One of the more interesting notes this week from the MLB offseason was the (no city) Athletics’ signing of free-agent starting pitcher Luis Severino. Just as the news broke that the Las Vegas stadium deal is finalized for the A’s to move there by the 2028 season, the team announced its most-expensive ever free agent: an age-31 pitcher who peaked in 2017 and hasn’t been the same since major surgery in 2020. Hmmm.

First, let’s start with the facts: the Athletics (it always will feel weird to not put “Oakland” in front of that) are an up-and-coming team right now, regardless of all the jokes, memes, and ridicule about the team leaving the Bay Area. Just one year after flirting with disaster, the team improved by 19 victories in 2024, and it should be even more competitive, depending on unknown ballpark factors and variables, in 2025.

We have assumed the front-office plan was to rebuild, again as usual, and land in Vegas with a new stadium and a very competitive team. If we can project the A’s for another modest improvement next year, that means maybe they’re looking at a 75-win season, or something close to .500 at best. That could put the franchise in a better position to attract players to the team for 2026, all again depending on those variables.

Enter Severino: he’s getting $67 million over three years, basically. Hitherto in his career, he’s made $67M. Now that gets doubled after he tossed 182 innings last year for the New York Mets, posting an 11-7 record with a 3.91 ERA. He hadn’t thrown that many innings since 2018 after missing most of 2019 and all of 2020 with injury/surgery/recovery. The Mets paid him $13M last year, and it’s possible he’s going to get stronger.

Yet those numbers produced just 1.6 WAR for an 89-win team that reached the National League Championship Series. Severino’s postseason numbers—a 3.24 ERA across three starts in 16 2/3 IP—are a little misleading, as he did get a little tired in October, which was totally understandable after his journey back from the injured era noted above. The A’s are clearly counting on him to continue progressing, and?

To help this franchise back to on-the-field respectability that will only attract better free agents as the team gets closer to its Vegas debut. Severino’s peripherals were solid in 2024, too: 8.2 hits allowed per 9 IP, 8.0 strikeouts per 9 IP, and a 1.242 WHIP overall. He made 32 starts, completed a game for the first time since 2018, and generally exhibited health all year long for New York. But it’s interesting that this was his choice.

Did he not get a better offer from the Mets to stick around? If so, why not? Was no other high-spending team willing to take a chance on him at age 31, knowing his injury history? What do the A’s see in him that perhaps other teams do not? At $22M a year, the franchise gave him a significant raise to be more than just a leader on the mound, that’s for sure. The A’s haven’t made the postseason since 2020, and they need wins.

Severino can help them on the field, in the clubhouse, and on the future recruiting trail—if all goes well. If not, this is not one of those incentive-laden deals that the team used to give to aging veterans (think Frank Thomas in 2006, for example). It will hurt the A’s financially, of course, but owner John Fisher did receive a $1B relocation fee waiver from his fellow MLB owners. He can afford to absorb some losses if it happens.

But this signing is also an indication that those same owners were getting tired of Fisher’s low-balling payroll methods, even when the team was winning and making the postseason from 2018-2020. The revenue-sharing plan MLB has in place is designed to help low-payroll teams spend more money to be more competitive. Blame “Moneyball” if you must, but the A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays just do it differently.

Yet that is expected to end with the revenues to be generated in Las Vegas for the Athletics franchise. Even though a lot of that revenue will come from out-of-town fans, it still will go into the A’s ownership pockets. If Fisher doesn’t increase the team’s payrolls year by year, then he’s going to be in hot water with his best friends. Sometimes, there are consequences for nepo babies who have no skills or talent to warrant success.

Editor’s Note: For SEO-tagging purposes, we will refer to the A’s as the “Las Vegas Athletics” on the site. The stadium deal is a go, and the Sacramento pitstop is just that. We will never refer to the team as the “Sacramento Athletics”—and using just “The Athletics” seems silly for our purposes here.