Beane factors in new park in shaping roster
Billy Beane finally has a chance to build rosters with a new ballpark in mind.
“I’ve never done it before, so any help would be appreciated,” Beane quipped Monday, a day after his A’s ended their season.
Long after plans to build ballparks in San Jose and Fremont collapsed — not that they ever had any chance of getting built — the A’s say they’ve settled on an Oakland site near Laney College and hope to open a shiny facility in 2023.
According to my smartphone calculator, that’s six years away. As a friendly reminder, no one on the A’s roster six years ago still suits up for this team. Heck, no one on the team from five years ago is still around. Or four years ago. Or three years ago.
Marcus Semien is the longest-tenured A’s player, and he came along in 2015.
So is it premature for the A’s to suggest they’re building a team on the belief a ballpark is coming when it’s so far removed, has a bunch of hurdles and still is little more than a dream? Beane says no. “I think right now we’ve just got to operate that it’s going to happen,” said Beane, the A’s vice president of baseball operations. “The other option is one we’ve done my entire career here, which is a constant churn. “So I’m churned out.” It’s all part of the organization’s newfound optimism. For a team that finished in last place three consecutive years and plays in one of the worst facilities in the majors, the A’s are one enthusiastic bunch.
Can’t blame them. They had a winning record since Independence Day, finished on a 17-7 run and have a core of young, real-deal hitters who are igniting the roster renovation. Furthermore, the new fan-friendly vibe and amenities under President Dave Kaval were refreshing, though they didn’t translate at the box office; only the Tampa Bay Rays had worse attendance.
Beane revealed there has been talk, with a new stadium as the backdrop, of signing young core players to longterm deals. Corner infielders Matt Olson and Matt Chapman would be free agents after the 2023 season, the supposed first one in the new digs.
“When you’re talking about building a club for a stadium that’s six years off, and if you’re talking about locking them up, then you’re looking to have to lock them up for a long time,” Beane said. “So that’s sort of the trick and the balance that we have to address this offseason, if we’re going to embark on that.”
Meantime, revenue sharing continues to dwindle. The collective bargaining agreement calls for the A’s to lose 25 percent of their revenue-sharing checks annually until it’s gone. That’s 2020. That means they’d need to exist a few years without assistance from baseball’s welfare system before moving into a new home, which all enters into the payroll equation.
“It’s part of our internal conversation,” Beane said, “as it relates to revenues and what will happen.”
Also part of the conversation is Beane’s long-desired model, taken from the Cleveland Indians, who built a foundation with gifted young players and signed them long term before their peak years. When the Indians’ facility opened in 1994, they were a solid and sustainable team and sold out regularly.
“I think you have to be very proactive long before a stadium opens,” Beane said. “Listen, you have to get people excited about the product that’s going in a new stadium if you expect them to pay higher prices or even come at all. That’s really important.
“So for me, the model has always been the Indians. No one has done it since then nearly as well. If you wait too long and try to create a team a year before the stadium opens, most of them badly miss the mark, and we’ve got to take advantage of it.”
Like the three other teams with losing records in the American League West, the A’s are trying to catch up with the Houston Astros, who won the division by 21 games. The Angels, Mariners and Rangers are thinking they’ll contend sooner rather than later, so the A’s have no easy road.
The plan is to get it done with the wave of youth, which was underscored during the season when the A’s traded their lone All-Star, first baseman Yonder Alonso, to Seattle. With the future in mind, management wanted to see what Olson could do in a full-time role, and he wound up with 24 homers in just 59 games.
“We’ve got to keep in mind, if we’re going to catch Houston with a young team, we’re going to have to make decisions like that,” Beane said. “There is a gap, there’s no question, and it’s going to be a long haul to catch them.”
The A’s believe they’re on the right path and continue to follow their ballpark dream, even though it’s a long way away.