Kurtenbach

But even with young, cheap, and downright outstanding players on the books, the A’s are not a team that “runs it back”. Yes, they’ll have stars in third baseman Matt Chapman, first baseman Matt Olson, and starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo on next year’s team, but you need other good, reliable everyday players around those tentpole stars to win it all.

And those are exactly the kind of players the A’s could lose this offseason.

Two starting infielders — including Marcus Semien, the third-place finisher for American League MVP in 2019 — will be free agents at the end of this year. Arguably their best offensive player (Robbie Grossman) this season will join them there. Two starting pitchers and three relievers — including perhaps the best closer in baseball (Liam Hendriks) — are now out of contract as well with the season ending.

In theory, the A’s could re-sign all of this talent. But anyone who follows this team knows that will not happen. The truth is that the A’s will be lucky to keep a few of their pending free-agent players in green and gold for another year.

Does Fisher have the money to sign Semien, Hendriks, Grossman, or even Tommy La Stella —

or at the least sign players of a similar price?

Probably, yes. Even with no ticket revenue this season this season and the collapse of his family company, The Gap, the money is somewhere. Check the couch cushions — there’s probably enough money in there to keep a player or two around.

But will Fisher spend the money necessary to give this team one more shot at winning a title?

Probably not.

There’s simply no reason to believe that the A’s ownership won’t play it cheap again this offseason.

If Semien and Hendriks and Grossman — all top-25 free agents this upcoming offseason — leave for bigger paydays, the A’s front office, led by Billy Beane, will do its best to try to replace that talent by tapping into their farm system and bargain-hunting expertise. But no one could reasonably expect those players to be better than the ones

the A’s are losing. There are only a few teams in baseball that could argue that they do more with less than Oakland, but this is probably a bridge too far.

Yes, this season ending prematurely is disappointing, but A’s fans deserved the opportunity to be optimistic about this team going into next season.

Instead, they’ll have to wonder if this season was as good as it will get, knowing that it was nowhere near good enough.