A's Roster Facing Interesting Questions This Offseason

The Oakland A's have a bit of a roster crunch on their hands, and may need to make some moves to clear up playing time for their up-and-coming prospects

The Oakland A's will be trying to climb back to respectability in 2024 after a 50-112 season in 2023. While the season overall wasn't great by any means, there were some player performances that stood out as potential building blocks for 2024 and beyond. 

Brent Rooker was named to the All Star Game and clubbed 30 homers. Zack Gelof announced his arrival with 14 home runs and 14 stolen bases in half of a season. Ryan Noda was nearly a top-10 first baseman in his rookie campaign. Plenty of pitchers had stretches that made you think they could be part of the future. 

The results weren't there, but there were certainly pieces of the team that were good. 

That's where things get interesting for Oakland. As we wrote about yesterday, the A's could use a backup catcher behind Shea Langeliers, even though Tyler Soderstrom is the team's top prospect and made his MLB debut in '23. Having Soderstrom up in the big leagues just to sit on the bench half of the time isn't a great plan, so they may be better off leaving him in Triple-A for a little while longer.

That, or they could take a good look at the roster and see if some pieces could be moved around. 

Aside from catcher, first base is the other position that Soderstrom has had some experience with, and the playing time he's gotten at each position has been split fairly evenly since 2021. The A's could decide to go with the 22 year old at first base to begin the season, which would mean that Ryan Noda would either need to be traded or moved to the outfield. Which route the A's decide on would depend on when the team believes they'll be competitive again, and what kind of a return they could get for Noda in a potential trade. 

A team like the Chicago Cubs, or even the Milwaukee Brewers could be interested in acquiring Noda if he became available, partially because of his skill set, and partially because he is still two seasons away from being arbitration eligible. The A's picked up Noda in the Rule 5 Draft a year ago, and after his 2023 debut in which he hit .229 but had a .364 on-base percentage and a 121 OPS+ (100 is league average), his value is higher today than it was a year ago. 

Oakland could also decide to keep Noda and instead trade away one of their outfield options to create space for Noda in left or right. As of right now, the A's currently have Esteury Ruiz, JJ Bleday, Miguel Andújar, Seth Brown, and Lawrence Butler as outfield options, with Brent Rooker looming as the DH. The most straightforward path to creating a spot for Noda would be to trade Brown away and start Butler in Triple-A, but the team would also be getting rid of another veteran if this is the plan. They're already losing Tony Kemp to free agency this winter, so there is a need for veteran leadership on the young and inexperienced roster. 

The A's could also just start Soderstrom in Triple-A and get him more reps behind the dish and leave everything as is. 

This will all depend on what the A's feel Soderstrom's long-term position will be. If they feel he could play first base now, then trading Noda may be the way they decide to go. If they still feel like he's a catcher, then having him serve as the backup to Langeliers is fine for the time being, but they'll need to clear up some at-bats for when he's not behind the dish, too. 

The team isn't likely to care about what happens on the field the next few seasons with their intention being to relocate to Las Vegas for the 2028 season. That is their true end goal for fielding a competitive team, and the decisions we see this off-season could be indicative of that.