This Change Could Impact A's Season in Sacramento

Last season, in a conversation with Ross Stripling about what it was like playing in a minor-league ballpark with the Toronto Blue Jays during the Covid season, Athletics on Si asked him if he'd consider re-signing with the Athletics to play in Sacramento.

One thing he remembered about pitching in Sacramento is that the batter's eye is terrible at Sutter Health. "If they want to bring me back as an opener, yeah, I'm all for it!" he said while chuckling. "I'll open 80 games in Sacramento. You cannot see for the first three innings. I think there could be entire homestands where nobody scores for the first three innings."

This was definitely a talking point for some of the players--especially the hitters--at points during the 2024 campaign.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle recently talked to some Giants players about the batter's eye, with River Cats third baseman Brett Auerbach saying, "The old one was about 150 feet behind the fence and the depth perception was different."

Among the many upgrades that were recently announced, a new batter's eye made the list, which is sure to delight the hitters.

So here is where a potential issue could lay for the Athletics this season. GM David Forst has said all off-season that they don't know how the park will play just yet, because they have the minor-league data, but they aren't sure how major-league hitters will fare in the minor-league park.

Sutter Health Park has been one of the more pitcher-friendly parks in the Pacific Coast League, which is notorious for it's hitter-friendly venues. Plopping down Brent Rooker and Aaron Judge into the park, the A's were expecting it to play at roughly league average.

With the batter's eye fixed, and hitters presumably having a full third of the game unlocked for them, could offense at the park make a jump for both the A's and River Cats? This could be a huge factor in determining what kind of a season the A's have in 2025.

If Sutter Health is playing like a top-ten hitter's park in the big leagues, then the A's have the bats to hang with a decent amount of clubs, but when they face good pitching, they may run into a whole bunch of trouble. The biggest question the A's face as a whole will be the performance of their starting rotation this season.

For decades, the A's have been able to rely on the friendly confines of the Oakland Coliseum--from the foul territory to the Bay's breeze and the high sky that made no pop-ups routine. Removing those factors from the team's home venue are already going to impact the pitching staff.

The big question heading into 2025 is whether or not the batter's eye will be a huge factor for the club's fortunes, and if they have the arms to mitigate some of that extra offense. They've made some additions this winter, but perhaps not enough to take that next leap forward.

Figuring out how to build a roster for Sutter Health Park may not be as tricky as constructing one for Coors, but there will certainly be a learning curve to getting the most out of the players on the roster.