SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Before the A’s officially left Oakland, the largest contract they ever doled out was a six-year, $66 million deal to star third baseman Eric Chavez in 2004. For two decades, that record stood firm. Only now that they’ve left Oakland have the A’s opened up their pocketbooks.
In recent months, the A’s have handed out three of the largest contracts in franchise history. Right-hander Luis Severino signed a three-year, $67 million deal in December to break Chavez’s record. Designated hitter Brent Rooker cashed in on a five-year, $60 million extension in January. And yesterday, right fielder Lawrence Butler signed a seven-year, $65.5 million extension of his own.
The John Fisher-led A’s never went on a spending spree of this magnitude when they called the Oakland Coliseum home. They also never were required to boost their payroll closer to $100 million to remain eligible for revenue sharing benefits until this offseason. Given the A’s must spent one-and-a-half times their intake of revenue sharing, according to the collective bargaining agreement, and the planned permanent move to Las Vegas, these types of deals could become the norm. Along with Butler and Rooker, All-Star closer Mason Miller, catcher Shea Langeliers and left-hander JP Sears stand out as extension candidates, too.
During reliever Lou Trivino’s four-and-a-half seasons in Oakland, the A’s brass assembled one of the most talented cores in baseball, teams that featured Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Marcus Semien, Sean Murphy, Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea and Liam Hendriks. The A’s never spent to keep that core together. But when asked about the A’s lack of financial allocation, Trivino pointed not to contracts, but to the lack of investment in resources.
“I’m not trying to (dump) on the A’s. I really enjoyed my time there,” said Trivino, who is competing for a spot on the Giants’ Opening Day roster. “But when you’re five years behind, it’s almost like you’re way behind. The A’s are getting better. I talk to guys over there. They’re coming along and the front office is putting some money into it. I look back and I’m like, ‘Man, we could’ve been something super special.’”
Matt Chapman, who played for the A’s from 2017-2021, respectfully declined to comment.
Trivino emphasized repeatedly how much he appreciated his coaching staff in Oakland and his time with the organization but assessed that the A’s didn’t have the “extra tools” that other teams had at the time. The A’s, for example, didn’t have advanced scouting, according to Trivino, a difference that he especially noticed upon being traded to the New York Yankees.
“I remember I got traded over to the Yankees and they were like, ‘Hey, you’ve got five tips. You’re tipping the ball five different ways. We know it’s coming,’” Trivino said. “They had tip guys over there. There’s no tip guys with the A’s. It’s the little things.”
The Yankees, by contrast, had “everything you could think of,” according to Trivino. That list includes TrackMan, which provides data such as spin rate, vertical and horizontal movement and extension. The Yankees also utilized KinaTrax, which uses motion capture technology to provide imagining and biomechanical analysis. Force plates measure how much pressure a pitcher or batter exerts into the ground while Trajekt allows batters to mimic facing any pitcher by replicating a hurler’s delivery and offerings.
“I loved the team that we had. I really enjoyed the coaching staff, but they were kind of hamstrung with what they had,” Trivino said. “If you’re not going to go out and spend money in free agency, you have to find a way to get advantages over other teams. The Tampa [Bay Rays] might not go out and buy in free agency, but they spend their resources on getting guys better, finding different ways to get the best out of each individual player.
“I think that with the A’s, I felt that they just kind of assembled a team together and said, ‘All right, go get ‘em. Good luck.’”
The A’s, during Trivino’s tenure, already had talented players in place. To date, Semien has finished top-three in MVP voting three times. Olson finished fourth in ‘23; Chapman was seventh and sixth in ‘18 and ‘19. Trivino, then, wishes that the A’s were willing to spend “the little extra dollars and try to get the players that they have a little bit better.”
“You go in waves, and then you capitalize on those waves when you have that core group coming through,” Trivino said. “It’s not that the A’s didn’t capitalize. I thought they did. I just wish that they were just a little bit more willing to spend the extra fraction of dollars getting the players that they had a little bit better, getting those advantages.”