had been previously reported by A’s Nation’s Connor Ashford, Athletics slugger Brent Rooker has signed a 5-year, $60 million contract extension. The deal, which was first reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, includes a sixth-year vesting option for 2030. The 30-year-old Silver Slugger Award winner will go into 2025 with lofty expectations to go with his bigger paycheck. It will be a blast to see him destroying MLB pitching in Sacramento. Congrats slugger!

The question that remains before spring training is what’s next? Jim Bowden of The Athletic published a piece yesterday about his predictions for the fifteen biggest free agents left on the market. Not surprisingly, he could not tie any of the star names to the A’s, but that certainly does not mean that they’ve closed shop until the season starts. As numerous columnists on this site have suggested, the A’s are still falling short of the luxury tax minimum this year. The issue for the A’s stems from the fact that the CBA requires revenue sharing recipients to spend more than 150% of their revenue sharing money on MLB payroll. Prior to yesterday’s Rooker extension, the A’s needed to raise the club’s tax payroll by $26.5MM to avoid risking a grievance from the players association. The team can hit that minimum, recently estimated as $105 million, by trade, contract extensions or free agent signings.

We’ll just have to wait and see what the next moves will be. In the meantime, it’s not too early to set our sights on Hohokam Stadium in Mesa!

A’s coverage:

• Rooker Extension Not A Slam Dunk, But Still A Lay Up
• Athletics make Rooker extension official
• Athletics 2024 Season In Review: Shea Langeliers
• Of course the first big Sacramento PR push for the A’s went awry

MLB news & Interest:

• A look at the best season by each ‘25 HOF ballot newcomer
• 17 best relievers left on the FA market, ranked into tiers
• Giants To Sign Justin Verlander
• Red Sox, Garrett Crochet begin extension talks
• White Sox sign veteran lefty Martin Perez to 1-year deal
• Infielder Ahmed Rosario signs with Nationals on 1-year deal
• Former Orioles lefty Brian Matusz passes away at 37
• Marlins pitcher Braxton Garrett to miss 2025 after UCL surgery
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Congrats Ken!

Interesting arm that could surprise people during camp and crack the roster:

Looks like fun!

He’s really growing into a fan-favorite, isn’t he?