The Athletics haven’t been identified for spending in free company.
A brief transfer to Sacramento, and a minor league ballpark, pushed not less than one free agent away and greater than half of the gamers polled by The Athletic mentioned the A’s even have a nasty repute. As such, little was anticipated from the membership within the offseason.
As an alternative, the A’s landed a shocking free agent.
Jeff Passan from ESPN reported that the A’s have signed pitcher Luis Severino to a three-year, $67 million contract. The deal consists of an opt-out after the second season. That is the biggest free agent contract in A’s franchise historical past, surpassing the three-year, $30 million deal given to Billy Butler in 2015.
After a depressing and harm plagued 2023 season, Severino signed a one-year cope with the Mets in an try and rebuild his worth. He proved to be a discount, posting a 3.91 ERA and a 1.242 WHIP over his 182 innings, hanging out 161 batters with 60 walks. Though he didn’t pitch at fairly the identical stage as he had with the Yankees, Severino was a strong center of the rotation arm.
Severino will now step in because the workers ace for the rebuilding Athletics. Whereas J.P. Sears, Joey Estes and J.T. Ginn confirmed promise, common supervisor David Forst mentioned pitching could be one of many A’s focal factors in free company. The expectation was that the A’s would goal pitchers corresponding to Walker Buehler, who’re taking a look at a brief time period contract to show themselves.
Signing Severino partially fulfills one promise the A’s had made. Bob Nightengale from USA Immediately reported that the A’s deliberate to extend their payroll to not less than $100 million, a franchise document. Severino may very well be the start of a surprisingly lively offseason in Sacramento.
