What exactly is going on with the Athletics after leaving Oakland?

If there is one franchise that has undergone a transformation this season, it is the Athletics.

No, these aren't your father's Oakland A's. In fact, they aren't anyone's Oakland A's as the team will begin the next chapter of its vagabond journey in Sacramento in 2025. Playing in a stadium already inhabited by a Triple-A team (and with a capacity of 14,014), the A's won't have Sacramento attached to their name, per MLB guidelines, as the franchise hopes it is a three-year temporary stop on its way to Las Vegas.

But it isn't just the branding that is changing for the A's. This team is also spending money, something that was rarely done in recent years as it finished out its time in the East Bay.

Luis Severino has already come on board with the A's thanks to a three-year, $67 million deal he signed earlier this offseason. That's the largest contract the A's have ever handed out, and Severino admitted that it was signed after he asked plenty of questions about the team's immediate future.

Joining Severino is Gio Urshela, who signed a one-year deal and is expected to spend plenty of time at third base in Sacramento, and Jeffrey Springs, acquired in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays. Adding three veterans to the roster speaks to the change that is happening with the A's this offseason.

These contracts are not because of a change of heart on the part of A's owner John Fisher. Part of the reason that money is being handed out to ensure that his franchise will reach around $105 million in payroll, a number that will reportedly keep the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) from filing a grievance against the franchise. There is still work to be done there as Severino ($20 million) and Springs ($10.5 million) are the only two A's above the $10 million line on the team's $35 million current payroll, per Spotrac.

You read that number right ... and that means the A's will be spending more this offseason.

But it isn't just to keep the MLBPA off the franchise's collective back. There is also the need for what the A's will hope to be their future home in Las Vegas to see a reason to spend money on a new stadium that will let the A's join the NFL's Raiders as franchises in Las Vegas that once called Oakland home.

There is, however, concern about whether Las Vegas will be actually be where the A's end up.