Important Dates For The A’s This Offseason

Congrats to the Los Angeles Dodgers on their second straight World Series win! It’s a rare achievement in the history of baseball, a feat that only a few franchises have accomplished. Over the past 70 years it’s happened just six times (one of which was the Athletics’ three-peat in the early 70’s). Well, seven now.

Now that the season is officially over the offseason can get going. For the A’s, that means the start of what could be a relatively quiet winter. The club only has two impending free agents (relievers Jose Leclerc and Sean Newcomb) and a mild arbitration class. The A’s might have a bit of wiggle room in the budget but don’t expect the club to be playing at the top of the market at any position.

November 2nd (tonight): Gold Glove winners announced

The A’s have two finalists for the Gold Glove Award. Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom is one of three finalists in left field, an incredible achievement considering he started this year as the regular first baseman and had never played left field before. While he likely won’t win the award, it’s still a testament to his hard work learning a new position on the grass.

The other nominee on the A’s is veteran right-hander Luis Severino. Again, not exactly the overwhelming favorite but Gold Gloves for pitchers always seemed to be a bit more random than other positions so you never know!

November 6th: Free agency opens

The Athletics do technically have five days after the conclusion of the World Series to negotiate exclusively with their own impending free agents but the Athletics don’t have any to consider outside of Leclerc and Newcomb. The club will likely let both hit the open market though never say never in regards to a reunion, especially with the state of the Athletics’ bullpen. Trades are allowed to begin immediately, but it’s unheard of for trades to come together that quickly after the conclusion of the World Series.

Now, while other teams have to deal with picking up/rejecting contract options, issue Qualifying Offers to impending free agents, and for players to decide if they want to opt out of their contracts, the Athletics don’t have to deal with any of that this winter. The focus is on the players already in the fold.

November 7th: American League Silver Sluggers announced

The A’s have three nominees for Silver Sluggers this year, but only one is expected to bring home the hardware. Shea Langeliers and Brent Rooker were both nominated at their respective positions of catcher and DH, but it’s first baseman Nick Kurtz who is expected to win the award at his position. And that’s not the only award he’s going to be getting this offseason…

November 10th: American League Rookie of the Year announced

It’s more or less obvious at this point that Kurtz is going to get the award in a landslide. And deservedly so, after his epic and historic rookie season that has A’s fans salivating at the thought of having him for a full season next year. The real question on this Monday will be if teammate Jacob Wilson comes in second place. Wilson was the early-season favorite before the arrival of his teammate and a broken bone in his hand cost him all momentum, but he still had a fantastic year overall and having two players finish in the top-2 in voting is always fun.

November 18th: 40-man rosters must be set in advance of Rule 5 Draft

The A’s will need to place players they want to protect from the Rule 5 Draft on the 40-man roster by the 18th or else they’ll be eligible to be drafted by another organization. The A’s have been active on selecting players with their pick in the drafts so they’ll likely want to keep one spot open for that selection, but they have a couple names they might want to protect themselves, the most obvious ones being #4 prospect pitcher Braden Nett and catcher Daniel Susac (#11). Those two are near-locks to be placed on the 40-man roster, though there could be another one or two prospects the A’s like a lot and choose to protect.

November 21st: Non-tender deadline

The A’s have a smaller than average arbitration class this winter even after graduating lots of promising young players over the past couple of years:

Starting catcher Shea Langeliers only projects to get a raise to around $3 million, which is a steal for the production that he provides for the club behind the plate and in the lineup. He’s not going anywhere.

The others are less certain to be tendered contracts. Fellow backstop Austin Wynns had his moments for the A’s in his brief 22 game stint but is also about to turn 35. He’s projected to earn roughly $2.2 million, which in a vacuum isn’t much and is likely what the veteran is worth. That said, the A’s are penny-pinchers and have former 1st-round pick Daniel Susac, who just spent the entire year in Triple-A and looked solid. Maybe the club elects to get younger behind the plate?

As for JJ Bleday, who really knows? The former 4th-overall pick looked great in the Green & Gold in 2024 but fell off a massive cliff this past season, so much so that he was demoted to the minors while rookie Denzel Clarke took over in center field. He’s only projected to get $1 million in his first time through arbitration and the club will likely issue that contract because he’s only 28 and has seemingly untapped potential. But the Athletics outfield doesn’t seem to have a spot for Bleday anymore and a trade for a change of scenery seems like the best outcome for all parties.

In regards to Ken Waldichuk, it’s now been four years in the Athletics organization and the prized return piece in the Frankie Montas trade hasn’t done much of anything for the big league club. There have been flashes of potential, sure, but there has been a lot more negatives than positives in his time with the organization. The Athletics’ desperation for pitching and the fact it’ll cost less than $1 million to bring him back make it seem likely he’ll be tendered a contract, but this is a make-or-break year for the oft-injured 28-year-old, who does have options remaining and can start 2026 in the minors.

With Luis Medina, it feels more straightforward to offer him a contract. The right-hander spent all of this season recovering from August 2024 Tommy John surgery and should be a full-go for Spring Training in a few months. Unlike Waldichuk he’s out of options so he’s more or less guaranteed a spot on the Opening Day roster if he is eventually tendered a contract, which projects to be less than $1 million as well. Again, the A’s are a team desperate for high-ceiling pitching and Medina offers that, and the price to roll the dice on him is eminently affordable even for the A’s.

Another aspect of the non-tender deadline is that lots of other teams will be non-tendering players that could be of interest to the Athletics. And it looks like there will be plenty of intriguing names that could be fits for the A’s. The team is reportedly interested in 2B/3B options as well as the never-ending search for more relief pitching so keep an eye on those two positions and see who hits free agency later this month.

December 9th: MLB Draft Lottery

The A’s have gotten the short end of the stick from the new lottery system and it’s hurt the rebuilding effort. That luck has got to turn around at some point though. The club currently has the 5th-best odds to win the first overall pick, but with just a 6.55% chance don’t hold your breath. The club could get lucky and rise higher than their projected #5 spot however. We’ll just have to cross our fingers here.

December 10th: Rule 5 Draft

This is when we should be getting at least one new addition to the team. The A’s have been active in selecting players in the Rule 5 Draft, which is based off reverse-standings order. That means the A’s will likely pick between 8th and 9th, though the final order hasn’t been officially announced yet. Last year the A’s took right-hander Noah Murdock but that experiment didn’t last long and he was returned to the Yankees. Maybe better luck this year and we strike on the next Mark Canha.

January 9th: Arbitration filing deadline

By this date hopefully the A’s will have sorted through all their arbitration eligible players and already have their contracts set, but if not then both sides will offer their expected salaries for the coming season. The only one I’d be concerned about would be Langeliers, because he’s definitely worth more than the $3 million he’s projected to earn. The A’s would be wise to get ahead of this now and figure out a contract for not only next year but also the remaining years of eligibility he has, and maybe even a free agent year or two.

After the filings, the process takes about a month for everything to get sorted. And by that point we’re only a few days away from camp, which begins…

Around February 10th or 11th: Pitchers and Catchers report

The true mark of the beginning of the season is when we start reassembling the guys. The official date hasn’t yet been announced as it’s different for every team, but mid-February is when the ice of winter begins to thaw and the boys of summer get ready to play ball again.

Important Dates For The A’s This Offseason

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