A's "not 100% certain" on turf in Sacramento

Jason Burke | Oct 5, 2024

Sutter Health Park in Sacramento / Last Dive Bar

The decision for the A's to play on turf in Sacramento has been a forgone conclusion for some time now, but on Friday, when asked about how the players would handle the heat from the fake grass, A's manager Mark Kotsay said he doesn't believe a final decision has been made on the playing surface, at least to his knowledge. GM David Forst said "I don't think we have 100% certainty."

The lack of certainty could be, at least partially, as a result of the fact that the field has not been torn up to this point yet, so there is still room for a different decision to be made. Forst then clarified a few minutes later, saying, "our expectation is that it will be turf."

To mitigate some of the risk factors in terms of playing on the turf in extreme heat, Forst also mentioned that the team has been working with MLB and they're trying to limit the number of day games in June, July and August, within the confines of the CBA. MLB was open to allowing a waiver for the A's to potentially play some Sunday night games at the same time as Sunday Night Baseball, as long as it was certain days or certain places where it may make sense. No specifics were given.

The easy answer to this conundrum would be to only have one team playing in Sacramento next year, which would eliminate the need for a turf field. At this point in time, it has been confirmed to A's on SI that both the A's and River Cats will be playing in Sacramento for the 2025 season. However, with uncertainty at this point about what kind of field surface they'll be using in 2025, it makes you wonder if the path forward is to move one of the two clubs for a period of time.

This is pure speculation, and there have been no rumors that support this theory whatsoever, but fif it came down to it, the San Francisco Giants could get involved here and try and work out a deal with AASEG to play at the Oakland Coliseum. It's unclear what channels this would have to go through or who would have to approve it, but the move would make sense (from a Giants' perspective) for a few reasons.

The first, and most obvious, is that it again helps get the A's out of town. The Oakland Roots will be playing games at the Coliseum, but the Giants could pay for the field conversions, no problem.

Another reason it makes sense is that it gets rid of the turf problem in Sacramento, which is going to need an answer soon in order to have the field ready for the 2025 season.

Finally, this would be good marketing for the Giants. As many have noted, A's fans aren't likely to become Giants fans. Yet, one way to make that path to Oracle Park a little easier would be to have Giants minor leaguers playing at the Coliseum, where A's fans could go see a baseball game again. It may not have the same glitz and glamor as a big-league game, but that has never been the point of watching a game in Oakland.

That would be the best way for the Giants to attempt to attract some of those abandoned baseball fans, and they'd do it by providing baseball at A's fan's home that was just unceremoniously ripped away. Again, this is all pure speculation, but it fixes a couple of problems, keeps the A's in Sacramento, and could be used as an opportunity for the Giants to actually gain some new fans.

One potential flaw would be staffing the River Cats employees, who are set to help out with the A's in Sacramento, along with employees from the Kings. That could make things a little more tricky.