A’s Expect Payroll to Increase, but Face Tough Sell in Sacramento

The A’s are looking to open their wallets—at least somewhat—in their new home market, but will any MLB free agents actually be interested?

Days after the A’s played their final game at the Oakland Coliseum, GM David Forst said the team intends to increase its payroll in 2025, marking a potentially major step after the club ranked last in Major League Baseball this year at $63.4 million. The figure was 26% below the No. 29 team, the Pirates, and solidified the A’s as the league’s lowest-spending team for the second straight year. 

“We do expect our payroll to increase,” Forst said. “We do expect to be active in free agency.”

More than a generation ago, the A’s were a top-spending club and actually led the league in payroll in 1991. But under the current ownership regime led by the embattled and unpopular John Fisher, the club has tightened its spending considerably. A $66 million contract with former third baseman Eric Chavez signed in 2004 remains the largest player deal in franchise history, a figure now just a mere fraction of top MLB player deals that now extend well into nine figures. 

Despite the ambition of the A’s, the 2025 payroll figure will dip before it potentially goes back up, as the team has more than $25 million coming off its books with the expiration of contracts for pending free agents Scott Alexander, Trevor Gott, T.J. McFarland, Ross Stripling, and Alex Wood. The bulk of the A’s roster is made up of younger players still under team control. 

Facility Concerns

Beyond the spending issues—both real and perceived—perhaps the biggest obstacle the A’s will face this offseason will be convincing players to sign up for playing at Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, the team’s home for the next three seasons. The A’s will share the facility with the Triple-A River Cats, the top minor-league affiliate of the Giants, and an artificial turf field will likely be used to help deal with that heavy game schedule. 

That field, however, is expected to exacerbate challenging playing conditions in which Sacramento summers routinely reach triple-digit temperatures. Already, the MLB Players Association is in conversation with the league about mitigating those issues where possible. 

“We do have to sell it,” Forst said of attracting free-agent players to play in a minor league facility. “I’d be lying if I told you I knew what the answers were going to be on the other side, once we start that process.”

That said, the A’s were two games above .500 in the final three months of the 2024 season and finished fourth in the AL West, ahead of the struggling Angels. 

“I do have an outstanding manager [Mark Kotsay] to play for, and we have a really good team, an improving team on the field that I would hope players want to be a part of,” Forst said. “We’re going to have the sell the situation and the ballpark as much as we can.”