Shea Langeliers is off to a fast start. What does it mean for his future with A’s?
It’s early, but the A’s have the best offensive catcher in baseball in 2026.
Shea Langeliers opened the season by leading all backstops with 1.4 Wins Above Replacement thanks to hitting .312/.371/.562 with 8 home runs and 14 RBI in 29 games, a 44-homer pace for the season.
But the long-term future isn’t clear. Langeliers, 28, is one of the A’s few regulars without a long-term contract. He’s playing on a one-year, $5.25 million deal after avoiding arbitration in January. Which means he’s set up to hit free agency after the season, barring a new contract, while the A’s have worked to lock up their young core ahead of their planned move to Las Vegas in 2028.
Players like Jacob Wilson (seven years, $70 million), Tyler Soderstrom (seven years, $86 million), Lawrence Butler (seven years, $65.5 million), Brent Rooker (five years, $60 million) are all signed through at least 2030. Langeliers was second on the A’s in WAR behind slugging first baseman Nick Kurtz last year and leads the team so far this season.
Which means the A’s will likely operate with optionality. They could look to extend Langeliers along with the rest of their core bats, or he could be moved for a haul of prospects ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline should the A’s fall out of contention.
When will the other hitters get going?
One of the most promising developments for the A’s is a winning record — despite their hitters getting off to slow starts.
Rooker (.111), Soderstrom (.211) and Butler (.187) have yet to get going. Langeliers has helped pick up that slack along with outfielder Carlos Cortez, who is hitting .400/.473/.692 in 24 games. He entered Thursday’s riding a nine-game hitting streak in which he hit .567 with seven extra-base hits.
Butler, from the No. 8 spot in the lineup, hit a 3-run home run during Wednesday’s 5-3 win. It was just his second hit in the previous six games.
“It’s been a slow start for me and a couple of guys,” Butler said. “So that’s kinda all we talk about, is just how can we do something to help the team every day. That’s all we really care about, getting wins. If we can help the team get any type of win, that’s a successful day.”
Soderstrom missed Wednesday’s game after suffering whiplash from diving for a ball on Tuesday.
Kotsay noted the A’s have improved two areas that were focuses during the offseason: defense and base running. The A’s in the early going have been on the positive side of baserunning runs, according to Baseball Savant, after being negative in 2025. Their six errors are the fewest in MLB.
The offense is likely to come. The A’s are 10th in the AL in FanGraphs’ offensive metric combining hitting and baserunning after ranking fourth last season.
“Regardless of how we play, we’re going to try to find a way to get wins,” Butler said. “That’s really all we care about this year.”