A's Make Interesting Admission on Offseason Plans

While the A's were introducing Tyler Soderstrom at the press conference for his signing on Tuesday, the team's GM, David Forst, fielded a question about the team's pursuit of free agents this winter, and was asked if Las Vegas has been a "plus" in terms of selling free agents on playing for the A's.

Forst replied, "I would love to bring more guys here. I mean, we toured the construction site earlier with Tyler, and you could sort of just see the power of him getting to see [the under-construction ballpark]. I would love to be able to bring potential free agents here. I don't see any downsides here."

The reporter then followed up, asking if Vegas has come up in his discussions with free agents.

"It has. We have not, as far as free agents, we haven't talked to guys about contracts extending into here yet. But in these extension deals, we talk about the possibility of being here, and guys are excited about being in Las Vegas."

While the expectation hasn't been for the A's to go out there and sign someone like Framber Valdez to a seven-year, $200 million contract (or whatever he ends up getting), the opening in Vegas is supposed to be in 2028, which would mean that the A's front office isn't talking to guys for anything more than two years.

When they're limiting themselves to just short-term deals, and the pitch is getting to play in a minor-league ballpark that is pretty hitter friendly, it's tough to expect free agents to be jumping at the chance to play for the A's in 2026 and potentially 2027.

Of course, they could always overpay, which they did in order to get Luis Severino in the green and gold last offseason, but that contract also didn't work out in year one. Severino posted a 4.54 ERA in 2025 and was quite vocal about how much he didn't like pitching in Sacramento. Is that an avenue that they'd consider going down again so soon?

The big reason this is a little worrisome is that most of the pitchers that would be clear upgrades to this pitching staff would take slightly longer deals in order to obtain their services. If they're off the board, then are they taking a look at flier arms that they hope hit next season?

Of course, the one big piece of wiggle room here is that the A's could be focusing more on the trade market for an upgrade in the starting rotation. They could go after higher upside arms that have more team control via trade without having to have discussions about Las Vegas or Sacramento with their target.

There is also the option that they could just not go after any big upgrades this offseason, perhaps focusing on short-term deals for now, while they continue to allow their young arms develop. We could get glimpses of top pitching prospects Gage Jump, Braden Nett and Kade Morris in 2026, and if they pan out, then there would be less of a need for a big expenditure in free agency.

Plus, the A's have eight starting pitchers that are projected to begin the season in the minor leagues that are on the 40-man roster. They have a number of options to cycle through and provide opportunities for. That group will likely be trimmed over the course of the campaign when the A's have a better sense of which players are a part of their future.

Forst's quote does give us a sense of what the expectation should be for the rest of the offseason, however.

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