Former Oakland A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes was one of the seven A’s All Stars that was dealt away from Oakland. Cespedes played in Oakland for two seasons 2012 and 2013 before leaving for the New York Mets (bleacherreport.com file photo)

A’s Fire Sale of Players and Playoff Appearances

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

Amaury Pi-González

No, it is not “Breaking News” that the Oakland A’s will not be in the postseason this year. After all, and with all the changes of players around Spring Training you not-needed-to-be Albert Einstein to realize they were not going to compete.

Now, the possibility of losing 100 games is very realistic with some 40-plus games left this season. Since they moved from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968 only in 1979 the A’s lost 100 or more games (54-108) Coming to the last part of the 2022 season the A’s have done what they have been doing for most of the 2000’s.

It has been the history of the A’s to get rid of star players with good salaries for younger players, mostly rookies that could become stars in the years to come. Unloading payroll while clinging to the narrative that they play in a small market.

A’s play in the Bay Area and this is not Kansas City or Milwaukee, this is not a small market. While it might not be Los Angeles, New York or Chicago the Oakland A’s play in the Bay Area, this is at least a “medium size” market, but not small by any means. The Bay Area had a record high 7.77 million people last year (US Census)

Remember 2014? I do, that is only eight years ago. These seven A’s players were All Stars: Yoenis Céspedes, Josh Donaldson, Jeff Samardzija, Scott Kazmir, Sean Doolittle, Derek Norris and Brandon Moss. Soon they left and the A’s brought another group of younger and role players.

This is nothing new. Although a World Series championship has not been produced with this system, the Oakland A’s is one of the top five (5) franchises in postseason appearances during the 2000s.

Below are the teams with the most playoff appearances in the 2000s Yankees (18) Cardinals (15) Braves (13) Dodgers (13) Athletics (11)

Note: The term Fire Sale originated in the late 19th century, around the time of the Great Chicago Fire. When goods were damaged by fire, merchants would quickly sell them off to raise capital. Although becoming famous for the “Fire Sale”, the A’s are not alone, there are other MLB teams that also dumps payroll by trading expensive players for marginal players and prospects.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s lead play by play announcer on the Oakland A’s Spanish radio network and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com