A’s Khrush one out of park with Davis deal
The A’s are an organization that is defined by missteps, but on Thursday, they took a significant step in the right direction.
Signing a star slugger like Khris Davis to a two-year extension wouldn’t be groundbreaking news for most teams. It’d be a big deal, of course, but it wouldn’t stand so starkly in the face of organizational convention.
That’s because other teams do their best to not let their best players walk away as free agents. The A’s, on the other hand, have shown their best players the door time and time again.
But the 31-year- old Davis — who is arguably the best home-run hitter in the game, having hit 143 since the start of the 2016 season — will not be joining that star-studded list of former A’s who left for greener pastures in their career primes. His two-year, $33.5 million deal, announced Thursday, should extend his A’s tenure until 2021.
While the organization still has a long way to go in the area of star retention, and the signing of Davis to a two-year deal doesn’t erase decades of history and missed opportunity, Thursday’s effort should be noted and appreciated by East Bay baseball fans.
This is exactly the kind of deal the A’s needed right now. It augments the organization’s argument that things have really changed in Oakland.
The A’s — now masters of social media marketing under president Dave Kaval’s leadership — were quick to promote Davis’ signing as “KD commits to Oakland”.
( Me, being in Los Angeles for the Warriors- Clippers playoff series, immediately thought that it was a cheeky shot at Kevin Durant — being around this Golden State team is warping my mind...)
There’s no doubt that the bashful basher wanted to stay in the East Bay. While it’s close to impossible to make an accurate prediction on what Davis could have made as a free agent — such is the peculiar state of Major League Baseball at the moment — it’s reasonable to believe that he could have made more than the $16.75 million average he’ll make on the two years of his extension. It’s a marginal increase over what he’s already making as an arbitration- eligible player.
The A’s received a hometown discount. But it’d also be fair to say that prior version of this organization wouldn’t have taken advantage of an opportunity like this — such was their penchant for penny-pinching. It can’t stop with Davis, though. The A’s have the talent to, in theory, contend for the next half- decade. But it should be noted that Davis’ deal does not run that long. The main reason why is his age. The slugger’s torrid run can’t last forever and the A’s are being careful to not overextend in their first serious foray into star retention in years.
But there’s also the issue of the ballpark. You can’t talk about the A’s longterm future without mentioning this fundamental aspect.
The A’s are still steadfast that they will have a new ballpark — one that will allow the team to act like the big market team Major League Baseball has deemed them to be and increase payroll — by 2023.
That’s an important year, as it’s the final year of Matt Chapman’s rookie deal.
The A’s have already tried to buy out Chapman’s arbitration years and extend him beyond 2023 — he’s unquestionably a franchise-altering talent worthy of a team-record deal — but his agent, Scott Boras, was uninterested in such an idea. It’s good that the A’s tried, but Boras’ denial is fair. Such deals have been a trend around baseball as of late, and they are preposterously team-friendly — perhaps even more team-friendly than Davis’ contract.
A lot can happen between now and 2023 on the field, but it’s looking more and more like the A’s are going to need that new stadium to keep Chapman in green and gold.
But with the Howard Terminal ballpark — Plan B — seemingly like more and more like a long shot to be built every day, the future of this organization is pushed more and more into question.
Can the A’s afford to push back opening day of a new ballpark? If Howard Terminal falls through, is a new park on the Coliseum grounds capable of bringing in enough revenue to make keeping a player like Chapman possible? If two different stadium plans fail, will Kaval still have his job?
I hate to take the shine away from the Davis deal — I really do — but the big issue was unavoidable.
This tremendous Davis deal buys the A’s front office some time and deserved goodwill, but something bigger needs to be done in the coming weeks and months.
Davis committed to Oakland, and that’s fantastic. But the A’s need to up their commitment to getting a shovel in the ground ASAP, as to hit that 2023 deadline, or this noteworthy day will be quickly forgotten amid a new wave of business as usual.