Five Former New York Yankees on A's Roster Ahead of Weekend Series

For decades, the Athletics were considered a farm team of the New York Yankees. This stems all the way back to the 1950's when the two teams would make trades that would heavily favor the Bombers, like the A's trading away Roger Maris, only for the slugger to win back-to-back MVP awards and set the single-season home run record that would stand for over 40 years.

Recently, the trend has mostly died down, with the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets holding more former Athletics on their rosters than the Yankees. In fact, it's the A's that actually have more former Yankees on the club these days, with the West Sacramento ballclub currently boasting five former Yanks ahead of their weekend series.

The most obvious one is new A's ace, Luis Severino, who signed with the team during the offseason after a year with the New York Mets. He'd been in pinstripes for the first eight years of his career, and on Sunday he'll be facing his former club for the first time in his career.

The 31-year-old holds a 1-3 record with a 3.62 ERA through eight starts, and has been every bit the ace the A's were targeting this winter, going at least six innings in six of those eight starts.

JP Sears is also a former Yankee, coming over in the Frankie Montas/Lou Trivino deal, and he's been arguably the A's best starter this season with a 2.93 ERA while also pitching deeper into games more consistently than in years past. Funnily enough, he has more wins against the A's, one, than the Yankees (0-4, 6.49 ERA).

Mitch Spence was selected by the A's away from New York's farm system in the 2023 Rule 5 Draft and made his MLB debut last season. He began the year as the long man out of the bullpen, then worked his way into the rotation in May, where he'd stay for the rest of the season.

This year he's back in the bullpen, and is taking on a variety of roles. He has served as the long man, but since the injury to José Leclerc, he has been more of a full-fledged relief pitcher and has even taken on some high leverage situations.

Miguel Andujar has spent most of his time with the green and gold the past two seasons patrolling left field, but with the A's bringing up top prospect Nick Kurtz, that pushed their hottest hitter, Tyler Soderstrom off of first base and into the outfield.

The A's coaching staff approached Andujar about taking up his former spot at the hot corner to get his bat in the lineup, and that's where he's been the past three games.

If you don't see Andujar at third, then you're likely to see another free agent signee, Gio Urshela, who was with New York from 2019-2021. Urshela has been decent for the Athletics, but he's also dealing with some back issues that has kept him out of the lineup on occasion.

While the Yankees don't have any former A's on their roster at the moment, they were the first team to draft Aaron Judge, in the 31st round of the 2010 MLB Draft.