Athletics manager Mark Kotsay discusses a call with umpires Jansen Visconti (left) and Andy Fletcher during the fifth inning of their game against the Los Angeles Angels at Sutter Health Park on May 22, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
We’re not even two full months into the Athletics’ three-year (and maybe more) stay in Sacramento, but it sure seems like the A’s are already fed up with their minor league digs.
The latest instance of annoyance with West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park came from A’s manager Mark Kotsay on Thursday. The Athletics were ahead of the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 with a runner on first and no outs in the bottom of the fifth when Brent Rooker scorched a base hit down the left field line. The ball bounced once on the field, hit off the bottom of the left field foul pole and went directly to left fielder Taylor Ward. Ward relayed the ball to shortstop Zach Neto, who threw home to catcher Logan O’Hoppe just in time to tag out A’s runner Tyler Soderstrom.
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Because the baseball bounced off the foul pole, though, it should have been a dead ball for leaving the field of play. In that case, it would have been ruled an automatic double, placing Soderstrom at third base. The umpires missed the call, but there was a bigger issue at hand for Kotsay: the stadium’s design.
“I’m completely blind on anything that goes down the [left field] line,” Kotsay said.
Because he couldn’t see it himself, Kotsay said he was relying on the umpire crew to see the play and make the call, or for his replay team to tell him to challenge it. MLB teams have 15 seconds to ask for replay reviews, and the close play at the plate got the first look from the A’s, so they ran out of time to check the ball in left field. In an explanation that lasted a full two minutes, Kotsay sounded increasingly exasperated over what transpired, calling it a “perfect storm.”
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That exasperation may be more tied to what came after that play. The A’s did score two runs in the fifth and led 5-2 after six innings, but the Angels scored five in the seventh and three in the ninth to hand the Athletics their ninth loss in a row. It dropped the A’s record in their temporary home to 8-17, the second-worst home record in MLB.
It’s only the latest incidence of the A’s expressing frustration with their ballpark. In the game against the Angels on Wednesday, left-handed pitcher J.P. Sears slammed his arm against the dugout roof, seemingly showing frustration with a ledge that hangs down over the seats inside the dugout. The Angels broadcast showed the clip as play-by-play announcer Wayne Randazzo offered some sympathy to the A’s players.
“It’s a three year *minimum stay here in Sacramento…they’ve played poorly in this ballpark.” -Angels Broadcast pic.twitter.com/kvkU8o7h5y
— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) May 22, 2025
“Whether they enjoy these facilities or not, this is the cards that they’ve been handed,” Randazzo said. “Mark Kotsay tries to keep his team as level-headed about it as possible, but you never know how these guys are feeling.”
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Top A’s starting pitcher Luis Severino received the biggest free-agent contract ever handed out by the franchise this offseason and seemed fine with the Sacramento setup at signing. But ever since he pitched his first game in Sutter Health Park, Severino has constantly bashed the ballpark’s layout, saying the clubhouses being in the outfield are a hindrance that has thrown off his routine and rhythm.
“I’d say 95% of the starting pitchers don’t stay in the dugout, they throw an inning and then go indoors and relax in there,” Severino told the San Francisco Standard on May 10. “Being here, you go out (to the mound), you compete and then sit down again and watch the game and then go back. It’s tough for me. It takes you out of your routine. You’re used to doing your routine your whole life, and then you come here, you have to change it.”
“This is gonna be a summer this grass is never gonna forget.” -Yankees Broadcast
“This just is not a big league park.” -Luis Severino via the YES network pic.twitter.com/pOIHOii6uF
— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) May 10, 2025
Or, as Severino told YES Network rather bluntly earlier that same weekend: “This just is not a big league park.”
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A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler also may have let his feelings slip about the stadium setup. When top prospect Nick Kurtz was promoted to the big leagues and joined the A’s in their temporary digs, Butler was asked what he remembered about his own debut.
Lawrence Butler was asked to recount his own MLB debut ahead of Nick Kurtz’s debut tonight in Sacramento.
“Being able to step out into a big league stadium for the first time—obviously he won’t be able to experience that [at Sutter Health].”#Athletics pic.twitter.com/9UjdVbaQbq
— Uprooted (@uprootedoakland) April 24, 2025
“It was pretty cool just being able to step out into a big league stadium for the first time,” Butler said on April 23. “Obviously, he won’t be able to experience that, but, I mean it’s still a cool feeling, playing your first big league game, it’s amazing. I mean, you’re going to be playing against the top talent in the world.”
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The A’s are currently scheduled to play in Sacramento through 2027, but they could stay there into 2028 if there are construction delays for their new stadium in Las Vegas.