Three Former New York Yankees Will Have Big Impact on A's 2025 Campaign

Dylan Quinn | Dec 29, 2024

Aug 14, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; A detailed view of a New York Yankees hat and glove on the bench against the Atlanta Braves in the third inning at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

MLB seasons are long, and team chemistry matters in every sport, but matters even more in baseball where each team has to battle for 162 games in just 187 days.

New A’s pitcher Luis Severino emphasized the need for team chemistry in his introductory press conference with the team. “[Miguel Andujar] told me how everyone in the clubhouse treats each other. He loves it. That’s one of the most important things. Going to battle with 26 men in the same room, you need that chemistry in the clubhouse.”

Along with Severino and Andujar, the A’s brought in another former New York Yankee, Gio Urshela. Urshela will likely man third base for the A’s as he did with the Yankees from 2019-2021. Following the 2021 season, Urshela went on to play for four different teams in the span of three years. He played with the Twins in 2022, the Angels in 2023, and spent half of 2024 with the Detroit Tigers and the other half with the Atlanta Braves.

In all three of Urshela’s years in New York, he played alongside current A’s players Luis Severino and Miguel Andujar.

A’s starter JP Sears also played on the Yankees in 2022 before being shipped to Oakland alongside Ken Waldichuk, Luis Medina, and Cooper Bowman in exchange for Frankie Montas. On that Yankee team where he made his debut and pitched 22 innings, he was teammates with Miguel Andujar and Luis Severino. Now Sears will get to be in the same rotation as Severino, just like he did in 2022.

Waldichuk made his MLB debut after the trade and is currently out as he recovers from surgery, but is expected to re-join the A's in some capacity during the summer months of 2025.

It appears as though Miguel Andujar played a role in talking Severino and Urshela into playing with the A’s. After a solid season where Andujar put up a .285 batting average, and a .320 on-base percentage, and with the team also showing improvement in the second half, it makes sense that Andujar was happy with the team.

Happy enough to reach out to his former teammates to join the fun and youthful A’s team for the 2025 season. Claiming Miguel Andujar off waivers last off-season proved to be a wise decision for the 2024 campaign--and seems like a gift that keeps giving as he was a factor in the A’s signings of Luis Severino and Gio Urshela.

The A’s team chemistry was already really strong in 2024. In a recent interview, A’s outfielder JJ Bleday shared, “The clubhouse is great, you’re not gonna have any clubhouse in the league like we do. The camaraderie we have in the field and in the locker room, and on flights… it gels really well… everyone is good friends with each other, and that’s hard to get."

The fact of the matter is that the A’s chemistry that was already strong in 2024, and will only get stronger in 2025. They can use that chemistry as they head to West Sacramento in a park that other teams will be happy to leave. Perhaps it will even give them a small advantage as the season goes on.

The key additions of Luis Severino and Gio Urshela should not only have an impact on the field, but in the clubhouse as well.