Kotsay, Athletics focusing on 2023, not possible Las Vegas move
ARLINGTON, Texas — Mark Kotsay is specializing in the Oakland Athletics’ present season, not on the workforce’s longterm location.
“I’m managing this team and I don’t have control of those decisions,” he mentioned Friday, two days after the workforce mentioned it bought land in Las Vegas with the intention of constructing a ballpark there for the 2027 season. “My focus is on getting this team better, improving from the maturation of these young players and winning as many games as possible.”
Kotsay performed fr Oakland from 2004-07, was a coach from 2016-21 underneath Bob Melvin and was promoted to supervisor forward of the 2022 season.
His workforce was 3-16 going into Friday night time’s sport at Texas. The A’s had a significant league low payroll of $57.8 million on opening day, and their common attendance of 11,027 via 12 house video games is the bottom within the majors and fewer than half of the league common of about 27,600.
Team president Dave Kaval mentioned “we’re turning our full attention to Las Vegas.” The A’s lease on the Coliseum expires after the 2024 season and a financing settlement for a brand new stadium nonetheless needs to be reached.
“I feel for the fans,” Kotsay mentioned. “Not just the fans but the employees that have been in this organization for probably longer, most, than I have. Because one of the things about this organization is the continuity and the loyalty that they’ve shown to their employees.”
Kotsay mentioned he discovered the land buy through textual content from A’s common supervisor David Forst in the course of the flight to Texas.
Catcher Shea Langeliers, one in every of many A’s who has been with the membership lower than two full seasons, echoed Kotsay’s sentiments.
“It’s something that’s not really in our control,” Langeliers mentioned. “Whether people think it’s good news, bad news, whatever the case may be, we’re just going to go play baseball.”
The A’s might turn out to be the primary Major League Baseball workforce with houses in 4 cities. They began in Philadelphia from 1901-54, performed in Kansas City from 1955-67 and have been in Oakland Coliseum since 1968.
Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, a Bay Area native who performed three years at Cal and 6 years for the A’s, referred to as the scenario “pretty sad” for Oakland baseball.
“The community definitely deserves a better ballpark,” Semien mentioned, “and they’ve obviously tried for years and years and years and couldn’t get it done.”
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