Once again the Oakland Athletics will operate on a tight budget. Will they make many moves this offseason or look in-house for improvement?
The Oakland Athletics plain and simple are not big free agent spenders. They rarely have ever gone out and made big splashes besides 2009 when they made a few big signings. That was the lone offseason they’ve decided to dish out cash and it didn’t work out well.
Since then they haven’t made many high-end deals. Although they’ve made some offers, not many have accepted and no big splashes have been made. That seems to be the same case here in 2019 as the offseason has kicked off without much action out of Oakland.
This team has been up-and-down this decade. They’ve emptied the farm and then built it back up and now are seeing what that can provide. They have a good young core in Matt Chapman and Matt Olson that will be here for a long time.
Marcus Semien who finished third in MVP voting, has expressed desire to stay in Oakland. But he should command a large deal and with Chapman and Olson waiting down the line, the Athletics might not be obliged to pay big money to their shortstop.
The pitching staff has the opportunity to be very good with Jesus Luzardo, A.J. Puk, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas and Mike Fiers. There is a good blend of young arms and veteran presences to balance out the rotation. If someone goes down Chris Bassitt is more then capable of handling a few starts. Luzardo as we mentioned here as the pedigree to be a dominant top of the rotation pitcher.
So Oakland seems prepared to improve from within the organization. They can never go wrong adding a few veterans. The team is interested in a Jed Lowrie reunion and has coveted Matt Wieters multiple times in the past.
Don’t expect any big moves, this team has the pieces to continue building from within. They have gotten experience these last two seasons and they will only continue getting better. The chemistry and locker room is good right now so there is no sense in trying to fix much.
The ideal offseason would be bringing in a few bullpen arms, a second baseman that could play alongside either Jorge Mateo or Franklin Barreto and a left-handed bat in the outfield. The A’s are very well coached and have won 97 games in back-to-back seasons for a reason.
They aren’t contenders as of now, but small maintenance moves and internal growth could put them in that category. The focus should be either winning the AL West or getting out of the Wild Card with a win. Play your cards right and Oakland could accomplish either one of those.