Right now the Oakland athletics are trying to establish a core of a winning team. They have already given two players multi-year contracts: Brett Anderson and Kurt Suzuki. Although they still have some cheap young players who haven’t hit arbitration, I think they should continue to create a young core and give some players long contracts.
A team like the A’s, a team with not too much cash, has to lock up franchise players early. They need to do a better job at that, as the last time the A’s made the playoffs was 2006, and they have exactly two players from that team today, and that’s only if you count Rich Harden. The other is Mark Ellis.
If the A’s wait too long to give their good players long-term deals, the exact same thing will happen. They’ll make the playoffs one year, and then rebuild two years later. So here’s some players I think the Athletics should add to their core of two. They’re listed in no particular order.