Before this week, the homeless Athletics had spent 37 days in first place among American League West Division teams, which was quite remarkable for a team that hasn’t finished above .500 since the 2021 season. In the last four full seasons (2022-2025), the A’s have finished a combined 119.5 games out of first place, so for the club to play this well early in the 2026 seasons bodes well for the eventual move to Las Vegas, still scheduled for the 2028 season—just as we predicted, of course, a few years ago in Oakland.

Today on Saturday Smugness, we examine mystery transactions from 2024 and 2025 that have cost the Athletics too many wins already in 2026: the trades of Lucas Erceg to the Kansas City Royals and Mason Miller to the San Diego Padres. The team could use both those relievers right now, as its 27-29 record includes 14 different games where the A’s have had the lead and blown it on the way to a loss. More specifically, the Athletics have 11 blown saves so far this year, which has kept them from staying in first.

First, Erceg: in 88 games with the A’s in 2023 and 2024, he only registered three saves as Miller was doing a lot of the dirty work then. However, since joining the Royals, Erceg has posted a 3.18 ERA across 106 games while posting 24 saves as well. He’s not a superstar, but he’s been valuable to Kansas City, earning 2.0 WAR there since being traded away by the Athletics front office. Considering the A’s current bullpen woes—to the tune of a 4.32 ERA this season—Erceg would be a welcome presence right now.

Second, Miller: he was an All Star in Oakland during the 2024 season, and since his trade to Southern California in 2025, he has continued to dominate. His 3.16 ERA with the A’s over 103 outings seems very high when compared to his 0.77 ERA with the Padres in 45 games—which includes 18 saves. He has posted 2.7 WAR with San Diego in just 47 innings with the team, and his 16 saves lead MLB this season. When one sees the fact the A’s could have won 11 more games if they’d had a better bullpen … yeah.

Realistically, the first thing any young team needs is confidence it will win the games when it has the lead late. And by trading away these two closers in successive summers, the A’s took that opportunity away from their young core of players. In a “perfect” world that doesn’t exist, the 11 blown saves this year all would have been victories, changing the Athletics’ record from 27-29 to 38-18. Yes, that would be the best record in baseball, obviously, or close to it. That’s not realistic, and we know that readily, too.

However, say the A’s still had Erceg and/or Miller: those numbers—14 blown leads, 11 blown saves—could be reduced by one third, in all probability. That still gives the Athletics a 35-21 record, maybe … and a 7.5-game lead in the AL West over the Seattle Mariners. So, for whatever reason, whether it was salary concerns or just thinking the team wasn’t read to contend yet, the A’s front office has sold out its young core of offensive stars, making it harder for them to reach the MLB playoffs this season or even next.

You lose all the games, for the most part, where you cannot preserve your late-inning leads. And those losses cost you in the standings. And then it’s August, and you realize you could have won the division with a better bullpen, but you’re looking up at the Mariners (or another team that spent more money where it needed to) wondering, “What if?” and realizing the talent the team sent away for reasons that don’t seem to make a lot of sense now … even if they allegedly did at the time the trades were made. Rough.

All this is conjecture, of course, but with no safe leads and former A’s toiling away elsewhere with varying levels of success, it’s a hard thing for Athletics fans to watch as this season unfolds. What could have been and what will be are mysteries of the baseballs.