Inside The As

A's Release Spring Schedule

Jason Burke

Mar 20, 2024; Mesa, Arizona, USA; General view of the field prior to a spring training game between the Oakland Athletics and Chicago Cubs at Hohokam Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 20, 2024; Mesa, Arizona, USA; General view of the field prior to a spring training game between the Oakland Athletics and Chicago Cubs at Hohokam Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports / Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
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The Oakland A's, or "The A's" as the press release read, have released their spring training schedule for the 2025 season. This will be the first year of three or possibly four where the team plays regular season games in Sacramento ahead of their planned move to Las Vegas.

Games will begin on February 22, when the A’s face the San Diego Padres at the Peoria Sports Complex. The A’s will play their first home game at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa the next day, Feb. 23, against the Colorado Rockies. 

The A’s will host 14 games at Hohokam Stadium, and some of the home highlights will include matchups vs. the San Francisco Giants (Tuesday, Feb. 25), Padres (Thursday, Feb. 27), and Los Angeles Dodgers (Sunday, March 2). On Friday, March 14, the A’s top prospects will take on the Padres top prospects in Peoria in the second annual Spring Breakout game. The first Spring Breakout game was cancelled due to rain, so this will technically be Oakland's first crack at it.

One wrinkle here is that the A's and Giants will reportedly not be facing off against each other in the Bay Area before the start of the regular season. That's to be expected, since the Giants will still be in San Francisco, and the A's will be playing in the Giants' Triple-A ballpark. Yet, those games for both the A's and Giants are not listed on either team's schedule. The Giants will reportedly take on the Tigers in San Francisco.

We searched through each MLB team's spring calendar, and 21 of those teams have opponents listed on March 24 and 25. The A's are one of nine teams that does not. The others include the Reds, Red Sox, Orioles, White Sox, Nationals, Blue Jays, Marlins, and Cardinals. None of those teams are sticking around on the west coast to begin their season. While a little added travel isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, it doesn't make it easy to line up an opponent, especially when they could be playing at a Triple-A facility. Of course, the A's could also go on the road themselves.

What the A's could end up doing is following Houston's lead and play their own minor league affiliate for two games. They could even do a combination of Vegas guys and some of the team's top prospects like Nick Kurtz, Luis Morales, and Tommy White to give those guys in the lower minors just a little experience at an upper level park facing big-league competition. Kurtz's patience versus Mason Miller would be a great matchup to watch.

Plus it would be a fun game to get the fans in Sacramento excited for a year in which they could potentially see a number of those players on the field throughout the course of the season, either when the A's are playing, or in July and September when the Aviators roll around.

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Jason Burke

JASON BURKE

Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum. 

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