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

In a stark change from the past few years, the Athletics have been one of the more aggressive teams in baseball early in the offseason when it comes to making moves to improve their roster, having already added veterans such as Luis Severino and Jeffrey Springs on the pitching side and third baseman Gio Urshela.

That shift in approach stems from the belief within the organization that the A’s are a young team on the rise. They sure looked the part at the end of last season, putting together a 39-37 record over the final 76 games of 2024. The momentum generated from that successful run has led the A’s to look to supplement their young core with the proper reinforcements that can help this team be much more competitive in 2025.

But just how competitive can the A’s be next season? Yes, they improved upon their 2023 win total by 19 games. However, going from 69 wins to competing for a spot in the playoffs is a large task, especially considering that most of the pressure will lie on the young group of talented players like Lawrence Butler, No. 1 prospect Jacob Wilson, Shea Langeliers, Mason Miller, JJ Bleday, Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstrom – all of whom have flashed their skills at different times over the last two years – to perform over a full season as a collective unit.

A’s manager Mark Kotsay has been in the game long enough to know that just because the vibes may be trending up entering 2025, even with the recent player acquisitions, that does not necessarily mean things will go smoothly from the jump for this core group that overall still lacks some experience.

“The way we finished the second half, we built a lot of momentum,” Kotsay said. “The young position player group kind of carried that momentum. We’ve still got a ways to go. The signing of Severino shows the desire to accelerate that process and add to this group that showed that they could compete in the second half.

“The veteran starter that has a track record of success and pitching in the postseason was a target for us. To be able to land Sevy and bring him in, not just from a performance standpoint, but from a leadership standpoint, to have him surround himself with guys like J.T. Ginn, Joey Estes, Osvaldo Bido and Mitch Spence is really going to add to their development and their growth.”

One thing is clear. There is going to be a different feeling inside the A’s clubhouse once players arrive to Mesa, Ariz., in February for Spring Training. As opposed to the previous three seasons that have focused more on rebuilding and identifying which players are part of this club’s future, the A’s now have a defined group coming in that knows what it is capable of. Now it’s about proving their potential over a full season and trying to make that difficult leap into contention in the American League West.

“It’s a different level of expectation on my end going into Spring Training with the group that we have,” Kotsay said. “I know that there’s going to be bumps, because they still are young. Maturity generally happens into those arbitration years. I think we can look at a player like Brent Rooker that it took time for him to become the player that we’re looking at in front of us now as a middle-of-the-order bat.

“We’re looking for players like Zack Gelof to have those two [good] seasons back-to-back. We’re also looking for JJ Bleday and Shea Langeliers, those guys that are leading into their arbitration years, to really come about and solidify the type of player they can be consistently. We’ve seen that in spurts. We saw Lawrence Butler at his best for two months at the top of the game. We also saw him [earlier in the season] have to go back to Triple-A and reset. The goal is to get these guys as consistent as possible as quickly as possible. If that happens, I think we have a definite opportunity to make some noise in the division and compete with teams like Houston and Seattle.”