Athletics not done adding pitching after $67 million Luis Severino contract

Fresh off of signing pitcher Luis Severino to a $67 million contract, the Athletics are looking to add more pitching.

According to a report from The Athletic, the team is looking for one more starting pitcher, though not one of the same caliber as Severino. Sources told Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon that the team is looking for “someone like Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson or Andrew Heaney, provided one of those veterans is willing to pitch in Sacramento.”

The A’s finished their final season in Oakland in 2024 and will play their home games in Sacramento for the next three years while they wait on construction of a new ballpark in Las Vegas.

The team is not typically known as a major factor in free agency, but as Rosenthal and Sammon explain, it needs to increase payroll in order to avoid a grievance from the Major League Baseball Players Association.

“It remains to be seen, however, whether they will approach the $130 million to $150 million range they projected for their ramp-up period before they move into their new park in Las Vegas, according to a league source,” they wrote.

The Athletics carried a payroll of just over $62 million in 2024, by far the lowest in the league. For context, Juan Soto just signed a contract with the New York Mets that will pay him $51 million a year on average. Severino will make an average of $23.3 million annually during his three-year deal, but no one else on the team is slated to earn more than $3.5 million in 2025.

If the A’s don’t increase payroll by adding another pitcher, they could do so by upgrading at third base, another area of focus, per The Athletic. While they could look to internal options like Brett Harris, Max Schuemann and 2021 draft pick Max Muncy (not the other Max Muncy), Alec Bohm of the Philadelphia Phillies and Brett Baty of the Mets are both trade possibilities.