Forst excited to see the Sutter Health Park plans taking shape

This story was excerpted from Martin Gallegos' A's Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

While the Winter Meetings offer a time for clubs to focus on ways to improve their rosters, the Athletics and their off-the-field happenings carry a bit more intrigue this offseason than with most other teams.

That’s why, in addition to fielding the usual questions about free agency and trades, general manager David Forst found himself frequently being asked about the impending temporary relocation to Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento (for at least the next three seasons) before a planned relocation to a new ballpark in Las Vegas for 2028.

There are plenty of questions about how everything will work out. After all, the A’s will be sharing Sutter Health Park with the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the Giants.

MLB and MiLB have already coordinated home schedules to accommodate both teams and ensure that there are no instances in which both teams play at home on the same day. In addition, renovations to bring such amenities as the clubhouses, dugouts, batting cages and bullpens up to Major League quality have been announced.

Still, other questions remained as to the logistics of the move. During the Winter Meetings in Dallas last month, Forst took time to provide some answers during media sessions with reporters.

• 'They're super excited to have us': A's do some exploring in Sacramento

Have you had a chance to see the construction at Sutter Health Park? If so, how does it all look?

I was there for the [Luis Severino] press conference. It looks great. They’re moving right along. It’ll definitely be ready by Opening Day. I think we’ll be able to move in by March. We have been looking at plans on paper for six months, so it was nice to see the rooms set up. It’s going to be a nice clubhouse.

Is there a sense of how sharing with the River Cats will go?

Other than batting cages, there’s really no shared space. The batting cages are the one place where we have two cages when we’re at home, and they’ll take those two cages when they’re at home. … But the River Cats won’t be on our side of the building at all.

There are three clubhouses?

That’s right. There’s a [River Cats] home, a visiting, and then [a new two-story] building that is ours. The visiting Major League team will have access to parts of both [the River Cats’ home and the visitors’ side]. Essentially, they won’t have the River Cats’ locker room. Everything else on that home side, they’ll have access to. … The River Cats’ lockers are the one area that is untouched by the visiting Major League team. The visiting Major League team will be in the visiting Minor League locker room.

What has the experience of recruiting players to a team that will be playing in a Minor League park for the next three years been like?

We’ve actually sent out the plans to a lot of players so they can see what we’re building. There’s an honesty in that we’re going to do the best we can to make this a Major League facility. The River Cats have been unbelievable. [River Cats president/COO] Chip Maxson has done absolutely everything we’ve asked and continues to. He’s been great. The whole organization has really tried to do everything to help by redoing the bullpens and the dugouts. This is going to be a big league experience. … We’re going to have a beautiful new clubhouse. I think we’ve embraced it as we’ve tried to recruit players and bring them here.”