Oakland Athletics manager Mark Kotsay (7) stands in the dugout while playing the Tampa Bay Rays in the third inning of their MLB game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When Mark Kotsay learned of the owners’ unanimous vote to approve the A’s move from Oakland to Las Vegas, the first emotion the manager experienced was sadness.
“For the community of Oakland,” Kotsay said Monday at the MLB Winter Meetings. “Not just for the fan base but also for the employee base that’s had a long history here in Oakland. It’s still down the road, still in 2028, so there’s no guarantee. But at that point, you feel for those who will be impacted and their lives impacted if they don’t make that move to Vegas.”
After a year of deftly navigating the tricky situation as the public face of a franchise with one foot out the door, Kotsay’s future gained some clarity this offseason. In addition to the 30-0 vote by MLB owners last month, Kotsay was rewarded by the A’s extending his contract through 2025.
Kotsay has had to walk a fine line in daily messaging, assuaging fans unhappy with their impending move as well as the man behind it, his boss, principal owner John Fisher, who effectively outsources his public relations to Kotsay and team president Dave Kaval.
“I’m OK with sitting where I’m at,” Kotsay said. “It’s fair to be asked these questions. I’m part of this process. … I don’t have any control over those processes. But what I do have control over is our roster, in terms of how we go out and perform, and that’s what I got out and focus on.”
All the while, his primary duty — managing a ballclub — hasn’t gotten any easier.
The A’s lost 112 games in 2023, tying them for the third-best odds at the No. 1 overall selection in the amateur draft lottery that takes place Tuesday.
“This season was challenging, not just for myself and my staff but for the players,” Kotsay said. “I don’t see that changing.”
Their top selection in next July’s draft will be more likely to debut in Las Vegas than Oakland. The A’s planned ballpark there is supposed to open in 2028. There is still no clarity on where they will play in the three seasons between their lease at the Coliseum expiring after next season and moving into their new home.
If all goes well, Kotsay will also one day be managing in Las Vegas.
But the more immediate challenge is fielding a competitive team, a challenge illuminated by Kotsay’s answers to multiple inquiries about potential free agents.
With only three pitchers who logged 100 innings last season, Kotsay said he would like to add a veteran arm to the A’s rotation.
“I’d like that,” Kotsay said. “But if it doesn’t happen, I’m still excited about the guys we have.”
Asked about Shōta Imanaga, the Japanese lefty expected to come at a more affordable price than his fellow countryman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Kotsay had to ask a Japanese reporter to repeat her question and then cracked a smile.
“It’s probably a question for our general manager (David Forst), but I would say he’s probably out of our price range right now,” Kotsay said. “It would be great to be able to entertain him and bring him in, but realistically it’s probably not an option for us right now.”
The A’s have already added switch-hitting utility man Abraham Toro, via a trade with the Brewers, and outfielder Miguel Andujar, whom they claimed on waivers from the Pirates. They would like to add more experience on the free-agent market, though the challenge is attracting anybody to a team that doesn’t have much to offer in terms of money or stability.
Kotsay said the sales pitch is all about opportunity.
“I think there’s an opportunity for a free agent to come in and have an impact immediately,” Kotsay said. “Any free agents, but especially pitching, to mentor but also have an opportunity in one year to build a résumé going forward. There’s opportunity here to put yourself back on the map if you’ve had a down year or an injured season to go out and earn that change to put up numbers. If I were a free-agent pitcher and I were looking for a team that gave me the best opportunity for success, Oakland would be that.”
Kotsay also shared his memories of former manager Jim Leyland, whom he played for and who was inducted to the Hall of Fame by a vote of the veteran’s committee Sunday night.
“I couldn’t be more proud to have played for Jim. The impact that he left on me as a rookie, to this day the grinding blue-collar mentality,” Kotsay said. “My image of Jim Leyland is sliding shorts and a cigarette at his desk, entertaining the media with no shirt on. The best undressing of a ball club I have ever been a part of or heard of came from Jim Leyland my rookie year in the old Astrodome. It was Hall of Fame.”
Originally published at Evan Webeck