{"id":374353,"date":"2025-12-27T04:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T04:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/374353\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T04:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T04:35:07","slug":"athletics-open-to-higher-payroll-extension-with-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/374353\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletics Open To Higher Payroll, Extension With GM"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletics were financially active last offseason, handing out considerable free-agent deals to \u00a0Luis Severino<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Leclerc<\/a>, while also inking Brent Rooker<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Lawrence Butler<\/a> to extensions. Reports of a potential grievance from the MLB Players Association if the club didn\u2019t boost its CBT number likely spurred some of those moves. This offseason doesn\u2019t have the same MLBPA considerations, but spending could still continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you [payroll] is going to be higher,\u201d owner John Fisher told Evan Drellich of The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s something that we\u2019re continuing to work on internally. At the end of the day, our goal is to put the greatest team on the field that we can, and payroll is an important part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher took a step toward that promise on Christmas Day, when the club locked up\u00a0Tyler Soderstrom<\/a> on a seven-year, $86MM extension. The 24-year-old outfielder will now be under team control through his age-31 season. With Shea Langeliers<\/a> just entering arbitration, and Jacob Wilson<\/a> and Nick Kurtz<\/a> still in the pre-arbitration phase, the Athletics have their hitting core in place for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

The Athletics barely topped $50MM in payroll in 2022, per RosterResource<\/a>. That number crept up to $59MM in 2023, and then $63MM in 2024. Last year\u2019s $79MM mark pales in comparison to most other teams around the league, but it continued an upward trend for the franchise. The Athletics\u2019 estimated mark is currently $99MM for 2026.<\/p>\n

While not all of the spending worked out (Leclerc missed most of the season with injury, Severino struggled mightily at home), the Athletics did put together one of their better seasons this decade. The club finished 76-86, reaching 70 wins for the first time since 2021. They closed the season with a 35-29 stretch. Kurtz cruised to AL Rookie of the Year honors. Langeliers put together a massive offensive season. Denzel Clarke<\/a> was an ESPN Top 10 regular with his work in center field. \u201cIt was everything that we could have hoped it would be and more,\u201d Fisher said of the 2025 results.<\/p>\n

The current architect of the roster is only under contract through 2026, but that could change soon. Fisher said the club is in extension talks with general manager David Forst. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the work that he\u2019s done, and how well we work together, and we\u2019re continuing to have conversations about the future, and those conversations are ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forst\u2019s previous contract ran out at the end of the 2025 campaign. Reports emerged<\/a> shortly after the season ended that he\u2019d be back for 2026, though the details of a new deal weren\u2019t made available. Fisher\u2019s comments suggest the sides are working on something that goes beyond next season.<\/p>\n

Forst has been with the organization for 25 years. He first came on board as a scout in 2000. Forst took over as GM in 2022, with legendary executive Billy Beane serving in an advisory role. He\u2019s had to navigate an extended rebuild, a city change, and home games in a minor league stadium. Despite the challenges, Forst has the team trending in the right direction. The recent extensions and the general willingness toward increased spending should give the club a shot to reach the postseason for the first time since the shortened 2020 season.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of D. Ross Cameron, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletics were financially active last offseason, handing out considerable free-agent deals to \u00a0Luis Severino\u00a0and\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Leclerc, while also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,202190,591,85],"class_list":["post-374353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-david-forst","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}