A’s talking playoffs after last season’s improved play with Las Vegas move in the background

By Canadian Press on March 7, 2026.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Especially with a young team, even one as talented as the Athletics, last season could have easily gotten away from them.

The A’s lost 20 of 21 games at one point, the massive slump finally ending June 5 with a 14-3 romp against Minnesota.

They not only went on to post a winning record the rest of the season, the A’s set themselves up for potential playoff talk this year — and they aren’t shying away from it.

“We felt we were one of the best teams in baseball at the end of last season,” 2025 unanimous AL Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz said Saturday.

The A’s are in Las Vegas, where they lost 3-0 to the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday. The teams meet again Sunday before the A’s return to their spring training camp in Mesa, Arizona.

The players visited their future ballpark under construction on the Las Vegas Strip. Some players watched the Vegas Golden Knights play their NHL game on Friday night and some were planning to attend UFC 326 on Saturday night. Manager Mark Kotsay said he would spend the evening at his Las Vegas-area home.

Whether in Las Vegas or Mesa these days, the A’s are preparing for the second of three planned seasons at a Triple-A stadium in West Sacramento, California. They are scheduled to begin playing in Las Vegas in 2028.

Management has signed several players over the past two offseasons with the ’28 season in mind in hopes of making a big splash in their new city.

But there is business to be done first, and that includes trying to end a five-year playoff drought.

The A’s went 53-46 after ending that big slump last season, tied with Cincinnati for the 11th-best mark in that time. They went 35-29 after the All-Star break, the ninth-best record.

That doesn’t guarantee anything this season, but that improved play from the young, potentially dynamic lineup fuels optimism.

“I think last year, for the last 2 1/2 months, we showed that (ability),” Kotsay said. “We’ve got to continue to maintain that type of performance for six months. That’s been our struggle over the last few seasons, has been (the ability) to maintain consistency.”

The A’s went into last season with similarly high hopes after going 32-32 after the All-Star break in 2024. That finish was a marked improvement over a 37-61 record the first part of the season as the club took the field with the distraction of playing in front of an angry fanbase in the last of 57 seasons in Oakland.

But then the 1-20 stretch early last season doomed such hopes.

“I think we win half of those, we’re right there pushing for a wild card at the end of the year,” All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson said. “I think a lot of guys learned from that on how to get out of that as a team. I think we’re going to go into this year kind of knowing how to get out of it early rather than let it drag on for a couple of weeks. I think if we do that, we’re going to be in a good spot when the year comes to an end.”

The A’s have a number of young players they have signed through at least 2028 for their hopeful big splash in Las Vegas.

Before this season, Wilson signed a $70 million, seven-year contract and left fielder Tyler Soderstrom inked an $86 million, seven-year deal.

Those signings continued a trend for the usually tight-fisted A’s that began the previous offseason with deals that included a $60 million, five-year contract for designated hitter/outfielder Brent Rooker and a $65.5 million, seven-year deal for outfielder Lawrence Butler.

Kurtz, who beat out Wilson for the AL’s top rookie award, figures to be next in line. There have been reports the A’s made him an offer, but no agreement has been announced.

“I leave that to my agents,” Kurtz said. “I’m focused on what’s going on today and how I can help the team win some ballgames.”

Kotsay acknowledged the identity of his team is offense, which helps raise the question of whether the A’s have the pitching to take the next step. The Athletics’ team ERA going into Saturday was 6.14 this spring, sixth-worst in the big leagues. It’s tricky reading much into spring training statistics, but pitching was already an uncertainty.

Kotsay wouldn’t put that kind of pressure on his staff when asked if the pitching was playoff-worthy, saying it takes the entire team.

It’s a team with high hopes, and if there is any time of year to be optimistic, this is it before the real games begin.

“We were just a rough first half away from being in the postseason going into October, so it’s pretty exciting to know that we can do it,” Kurtz said. “That’s what the second half showed us.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Mark Anderson, The Associated Press