OAKLAND, CA - MAY 05: Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Chris Bassitt #40 throws against the Toronto Blue Jays in the first inning of their MLB game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 5, 2021. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
The current Oakland A’s have started 2023 on pace to match the worst of the worst in MLB history.
But the players who made up the core of the most recent contenders in Oakland are starting to speak out more directly against owner John Fisher and the team’s potential move to Las Vegas.
Current Blue Jays right-hander Chris Bassitt revealed that the group of stars from the 2018-2021 teams — when the A’s made the playoffs three times and just missed out on a fourth – still keep up with each other in a “massive group chat” and wonder what could have been if Fisher had not been so frugal.
“We’re still talking pretty frequently and it was more so like, ‘Man if we just add a piece or two to this roster with [Marcus] Semien and [Matt] Olson and [Matt] Chapman and all the and all those guys … we got a chance to do something special here,’” Bassitt told ‘Foul Territory’, a YouTube show that features a rotation of ex-MLB players as cohosts.
“And instead of kind of adding a piece or two, we decided to blow it up. That’s always been a touchy subject, I think with all of us. We know how much money is made in this game. We just know it and with revenue sharing and all that, I just think it’s ridiculous to have a team that’s just not trying to win when you know how much money is being brought in.”
Bassitt was traded from the A’s to the Mets just after the 2022 lockout ended, the first of four trades during the accelerated spring training a year ago. Not long after him, Olson was sent to Atlanta, Chapman was shipped off to Toronto and left-hander Sean Manaea was traded to San Diego (to join former A’s manager Bob Melvin).
There have since been more — all moves that run counter to putting a winning product on the field. And it’s led Bassitt to seemingly call for Fisher to sell the team, even if not directly by name.
“That’s just not trying to win,” Bassitt said. “I’m not saying you gotta go spend $400 million, but I mean, you got to put a product on the field where it’s like, ‘Alright, we’re investing in players that are really, really good to try to win a World Series.’ So I just think if you’re not in the game to try to win a World Series, then I don’t think you should be an owner. I really don’t.”
"I just think if you're not in the game to try to win a World Series, then I don't think you should be an owner."@C_Bass419 keeps it real. #FTLive pic.twitter.com/lQFBRnilTj
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) May 4, 2023
Of course, nothing is a done deal in Las Vegas yet, just like there have been so many false starts in and around Oakland over the years. Olson recently told the New York Daily News he isn’t certain that the team will be able to pull off the move.
“You hear something new every six months that’s a breaking news thing, then everything stays the same. So I think you are not going to put much weight on whatever’s being said,” Olson said. “It was always a good fan base. You feel bad for the fans if it is going to be the case.”
The sympathy for the fan base has been the most common refrain from former players in the two weeks since the news dropped — especially for Bay Area natives like Semien and Mark Canha.
“It’s pretty sad for the community in Oakland,” said Semien on April 21 in Arlington, Texas ahead of an A’s game against his Rangers. “When I played in Oakland, my first three years there we weren’t very good. The next three, we were very good. The crowds didn’t change very much. So I know in terms of how to put fans in the stands, I know this is a better strategy for them.”
Canha was in San Francisco with the Mets that same day and added, “I feel for the fans. Those fans, those lifers, those people that come out every day, sitting in right field or behind the dugout. I know some of those people personally and they’re always so good to their own and so good to the players and they’re so devoted to the team. I feel for them.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that Oakland — I don’t know if it’s a fact yet — but the idea that Oakland might not have a sports team in a few years, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”
It’ll continue to be a story as the season goes along, especially if the fan base continues to so directly protest against Fisher. (A “rotten tomato tailgate” featuring cutouts of “a certain MLB owner” is planned for next Friday before the A’s host Texas.)
But what Bassitt revealed with the group message is, undoubtedly, a common refrain among all of the players from that group: a wish for things to have gone differently and a chance to keep fighting for playoff spots together.
“It was fun to be part of those teams,” Manaea, now a Giant, said on April 21. “A lot of downs out, a lot of ups, but that was incredible. It kind of felt like a high school-ish team but at the big-league level. No one ever expected us to do anything cool, the stuff that we did, and I think that speaks to (Bob Melvin), David (Forst) and Billy (Beane) on down. That’s kind of the culture that we built. It was awesome.”
Originally published at Alex Simon