MESA, Ariz. — John Fisher might have abandoned Oakland A’s fans, but Lawrence Butler didn’t shun them and probably never will.
“The fans always stood by me,” Butler said Monday, shortly after the A’s announced his seven-year, $65.5 million contract, a development that never would have happened with Fisher running the A’s in Oakland.
“It didn’t matter if I was in Low A or the big leagues, they were still rooting for me. I’ve just got to say thank you. There are a lot of fans I made connections with over the years through Oakland. I just hope they don’t stop watching us play and know that everything we still do, they’re a part of it.”
Butler is living the high life but also taking the high road. The 24-year-old right fielder has the potential to be a spectacular five-tool player, and what he showed in the second half of last season for Oakland — during a gut-wrenching time for A’s fans who grew up watching games at the Coliseum — served as momentum for his historic contract.
In July, August, and September, amid the off-field gloom and doom, Butler hit .302 with a .943 OPS, 20 homers, 49 RBIs, and 14 stolen bases. His batting practices continue to produce some of the loudest and hardest contact in the Cactus League.
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Monday, he looked ahead to playing for the A’s in Sacramento through 2028 or 2029 and in Las Vegas through the length of his contract in 2031 but also looked back to playing for fans in Oakland.
“I would just say thank you,” he said, “because that was my first big-league team, the Oakland Athletics. My first big-league home game was in the Coliseum. I got to play the last game ever at the Coliseum. Oakland means a lot to me.”
Signing a young player to a long-term contract wasn’t on Fisher’s radar during his 20-year ownership in Oakland — he’d force trades of his stars before they reached free agency — but suddenly it’s a thing. Aside from Butler’s $65.5 million deal, the A’s signed free agent pitcher Luis Severino in December for three years and $67 million and extended DH-outfielder Brent Rooker’s contract in January for five years and $60 million.
A’s general manager David Forst and assistant GM Dan Feinstein, who never had the luxury to finalize such deals in Oakland because of ownership’s frugality, could now pivot to possibly working lengthy deals for other young players, perhaps including Mason Miller, JJ Bleday, Shea Langeliers, and JP Sears.
“There are a lot of other candidates,” Forst said. “I don’t have any update on any of them. We’ll just enjoy this one today.”
The genesis of the contract came at the winter meetings when Butler’s agents met with the A’s brass. Three months later, the A’s staged a news conference at HohoKam Stadium by setting up chairs on the grass in right field, fittingly, because it’s where Butler does some of his best work. They invited the entire roster to attend.
Fisher never came close to spending that much money in Oakland. In fact, the biggest contract in franchise history belonged to Eric Chavez, who signed for six years and $66 million back in 2004 when Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann owned the team. It must be noted that, according to the collective bargaining agreement, the A’s 2025 payroll must be one-and-a-half times higher than their revenue-sharing intake. If they receive $70 million in revenue sharing, which is anticipated, the payroll must be at least $105 million.
“Could this have happened in Oakland? This is a good question,” Linton said. “The way things were going in Oakland, I’m not sure. But with the future looking bright and the A’s wanting to make an impact moving into Las Vegas, this was the right move for both the team and Lawrence.”
The contract’s average annual value of $9.36 million is the second-largest for an MLB position player with one-plus years of service time, behind Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes. Butler is receiving a $3 million signing bonus and salaries of $2.25 million in 2025, $3.25 million in 2026, $5 million in 2027, $8 million in 2028 (the earliest the A’s could move to Las Vegas), $10 million in 2029, $14 million in 2030, and $16 million in 2031.
There’s a club option for $20 million in 2032 or a $4 million buyout.
“It’s an exciting time to be with the A’s,” Forst said. “These are things we talked about for years and just never really had the ability to do, to be honest. Until our future was secured with Vegas, until we had these plans and a timeline for 2028, they weren’t realistic for us to do.”
Good for Butler. Not so good for longtime A’s fans who never had a chance to celebrate such a signing, as Fisher repeatedly dismantled successful teams, most recently with his refusal to make a qualifying offer to Marcus Semien and trades of Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, and Sean Murphy, leading to 307 losses the past three years.
Luckily for the A’s, they always had a baseball operations department that compensated for the tiny payrolls by successfully rebuilding every few years. The latest rebuild began to pay off last season when the A’s posted a winning record in the second half behind Butler, Rooker, and others who blossomed in Oakland.
The A’s, who spent the weekend in Las Vegas playing exhibitions in their Triple-A park against the Diamondbacks, will also play their 2025 season in a Triple-A facility, Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, which has a capacity of roughly 14,000. If the A’s sell out every game, they’d draw just 1.134 million fans. Every year during Fisher’s time in Oakland, the A’s drew far more, at least until the pandemic and his latest roster teardown and pronouncement to leave Oakland.
The A’s won’t call themselves the Sacramento A’s or display “Sacramento” across players’ chests for road games. They’ll wear separate shoulder patches acknowledging Las Vegas and Sacramento and another honoring the great Rickey Henderson, who died in December — but nothing that represents Oakland.
At Monday’s news conference, Butler thanked his family, agents, and teammates, the A’s, its ownership, and everyone involved in creating his path to the majors. He hopes to put up a huge year and play in the All-Star Game in Atlanta, his hometown, where he was introduced to baseball. One of his mentors is former big-leaguer Marquis Grissom, whose baseball academy helped groom a young Butler. He also said his goals are winning a World Series with the A’s and bringing his own game to new heights.
“There is no ceiling, to be honest,” he said. “I feel like if I put the work in every day, which I’ve been doing, and continue to grind, the sky’s the limit.”