Last-place A’s win seven of eight, showing fight despite trade deadline moves
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A’s have won seven of last eight games with 50 left to play in 2025.
- Team plans to build around young core, eyes playoff return by 2026 season.
- Roster aims to finish strong in 2025 after early slump ended playoff hopes.
It’s almost certainly too little, too late for the last-place Athletics when it comes to the postseason.
But the team’s roller coaster 2025 appears on the upswing as they look to finish off their first campaign in West Sacramento strong after another victory Friday night.
“You’re going to have your ups and your downs, our downs just happen to be really down,” A’s catcher Shea Langeliers said after a 5-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the opener of a three-game series. “Past the trade deadline, we had 51 games coming into today left in the season. Let’s do what we can.”
Langeliers finished a triple shy of the cycle and had a two-run home run in the first inning that was enough offense for the A’s to deal Arizona its sixth straight loss. Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom added two hits with a run and RBI. The first five hitters in the A’s lineup scored runs, while starter Jacob Lopez tossed five scoreless innings.
The A’s improved to 49-63 but have remained in last place in the American League West since May 20. With 50 left to play, they’re 10 1/2 games behind a playoff spot via wild card and 14 behind the AL West-leading Houston Astros.
Pitching, defense and a lack of timely hitting were bugaboos for the A’s throughout their miserable spell from May 14 to June 4 when they lost 20 of 21, which ultimately killed their playoff chances after going 14-12 in April. They just finished their second winning month of the season with a 13-11 July and are hoping to replicate their improved play from the second half of last season when they went 32-32 after the All-Star break.
“Any time you go through spirals,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said, “the confidence is key to maintain. And I think our confidence is at a different level right now.”
The win on the first day of August gave the A’s their third in a row and seventh in their last eight games. And despite trading away key contributors for prospects at the trade deadline, the A’s are hoping to finish the season with momentum heading into 2026, when they hope to get back to the playoffs for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the 2020 season.
It’s their longest playoff drought since missing the playoffs five straight seasons from 2007 to 2011, which they followed up with six playoff appearances in the next nine years.
“Whatever the rest of the year looks like, we have expectations for ourselves in the coming seasons,” All-Star slugger Brent Rooker said. “And we want to be in the playoffs as soon as possible, we want to be playing meaningful games as soon as possible. We’re just going to continue to use these last 50 games to work to get to that point.”
Who did the A’s trade? And trade for?
The A’s hours before Thursday’s deadline traded away star closer Mason Miller and reliable left-handed starter JP Sears to the San Diego Padres for a package of four players, only one of whom is currently on the A’s Major League roster: reliever Eduarniel Nuñez.
The prize of the haul was 18-year-old shortstop Leo De Vries, who is likely years away from contributing but has shown star potential. De Vries was ranked as the No. 3 prospect in all of baseball by MLB.com.
Which means the current A’s are battling human nature that comes with being a last-place team that sold high at the deadline, rather than buyers adding to compete for a pennant.
The vision, as A’s decision makers tell it, is to continue building around the core in place to position itself for a run at the playoffs beginning next season before the planned move to Las Vegas in 2028.
“Ultimately, this was not a sell-off,” A’s general manager David Forst said. “There aren’t five, six, seven players going out the door. We obviously made an effort this past offseason to keep some guys here long term, we brought in some free agents. We’ve not developed a core of position players that includes (Nick) Kurtz, (Jacob) Wilson, (Max) Muncy ... and I think there’s absolutely the intent to continue to add and to compete in ‘26, ‘27 and beyond.
“This is not just about the future. Outside of Leo, who’s a special talent, the guys we traded for are close to the big leagues. I’m not going to say we’re not going to miss our closer and guy who takes the ball every fifth day, but we believe we’re in a good position to continue to add as we go forward.”
The A’s in the Padres trade added much-needed pitching to their system in Braden Nett and Henry Baez along with Nuñez. They traded third baseman and outfielder Miguel Andujar to the Cincinnati Reds for Kenya Huggins, a 22-year-old pitcher with a high-90s fastball and hard slider.
Forst believes the infusion of young arms could help the A’s staff that came into Friday’s game allowing the second-highest OPS and slugging percentage in baseball.
Better than last year?
In the meantime, the A’s will compete the rest of the 2025 to avoid their run through late May and June that ultimately cost them a shot at the playoffs.
A goal, Kotsay said, is to finish with a better record than 2024 when they went 69-93. Their current winning percentage of .438 is a tick above last season’s .426.
“Everyone has something to play for, whether that’s a playoff race or being a better team than you were the previous season,” Kotsay said. “I think that’s one of our goals and focuses, finishing up better. As a group of individuals, these guys have a lot to prove still from their careers personally.
“It’s definitely a grind through August, but then you see the finish line and focus on sprinting through that.”
This story was originally published August 1, 2025 at 11:33 PM.
