Here is the third and final part of the Oakland Athletics series and there is a lot of ground left to cover before reaching a final product. Last part focused mainly on the immediate future and what that looks like for the A’s. This part is going to have a long-term approach and will cover more ground as it is harder to get specific with moves as time goes on. Therefore expect moves to be more general, but exact names for guys who will be part of the final team will continue, so make sure to read the whole thing to see how we arrived at the final roster I present at the end.
First let’s quickly recap some things that have gone on with the A’s since I last wrote. After going 3-14 to start the year, the A’s have somewhat improved by going 5-14 over their last 19 giving them a total record of 8-28. May not seem like much improvement, but the ingredients making the recipe have at least taken a much more competitive step. Brent Rooker officially cemented himself as part of the rebuild long term by earning AL player of the week honors for the final week of April as he continues to be drinking a different water than the rest of the A’s lineup as he crushed five homers and added 11 more RBI’s to his season total over the course of the week. In the last edition I talked about how he may be having an out of character start, but he has made me shut up by improving his numbers since I made that suggestion. He now is hitting .319 with an OPS of 1.122, 10 home runs and 26 RBI. I apologize to Mr. Rooker and welcome him to the next great A’s team.
Ryan Noda also made some headway in terms making a bid for the final roster but it seems too unrealistic that both him and Rooker maintain their hot hitting for multiple seasons. I am willing to be wrong again, but unfortunately for Noda the time for impressions is done and Rooker has hit at a level that can’t be ignored. I do have to acknowledge his tremendous start to the year which has resulted in an .857 OPS. What Noda has done is solidify himself as another possible trade candidate for any time between this year and next most likely. It’d be intriguing to see what he packaged with a veteran like Tony Kemp could bring back to the A’s. Kemp is someone I haven’t touched on much. Mainly because his skill set is more that of a utility piece than every day starter. Similar to Aledmys Diaz though, who I talked about as a trade piece in the last entry, if Kemp was packaged with another player it could be something teams are willing to give up a piece for. I’ll get back to what that may look like in a little bit.
The last thing to touch on is the A’s pitching. It has not made a miraculous jump from historically bad to historically good, or even historically average. It has however at least had more signs of upside. In large part due to Mason Miller be called up to the majors. This almost seemed like a move that needed to be made out of necessity after the staff was in such disarray to start the year. But it would also be hard to argue that Miller wasn’t ready. He was averaging over 16 K/9 over his time in the minors this year. That’s unimaginable. When I found that out, and then saw him feature a 100+ MPH fastball, along with a cutter and slider, I was sold that this guy is going to be the team’s ace in the future (as long as he stays healthy, so finger-crossed). Miller had somewhat mixed results over his first couple of starts before dealing 7 no-hit innings against Seattle. Of course the A’s bullpen lost the no-hitter and they lost, but that doesn’t negate the electric promise Miller possess’.
Kyle Muller, JP Sears and Ken Waldichuk have all had outings that have showed improvement in the recent weeks, but still not the consistency you’d like to see from guys that will be part of the rotation for multiple seasons. Luis Medina also made his MLB debut, but struggled. However, I do think he showed enough electricity in his stuff that he could be a solid bullpen option for the A’s going forward. This leads me to Fujinami. When I talked about him in the last piece I mentioned that it was hard to predict what was going to happen to him given his age, contract and early season control problems. I suggested a move to the bullpen may serve him best. Well that’s exactly what the A’s did, and it looked really good. The inning I got to catch live he threw against the Mariners and recorded a perfect inning with two strikeouts. He showed much better control of his fastball, and regularly threw it between 97 and 99 MPH. It takes a fool to make predictions based off one inning of baseball, but given the improved control and velocity, mixed with his movement on his splitter and slider, I think he could be a legitimate reliever. My own stubbornness certainly looms large in this decision, but since it’s my rebuild I’m going to include Fujinami in the bullpen for the final roster.
Now that I’ve recapped what’s going on with the current team and how they impacted the decisions of the rebuild going forward, let’s get into who we got so far for our future A’s, then we’ll continue the journey. On the current team there is: Esteury Ruiz, Brent Rocker, Mason Miller, Shintaro Fujinami, Shea Langeliers and Luis Medina. I’m also anticipating that Tyler Soderstrom and Zack Gelof will make their MLB debuts and be part of the final team. I also had Ramon Laureano being flipped to Baltimore for the Orioles current #44 prospect, 20 year-old right-hander, Juan De Los Santos, who will be a reliever on the final team. Finally I had the A’s sign four veteran pitchers in the off-season, two of which will be part of the final roster and two of which will be traded for additional pieces. The four pitchers were: Michael Lorenzen, Hyun-Jin Ryu, German Marquez and Jordan Montgomery. I envision Marquez ending up in the final bullpen and Montgomery in the rotation, while Ryu and Lorenzen will be traded during either the 2024 or 2025 seasons. This means going into the 2024 season eleven of the final 26 man roster has been put into place.
So how are the other fifteen acquired? That’s a harder question to answer, but I will do my best to identify the possibilities. The easiest ones to identify are the ones that are going to come from in house. Of the A’s top prospects that are projected to debut in 2024 I’ve picked Lawrence Butler and Denzel Clarke as the ones that make the final roster. From simply a tools perspective these may be the two most exciting prospects in the A’s system. Both have the athleticism and arm strength to be elite defenders as corner outfielders, with Clarke potentially being an everyday center fielder, but I already have Ruiz penciled into that spot. The duo also projects as possible 20+ home run candidates. An outfield of Butler, Clarke and Ruiz could be an elite defensive group. Not to mention all three could regularly steal 25-30 bases at the big league level.
2025 will be the final year of in-system players that will make the final roster, as I believe their prospects projected to debut 2026 and beyond will be flipped for talent that is more established, as I’m envisioning a competitive big league roster at that point (De Los Santos could be considered the exception as he is expected to debut in 2026, but since I’m already using him as my player that develops beyond projection, who’s it going to hurt if we say he makes his debut earlier). The prospects that are projected to debut in 2025 and will be on the final team are: Daniel Susac, Luis Morales, Max Muncy, Colby Thomas and Jacob Watters. Susac will either end up the back-up or share catching duties with Langeliers. Morales is going to end up in the rotation. He features an electric fastball that can hit the high 90s while also throwing a changeup, curveball and slider. The development of his secondary pitches will be key, but his stuff could give the A’s an electric 1-2 punch between him and Mason Miller. To prevent over projecting I’m going to have Morales as more of a 3 or 4 starter by the time the team hits its stride, but he could certainly hit a higher ceiling as time goes on.
Muncy could be the everyday shortstop for the A’s down the line. It’s the role he’s going to fill in my vision. In many ways he reminds me of the Padres shortstop when I first began watching them, Khalil Greene. Muncy has good pop at the plate and plays the game with a lot of aggression and passion. Almost too much so at times and that’s something he’ll have to start to control. His 19 homers and 50 extra-base-hits over 123 games between both high and low-A last year were impressive, as is his ability to hit to all fields. I am going to point out he does have the exact same name as Dodgers infielder, Max Muncy, who ironically also came up through the A’s system.
Thomas I have some bias towards because his first name is the same as my younger brother’s, and his last name is my middle name. So that’s interesting. Personal parallel’s aside, Thomas has lots of upside as an outfielder. Like Burke and Butler he his a great mix of athleticism and arm strength. He also hit 17 homers in his final college campaign which consisted of just 42 games. The concern is that he had his season ended early by a shoulder injury, which of course triggers the injury concerns. As long as this serves as simply a temporary setback rather than the start of a trend, Thomas is going to be an interesting prospect to watch, and for this rebuild is going to be the fourth outfielder on the team, although if he maximizes his potential he’ll eventually have an even bigger role.
Watters in a fun prospect and a big presence on the mound. He is another guy with a high 90s fastball and he pairs it with a big breaking curveball. The development of his changeup will be the thing that will likely decide whether he’s destined for the rotation or the bullpen. I’m envisioning him as primarily a long-reliever who can work into the rotation for stretches of spot-start/open games.
This leaves eight spots left to fill. For the sake of eveness I’m going to have four acquired via free agency, and four via trade. Anticipating a minimal jump between 2023 and 2024, leaves the A’s as sellers at the 2024 trade deadline. Trade candidates include: Ryu; signed in last off-season, Lorenzen; signed in last off-season, Noda; already on the team and Tony Kemp; already on the team. Prospects who are projected to debut with the A’s that I haven’t selected as part of the final roster will in all likelihood be traded at some point, but there are too many prospects who don’t make the cut to list them all. Assuming the A’s flip at least two of these players and possibly a couple of prospects they are willing to move off of they could end up with two more players who shape our final roster. Again, the possibilities are almost limitless, but two teams that would be interesting are the Arizona Diamondbacks and Pittsburgh Pirates. Both teams have young cores that have taken substantial steps forward in the early part of 2023, so assuming they’ll be looking to add pieces to push for the postseason in 2024 is not far-fetched.
Like in the last part where Laureano was traded, there isn’t any asset the A’s have that will yield a huge return, but at least there is a deeper selection of options, which is why this time the A’s end up with two guys as opposed to one. From the Pirates the A’s end up with Liover Peguero. This would be a heck of a get if the A’s pull it off as Peguero is currently the number six prospect in the Pirates system. They already have O’neill Cruz in the big leagues and Nick Gonzales, another middle infielder, ranked ahead of Peguero. Due to Muncy already being in the system the A’s will likely have to move Peguero to second base, but would have great athleticism in the middle infield and outfield.
From Arizona the A’s could get someone like Blaze Alexander. He currently sits number nine on the list of Arizona’s top prospects and would likely be the teams reserve infielder. In the next off-season I envision the A’s adding another starter and probably a veteran outfielder. A left-handed hitting option that makes sense is Max Kepler. This would allow the young players to take the starting roles while having a serviceable veteran that can fill in due to injury or during a down period offensively. Pitching wise is a little more complicated because it typically comes with the hefty price-tag that the A’s aren’t willing to shop for. But an interesting option would be Zach Wheeler. Wheeler has been great over the past few seasons, but will be 34 by the time 2025 free agency comes around, and I don’t think I have to again talk about the A’s history with veteran pitchers.
With the trades, debuts and signings that have changed the team over the past few years, 2025 would be the year the A’s begin to make strides. Nothing crazy but maybe pushing closer to .500. Because of this I imagine the team having a more stand pat mentality at the trade deadline. If they make some other veteran signings it’s possible they flip them for prospects. If they did it’s no guarantee the guys coming back would be impact players by the 2027 season, which is the end of the journey.
2026 is the year I envision the A’s back in the postseason, or at least serious contention.
For this to happen the team would probably have to solidify its rotation with another high-level starter to complement Mason Miller, and then add another veteran that comes out of the bullpen and provides some length. This is going to sound crazy, but it’s the kind of signing the A’s will have to make to elevate their ceiling from the Divisional round to a World Series, Framber Valdez to the A’s. For years the A’s have watched their former players don the colors of rivals so in this somewhat fantasy-land Oakland pulls out the uno reverse. The other signing is going to be Michael Wacha, who I feel like has been in the league forever, but will be just shy of 33 by 2026 free agency. The role he’d fill in Oakland would be similar to the one he is in for San Diego this year.
The final two pieces will be acquired either during the 2026-27 offseason, or during the 2027 season. These last two guys are going to be at the back end of the bullpen. As of today they are beyond the A’s price range, but four years down the line when stadium negotiations are settled (hopefully in some miraculous way in Oakland) and these guys are a little older but hopefully still productive, this could be a possibility. The two are Robert Suarez and Liam Hendriks. Suarez had a tremendous season with the Padres in 2022 earning a five-year $46 million extension. That takes him through the 2027 season, but with the large amount of money San Diego already has committed through that time, they could become open to moving off of a contract. Hendriks is scheduled for unrestricted free agency in 2025 and if he’s still good he’ll cash in on the highest figure offered to him. This could lead him to being part of a not so great team and could make him a trade candidate in future seasons. While the A’s haven’t been known to give out big money in free agency, they have taken on players with large salaries for short periods of time in order to contend. It’s also a nice storyline to have Hendriks back with the A’s since it is the franchise with which he established himself as one of the games best relievers.
With that being said, that does it for this Oakland A’s rebuild. I hope everyone enjoyed this journey from dumpster fire to glory, and hope you at least see what I was going for in the final roster. Again, I don’t anticipate the A’s roster will ever look close to this. It’s just a possible scenario I’ve imagined taking into account the team’s current state and roster-building history. I’ll leave the final roster below, and make sure to check out the other rebuilds we’ve done.
Roster:
Infield (name, position, current organization/level)-
Brent Rooker, 3B/1B, Athletics/MLB
Max Muncy, SS, Athletics/A+
Zack Gelof, 3B, Athletics/AAA
Liover Peguero, 2B/SS, Pirates/AA
Blaze Alexander, 2B/SS/3B, D-Backs/AAA
Tyler Soderstrom, 1B/LF, Athletics/AAA
Catchers (name, position, current organization/level)-
Shea Langeliers,C, Athletics/MLB
Daniel Susac, C, Athletics/A+
Outfield (name, position, current organization/level)
Lawrence Butler, OF/1B, Athletics/AA
Esteury Ruiz, OF, Athletics/MLB
Denzel Clarke, OF, Athletics/AA
Colby Thomas, OF, Athletics/A
Max Kepler, OF, Twins/MLB
Pitchers (name, position, current organization/level)
Mason Miller, SP, Athletics/MLB
Framber Valdez, SP, Astros/MLB
Jordan Montgomery, SP, Cardinals/MLB
Zach Wheeler, SP, Phillies/MLB
Luis Morales, SP, Athletics/ROK
Michael Wacha, SP/RP, Padres/MLB
Jacob Watters, SP/RP, Athletics/A+
Shintaro Fujinami, RP, Athletics/MLB
Luis Medina, RP, Athletics/AAA
Robert Suarez, RP, Padres/MLB
Liam Hendriks, RP, White Sox/MLB
German Marquez, RP, Rockies/MLB
Juan De Los Santos, RP, Orioles/A
Unqualified GM 
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