The Athletics are no longer in Oakland. That is an indisputable fact of life now. Instead, they reside, temporarily, in California’s state capital of Sacramento.
Why? Well, greed and incompetence are the two words that come to mind.
The number of words that have been poured out over the past several years regarding the ineptitude of the Athletics in regard to their handling of the stadium situation in Oakland and the subsequent relocation to Las Vegas, with a stop in Sacramento in between, has been otherworldly.
Many baseball writers have commented on how John Fisher, the owner of the team, has made countless blunders throughout the process of attempting to get his franchise a new ballpark. From the numerous bids at securing a new home in Oakland to the ragtag process of building a new stadium in Nevada, the errors have been insane. It’s truly been a masterclass in making a fanbase distant and ticked off.
What truly makes baseball great, at least in my opinion, is the fans. There is no other sport in North America that has more passionate and loyal fans than baseball. And in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Giants and Athletics competed for dominance for 55 years, that was especially true. It was during that span of time, with them being located just across the water, that we all were privileged enough to witness countless fantastic contests—most notably the 1989 World Series—where both squads gave it their all to show the world that they were the best in the bay.
Unfortunately, we will not all be privy to those types of matchups any longer, all because of the move away from Oakland. And while Sacramento is a lovely place, it’s not home. Home is in Oakland, yet the A’s have still decided to stray.
Instead of the subpar confines of the Oakland Coliseum, the A’s now play at Sutter Health Park, a minor league stadium that’s been home to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats since 2000. Usually, the summer at Sutter Health Park would be controlled by the River Cats. But in 2025, and presumably until the end of 2027, the baseball season will be co-opted alongside the A’s.
There are pros and cons to this arrangement. On the positive side, there are few places in the country where you can watch MLB players as closely as you can at an A’s game. With a small seating capacity of just 14,000, there’s not a bad seat in the house. It’s rare to be able to watch a Major League Baseball game and actually be able to read the letters on the back of the uniforms.
In my opinion, though, that’s about it. The negatives severely outweigh the positives in this case. Never, and I mean never, should an MLB franchise be playing its entire season in a stadium as, to put it bluntly, minor league as Sutter Health Park is. To put everything in perspective, when the Athletics announced that they’d be transitioning temporarily to Sacramento, Sutter Health Park had to be completely retrofitted to adapt to the MLB landscape. The dugouts had to be expanded, new light poles had to be put up, and a brand-new two-story clubhouse for the Athletics had to be constructed. If all of that had to be done to accomplish the goal of making a place worthy (and it hardly is) of Major League Baseball, then I’d argue that it wasn’t fit for it in the first place.
Regardless, that’s the location where they find themselves, and the players and coaches, as bad a hand as they’ve been dealt, have been trying to make the most of it. And while they haven’t been winning a ton of games—they’re 16 games under .500 right now and in last place in the AL West—the Athletics are still delivering entertaining baseball for the masses.
Of all the baseball games that I’ve been to in my life, yesterday’s tilt between the Cleveland Guardians and the A’s was one of the more interesting I’ve ever witnessed. Not necessarily because of the action on the field, but because of the fascinating atmosphere that we, the fans, players, and coaches, all found ourselves in.
For the fans, I’ve already explained why it’s so revolutionary. The big-league players that we all know and love are right in front of us. There’s no possible way that they could be any closer.
For the players, competing in front of a small crowd in a tight environment must feel surreal. A lot of the players on the A’s roster are relative newcomers to MLB, with one making his debut in yesterday’s contest. It must be such a downer to get called up and still have to compete in a minor league stadium. I’m sure the pay raise they get all but makes up for that disappointment, though.
Finally, the coaches on the A’s have the difficult task of guiding a roster that’s frankly not good enough in the right direction. Manager Mark Kotsay had to know that when he took the job in 2022, being the head man for the Athletics wouldn’t be easy sailing. With the ownership and stadium situations, alongside a roster rebuild that’s been a slow burn, his job was always going to be difficult. Now he’s coaching a team that’s not even in a big-league ballpark. That’s got to be depressing.
It’s a miracle that with all that adversity, a good baseball product was put on the field yesterday. We were graced with two great pitching performances by both teams: the Guardians with Slade Cecconi, and the A’s with JP Sears.
The first inning went by like a breeze, with each starting pitcher allowing just a single base hit in each half of the frame. It was in the second where the runs started coming, as Sears began to lose the mojo that he’d developed. After he struck out Kyle Manzardo, he walked Angel Martinez, who subsequently stole second. Gabriel Arias, who was just one of many players on the Guardians who could be classified as nondescript, then singled Martinez home with a sharp line drive to left. That then brought up Nolan Jones, a player Cleveland developed, then traded to the Rockies, and then acquired back from Colorado late this past offseason. He shot a hot liner past first baseman Nick Kurtz and into the right field corner, scoring Arias and doubling the score to make it 2-0.
Those two tallies, alongside the additional run that Cleveland scored in the top of the fifth off an RBI single by 2024 All-Star David Fry, were plenty enough to take care of the reeling A’s. You see, coming into yesterday’s contest, the Athletics were in the dumpster. Not just in the sense that the organization is in the process of an ill-designed relocation, but also in the standings.
On paper, the roster that the A’s have is good enough to at least compete for third place in the AL West. Players like Jacob Wilson, Brent Rooker, Lawrence Butler, and Nick Kurtz are plenty good enough to propel an offense to at least close to .500. Still, four people can’t make a baseball team, and a lackluster bottom of the order paired with a suboptimal pitching staff equals unsatisfactory results. So, when the pitching finally has a decent day like it did yesterday—the combination of Sears, Tyler Ferguson, and rookie Jack Perkins combined to allow just three runs on eight hits with nine strikeouts and two walks—then the offense has to take advantage. Unfortunately for the A’s, it did not.
Before the bottom of the ninth, the home team didn’t have many chances to put runs on the board. Cecconi was fantastic for Cleveland, throwing seven innings of shutout baseball. His performance allowed manager, and former Athletic, Steven Vogt, to turn to a bullpen that’s been sizzling since the start of last season. He sent out Cade Smith to pitch the eighth, and after he got the first two outs but was having trouble getting the last, Vogt turned to lefty hurler Tim Herrin to take care of Kurtz with two on. He did, and it was on to the ninth.
Vogt handed the ball to Emmanuel Clase to try to achieve the win. The fireball closer has been a staple of the backend of the bullpen for Cleveland ever since he was traded to the Guardians by the Texas Rangers back in 2020 for Corey Kluber. Of all the trades that have been lopsided in my life, it’s the Clase-Kluber deal that stings the most, as Clase has gone on to be one of the best relievers in baseball, and Kluber pitched one measly inning in a Rangers uniform before exiting because of an injury that sidelined him for the entire season.
Anyway, Clase was on to finish it out, and he was in luck! The bottom of the A’s order was coming to bat, and let’s just say that besides Tyler Soderstrom, there aren’t many formidable foes in that part of the lineup. All it would take was some calm pitching, and the Guardians would leave Sacramento with a win.
Luis Urías led off the frame and flew out to center field. Soderstrom, who’d had a good day at the plate with a base hit earlier in the day, then singled to right. A matchup with Gio Urshela was next for Clase, and Urshela won, as Clase couldn’t locate his slider—he bounced two of them in the dirt—and walked him.
Just like that, the tying run was at the plate in the form of pinch hitter JJ Bleday. On the second pitch of the at-bat, Clase executed his best pitch, his cutter, perfectly. He threw it right on the hands of the lefty Bleday at 99.8 MPH and got the result he wanted: a broken bat. But the ball was hit into no-man ’s-land, and neither Clase nor third baseman Jose Ramirez could get it in time to throw Bleday out at first. After a single, a walk, and a bloop hit single that had an exit velocity of 31.6 MPH, the A’s had the bases loaded with just one out.
Mark Kotsay continued to empty his bench, pinch-hitting Max Muncy (the other one) to try and produce some magic. Muncy has not had a great season, and that showed in his at-bat against Clase, where he appeared overmatched. Clase threw three consecutive cutters that Muncy hacked at and missed each time. Two outs.
A battle with leadoff hitter Lawrence Butler was next. Clase continued to rely on his cutter, trying to jam the pesky Butler. With the count even at 2-2 and the crowd on its feet and the loudest it’d been all afternoon, Butler hit a weak ground ball to second base that he just couldn’t leg out. Despite a valiant effort against one of the best pitchers in the sport, the A’s had fallen just short and had lost their 48th game of the season, 3-0.
Austin Hedges played yesterday, which is meaningless to most people, but not to me.
Hedges was a member of the 2023 Texas Rangers that won the World Series. Member might actually be a strong word. He was certainly there, but the contributions he made were slim. In fact, his ability to make an impact, specifically at the plate, has been lacking for his entire career.
He’s one of the worst hitters in baseball. For his career, he has a .184/.242/.313 (.556 OPS) slash line and a career OPS+ of just 52. But what he doesn’t bring as a hitter, he definitely provides as a defender. If you desire a fantastic defensive catcher who’s going to call a good game and steal some pitches for strikes via some spectacular framing, then Hedges is your man. And if you also want some great vibes in the clubhouse, then Hedges will also supply that as well.
It was that combination of great defense and good vibes that made him an attractive player to the Rangers in 2023. And while he didn’t even play that often down the stretch run of that championship season—he only had 24 at-bats with Texas in 2023—the positive energy he brought to the team was undoubtedly worth every penny the team paid him.
You don’t want him up in a big spot, though. So, when he came up to bat in the bottom of the ninth of Game 1 of the 2023 World Series with two on and two out, not a lot was going to happen. I mean, just look at this at-bat. It’s pitiful!
Despite all the negatives, the positives continue to allow Hedges to be employed by MLB franchises, with the Guardians being the latest team to attract his services. There’s no doubt that he had an impact on the game yesterday with the pitching performance of Cecconi. Hedges has always been a great caller of pitches, and that showed with how well Cleveland was able to keep the A’s off balance.
But at the plate, it was, well, funny.
Every time he came up to bat, I got excited. All I wanted was for Austin Hedges to get a big hit. Alas, it was not to be. Here’s the ending of his first time up to hit:
And the second:
He grounded out and flied out in his third and fourth plate appearances, which I guess is progress. But that doesn’t matter. The point is this: Hedges is a great catcher, a terrible hitter, and just a fun dude to watch play. It was a privilege to grace his presence yesterday.
The A’s are now 32-48 and in last place in the AL West, 14 games behind the first-place Houston Astros. Time will tell if the A’s can turn it around and find some semblance of hope heading into 2026, but at the moment, I’d call this campaign a disappointment.
Everybody within the A’s organization is searching for the right next step as they move toward Las Vegas. If this is the product that they’re going to be putting out by the time they arrive in Nevada, and it most certainly will not be, then that’s trouble. Some winning is going to have to happen at some point. Unfortunately, it appears that that’s going to have to wait at least another season.
Overall, I enjoyed my time in Sacramento watching the Athletics. Despite all the adversity, the players on the field are still attempting to give it their best effort. While that’s all well and good, it still doesn’t mask the fact that this is a franchise that’s playing in the wrong place. Sacramento, or Las Vegas, is not where this team is meant to be, and everybody except A’s ownership knows that. It’s Oakland that is home. Maybe one day the prodigal son will return, but I wouldn’t count on it. For the sake of the fanbase and the city, however, let’s hope and pray that that miracle comes to fruition.