2024 Oakland Athletics

[Fudal]

I had a short-lived OOTP24 save on here with the Athletics which lasted about 2 game months. I hope this save, and this thread will last until at least the summer when I plan on starting my full expansion save. I'll be playing as the GM and Manager, without overall/potential ratings. The trade settings are the base challenge mode settings, with neutral AI preference and one tick below the middle on trade difficulty. I've changed the aging speed for pitchers and batters to .925 from 1.000. The final setting I changed was removing the (stupid IMO) draft lottery, making the draft 30 rounds instead of 20, and increasing the number of players generated to 40 rounds worth.

[Fudal]

It's glaringly obvious by the pitching staff that this team was a 50-win ballclub last season. Besides 25-year-old closer Mason Miller, there is no true elite pitcher, and even he has something to prove at the major league level. JP Sears is our best starting pitcher still on the league minimum, which is very important for an Oakland team still owned by John Fisher. 24-year-old Joe Boyle was acquired in a trade with the Reds for Sam Moll last season and is on the minimum. He's a flamethrower, consistently reaching 101-102, but his control is wild. His stuff rates at 70 potential, but his control is just half that at 35. For this first season, I will try and trade everyone who is making over the minimum to maximize our budgets and try to rebuild this team in the classic OOTP way.

Full Pitching Staff:

(Players making over the minimum will be in italics, and players with an asterisk next to them are players who are untouchable in trades.)

SP

30 y/o RHP Paul Blackburn
28 y/o LHP JP Sears
25 y/o RHP Mitch Spence
34 y/o RHP Ross Stripling
33 y/o LHP Alex Wood

RP

26 y/o LHP Brady Basso
28 y/o RHP Osvaldo Bido
24 y/o RHP Joe Boyle *
31 y/o RHP Trevor Gott
27 y/o RHP Adrian Martinez
26 y/o LHP Kyle Muller
30 y/o LHP Sean Newcomb
25 y/o RHP Mason Miller *

Now for the hitter overview. We're weak. That's all. We're weak where it matters (for me) at catcher, with Drew Lugbauer and Tyler Soderstrom being 1st basemen at heart. Langeliers has a great arm, can hit a bit, and has some framing capabilities. 1st base is a strength on this team, with Brent Rooker, Ryan Noda, and Drew Lugbauer being above-average hitters at the position. Soderstrom will likely be starting in the minors to improve his 1B defense. In the middle infield, we have Zack Gelof (who has a terrible personality in OOTP25 and will likely be traded ASAP), Aledmys Diaz, and Nick Allen. Allen will be lucky to get around a 75 WRC+ in this game, and he was horrible last season in real life. Diaz is making $8 million this year and we need that money to go toward our future, rather than a mediocre 33-year-old utility infielder. At 3rd base, we have the option of Miguel Andujar or Abraham Toro. I don't feel comfortable putting either of these guys at 3rd in terms of defense, and they don't have the most elite bats to make up for it. They're also making around 500k-1m above the league minimum. Chalk those two up for an extra 1.5 million or so. In the outfield, we don't have a great defensive CF, with 23-year-old Lawrence Butler and last season's "is he good or is he awful" player Esteury Ruiz being the only players capable of playing there. Neither of them are above a 55 defense at CF, and my preferred minimum is 60. Piscotty and Bleday are on the league minimum, so will likely be on our roster to start the season, but Seth Brown is on the way out.

[Fudal]

Now, OOTP25 trading is significantly harder than 24 was, in my opinion. Because of this, don't expect me to build the best farm system in just a few trades. However, pretty much every player on this team is a trade candidate, so I'll be taking whatever I can get.

Trade #1:

Oakland Receives 25-year-old 1B Niko Kavadas, 21-year-old RHSP Wikelman Gonzalez, 23-year-old 1B Alex Binelas, 23-year-old RHRP Luis Guerrero, and 23-year-old RHSP Isaac Coffey, and $1.5 Million.

Boston Receives 25-year-old RHSP Mitch Spence, 25-year-old LF Esteury Ruiz, 25-year-old RF Jonny Butler, 24-year-old RHRP Joe Boyle, 24-year-old LF Lazaro Armenteros, and 31-year-old RHRP Trevor Gott.

Kavadas and Binelas will come up and be our 1B/DH duo immediately. They both have great power and discipline at the plate and will bat 3/4 in our lineup. I'm hoping for solid rookie seasons from them. Wikelman Gonzalez is the real catch of this trade. He has 70 potential stuff, and with him turning 22 in a couple of weeks, he has plenty of time to develop. He's rule 5 eligible so I'm hoping to have him in the MLB rotation by July/August. Guerrero throws 96-98 but doesn't have elite stuff, so I'm hoping for some development here. Coffey is a finesse righty, who will slot into our AAA rotation with Gonzalez. The sucker of this trade was having to include Armenteros, who I think could be a league-average hitter at the minimum. Getting rid of Gott saves us a total of $3 million in this deal.


Trade #2:

Oakland Receives 18-year-old CF Brando Mayea, 18-year-old RHSP Jerson Alejandro, 21-year-old LHSP Kyle Carr, 22-year-old RHSP Chase Hampton, 19-year-old LHSP Henry Lalane, 20-year-old RHSP Sabier Marte, 20-year-old RHSP Sean Hermann, 19-year-old RHSP Luis Serna, 28-year-old RHRP Ron Marinaccio, and 23-year-old RHRP Jack Neely.

New York Yankees Receive 29-year-old 1B Brent Rooker, 26-year-old C Shea Langeliers, 25-year-old RHRP Mason Miller, and 25-year-old 3B Brett Harris.

This is a potential franchise-altering trade if even 3 of these young players reach their potential. It seems the Yankees are in complete win-now mode, and were willing to part with what felt like any low-minors player for the package I gave them. We'll start with Brando Mayea, an athletic CF with 70 range, 60 contact, and 50 power. He raked in 38 games in the DSL last year, and he'll start at A-ball for us this season. Jerson Alejandro is a dart throw and is probably the least likely out of this package to reach the majors. That being said, he just turned 18, and he already throws 94-96. He has a potential 60 fastball, 55 changeup, and 45 slider/curveball. Kyle Carr is not the flashiest pitcher, but he's a solid pitcher and should be a 4/5 starter if he reaches his potential. He also has a potential 60 fastball, and he will start at High-A. Chase Hampton has the highest floor of any player we've covered so far in this trade, and he will start at AA. Another solid fastball/slider/changeup/curveball mix, but he even throws a good cutter to add to that. He has 50/55/60 potential across the board for his pitching potential. Henry Lalane is very similar to Alejandro, just a year and a half older and slightly more developed. He'll start in A-ball, and could be a solid starter in the future for us. Sabier Marte is a finesse righty, maxing out at a velocity of 92. He's going to start in A-ball. Sean Hermann is a finesse righty, just like Serna, but he's slightly more developed. His stuff is lacking, as his pitches aren't fully developed yet. Ditto what I said about Marte for Serna. Marinaccio will be our closer to replace Mason Miller, who is the only real loss in this trade. Neely will be our 8th inning setup man.


Trade #3:

Oakland Receives 24-year-old RHRP Will Klein and $1.25 million.

Kansas City Receives 33-year-old LHSP Alex Wood (we retain 50%), 31-year-old RHRP Michael Kelly, 27-year-old 1B Drew Lugbauer, 26-year-old 2B Max Schuemann, 28-year-old RHRP Lucas Erceg, 26-year-old LF JJ Bleday, 26-year-old C Kyle McCann, and 24-year-old RHRP Hunter Breault

This is a pure salary dump, and we didn't have to give up anyone of major significance. Wood is an okay pitcher, but this trade saves us $6.24 million, which is more money that I can put into my development budget. Will Klein will start in our bullpen right away.


Trade #4:

Oakland Receives 23-year-old 3B Kendall Simmons, 20-year-old Kliubert Avila, 19-year-old 2B Nolan Beltran, 22-year-old RHSP Cam Brown, 22-year-old LHSP Samuel Aldegheri, 23-year-old RHRP Andrew Baker, 24-year-old RHRP Tommy McCollum, and $1.1 million.

Philadelphia Receives 24-year-old 2B Zack Gelof, 27-year-old 1B Ryan Noda, and 24-year-old 1B Shane McGuire.

I wanted to see what I could get for Zack Gelof, who has a selfish personality, and I found that the Phillies love him and Noda. Noda is dispensable because we traded with the Red Sox where we acquired two 1B. Starting with Simmons, he is a speedster who can hit lots of doubles and will play in AAA. Avila and Beltran are rookie ball dart throws and both of their calling cards are their contact potential. Cam Brown and Aldegheri are solid SP prospects who rely more on their fastball than anything else and will start at A+. Baker and McCollum are dominant strikeout pitchers who struggle mightily with walks. They'll start at AAA.


And a look at our top prospects according to BNN: