A's Release Seth Brown

Earlier this week, the Athletics officially released the longest tenured member of their club, Seth Brown, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Technically, according to MLB Trade Rumors, he was waived after being activated from the IL, then elected free agency after crossing the five-year service time threshold. This means that he'll be owed his $2.7 million contract from the A's no matter what happens next.

Just last week, new addition to the A's broadcast team, and a former teammate of Brown's, Tony Kemp, was talking about the importance of a guy like Brown in the A's clubhouse, given his veteran leadership. Athletics on SI saw him sitting at the poker table in the clubhouse with the younger players numerous times before games this season, so it's hard to deny his impact on the young A's roster.

But the stats just weren't there for Brown at the big-league level in 2025. In 38 games, he went 12-for-65 (.185) with a .303 OBP, one home run, three RBI, and a .565 OPS. With Denzel Clarke solidifying himself in the outfield, along with Tyler Soderstrom taking over in left with the arrival of Nick Kurtz at first, there just hasn't been much playing time for guys like Brown or JJ Bleday in the lineup most days.

Last weekend before the A's headed out on their three-city road trip, we noticed that Bleday's locker had moved across the clubhouse to where Brown's had been, and that Brown no longer had a spot in the room, so the move wasn't surprising. We just couldn't confirm that he'd been released, so we didn't report on it, but the speculation was certainly that he'd no longer be with the team.

At the end of the 2024 season, Brown had a pretty memorable hit in the bottom of the 13th against the Detroit Tigers in early September. With the zombie runner on second and one out, he smacked a single to right that brought home Bleday, and earned the A's a walk-off win. At the time, it looked like it could be the team's final walk-off victory in the Walk-Off Capital of the World.

Alas, Jacob Wilson singled in the bottom of the ninth against the Texas Rangers on September 24, which ended up being the team's second-to-last victory at the Coliseum. The last win came in the finale game two days later.

Brown was drafted by the A's in 2015, and outside of his rookie stint with the club in 2019, had never hit above .231 in a season. Still, he had some pop in his bat and can still be a useful contributor to a contending team down the stretch. The A's issue is the upcoming roster crunch, not that they don't value what he brings to the yard every day.

With Zack Gelof and Ken Waldichuk on rehab assignments, the A's are going to have to add each of them back onto the 40-man roster in the coming weeks. After a tough 1-20 stretch from May and into June, the club is also back to developing the roster as opposed to contending like they'd hoped. All of those factors led to Brown's release this week, but he should still be able to land somewhere and make an impact when he does.