San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey raised his eyebrows and tilted his head slightly at notion of the Athletics moving from Oakland to West Sacramento, Calif., in 2025. In an interview with Pitcher List, Bailey said that Sutter Health Field was briefly his home park at Triple-A two years ago.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Bailey said.
Not even Marcus Semien could say with certainty what’s ahead for the Athletics as they count down to their home opener Monday in a new city. Semien played in the International League coming up with the Chicago White Sox, so he missed an opportunity to play in the Sacramento Valley while ascending to the big leagues.
No matter, because if anyone might have an idea about what’s in store for the A’s, it’s Semien, who became intimately informed on the relevant topics years before he came to play second base for the Texas Rangers. Semien grew up near Oakland, later played six years for the Athletics, and even dealt with his own team at the time, the Toronto Blue Jays, being moved to minor-league stadiums in Buffalo and Dunedin, Fla., temporarily amid COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in 2020 and 2021.
Semien just shook his head at the reality of the A’s no longer being rooted in Oakland and needing to spend an extended amount of time in a transitional city until club owner John Fisher gets a new ballpark built in Las Vegas. For the next three seasons, as it stands now, the Athletics plan to share Sutter Health with the Triple-A team of the Giants. But not before making upgrades to the stadium to bring it closer to major-league quality, a process that has been ongoing.
“I mean, it’s just unfortunate that it’s going to be for three years,” Semien said. “Especially with how good that team is going to be. I wish they could have just got something done in Oakland and played those three years in Oakland and transitioned to Vegas.”
Adapting will differ from Semien’s experience with the Blue Jays, which lasted until the end of July in ’21. It’s just another of the many factors about the game that players do not control, despite having a certain amount of agency through the Major League Baseball Players Association, on which Semien serves at a league-wide level.
“There will have to be standards in terms of our workspace, the clubhouse, and things like that,” Semien said. “But as far as where it is, you know, they made that decision. It’s out of the players’ control.”
Athletics slugger Brent Rooker, who signed a $60 million contract extension in the offseason that would keep him with team through at least 2029, said he was assured the upgrades will be good enough.
“Our facility is going to be up to par and up the standard as far as what we need to perform and compete,” Rooker said. “And we’re gonna make the best of everything else.”
One of the first changes at Sutter Health came to the playing surface itself, with natural grass installed in the offseason. Swapping out the artificial turf, it has been said, will help regulate surface temperatures in the hot summers. They average 91 degrees in June, 97 in July, 95 in August, and 92 in September, with practically zero rain and 6% cloud cover in midsummer. That means coats won’t be necessary anymore at summertime A’s games like in the Coliseum. Hot temps also will be good prep for Vegas — even if a dome is expected to be built there, once the new ballpark goes from wish list to under construction.
In a press release, the A’s said they’ve installed a new video board and related items for fans, and have made infrastructure, internet and general communications improvements to make viable any video replay reviews, and Statcast data tracking for games. Also greeting the players: A renovated home clubhouse that includes all sorts of training and medical amenities they might find at modernized ballparks around the league. In the release, the A’s used language like “state of the art”, “cutting edge”, and “comprehensive” to describe the renovations.
And not least of all: a bathroom for the bullpen, which makes you wonder what the relief corps used to do when needing to … relieve themselves.
No matter the updates, and they appear to be extensive, the place is likely to feel more like what MLB players experience in the minors or spring training. Ballpark seating capacity is said to be 14,014, including 10,624 permanent fixed seats, plus additional lawn seating on grass berms in left field and right. Berms, like in spring training.
The greater Sacramento community seems to be enthusiastic about Major League Baseball. The Sacramento Kings of the NBA have a long history of being a good time in person, and baseball fans are following suit. Ticket sales have been robust, with season tickets selling out in January. Individuals could get $48 lawn seats for the Guardians on Athletics-Tickets-Buy_Athletics_Tickets-Single_Game_Tickets_Buy_Tickets_Button-x0-Desktop-Landscape&adobe_mc=MCMID=35847042546410822301258716157143931200&MCAID=326F3C2FFAC3344C-600002F820BDCFC4&MCORGID=A65F776A5245B01B0A490D44@AdobeOrg&TS=1743198832&affiliateId=min-panel-nelly-030325&partnerId=it-20250307-12822235-kc-1-A#/event/9487302/seatmap/?seatmapId=4161&selectBuyers=false&minPrice=48.45&maxPrice=252.2&quantity=1&sort=price_desc&ada=false&seatSelection=true&onlyCoupon=true&onlyVoucher=false”>a Friday night in June. Some games have sold out, so it’s also possible if anyone wants to buy a single-game ticket to a particular A’s game at Sutter Health, it would have to be on the resale market. The A’s have become an item in demand.
Giants infielder Tyler Fitzgerald, entering his second season in the majors, played in 2023-24 at Sutter Health for home games with Sacramento River Cats, the team with whom the A’s will be bunking. Pre-renovations, as a minor leaguer, he loved it.
“You know, when we packed that place out for the Fourth of July, the atmosphere was awesome,” Fitzgerald said. “I think they’re going to have those nights where it comes alive. They have a good up-and-coming team with a lot of young guys. So I think there’s some excitement there.”
The Giants visit Sutter Health this July 4.
An intimate setting with a packed ballpark for every home game is not necessarily a bad thing if one thinks positively, as baseball players prefer to do. “They could rally around that, if that’s the way they want to go,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s certainly going to be some excitement for the fans.”
Presumably, most fans who live in the East Bay won’t be making the 180-ish-mile round-trip commute on the regular to watch anyone play in Sacramento. It’s not only too far but too painful. Rooker acknowledged the disconnect that’s happening with fans, up to and including those who feel they can’t be A’s fans anymore.
“I’m sure that opinion exists,” Rooker said. “We hope it’s not true. We hope that the guys we have on our team are very easy to root for. We’re gonna put some good teams on the field in the coming years. We hope we’re able to retain an already existing very, very passionate fan base, and to. build on it the next several years.”
The A’s moving has been a tremendous letdown for Oakland, which also has lost the Raiders to Las Vegas and the Golden State Warriors to San Francisco. The Raiders have come and gone twice now, and the W’s used to be across the Bay. Presumably this time it’s forever. Now it’s A’s fans turn to mourn.
Semien and his family are among them. He grew up playing youth baseball in El Cerrito, an East Bay town about 20 minutes away from the Coliseum. Semien and his family attended many A’s games there, and his family got to watch Semien play for Oakland from 2015 to 2020. It’s where Semien turned into a star, and having hometown fans cheering for him enhanced his experience.
“I’m a Bay Area kid. I grew up in the East Bay,” Semien said. “I played for the A’s for six years, and I had six of the best years of my life there. Oakland has a bad reputation at times for the facilities and whatnot. But I got to play in front of my family, and, you know, start raising my family there. So I have a different perspective.
“I really feel for those fans in Oakland. I feel for the security guards who may lose jobs, or anybody who is affiliated with baseball and loses their job. It’s all pretty unfortunate.”
A lot of Coliseum criticisms were valid, its drawbacks real. It really flooded sewage in the clubhouse. Critters actually infested the broadcast booth. Mt. Davis was ugly, spoiling one of the best views in MLB. Attendance could lag well below league average. The A’s didn’t crack a million fans over any of their final four seasons in Oakland. Not only did the A’s on the field occupy a commensurate place in the standings, but ownership acted like it couldn’t wait to leave town. Why should fans pay for such a privilege?
Semien asserts that A’s players are the ones who stand to bear the next loss. Few fanbases have a reputation for being deeply passionate about their team and troubled by it. Semien asserted that A’s players will miss the human connection with the Coliseum, no matter how the team is received in West Sacramento.
“It’s unfortunate that the guys don’t get to experience what I did,” Semien said. “I know the passion those fans have for the game. All across the Bay — Giants fans too. When the teams are good, it’s a very fun thing.”
Rooker seems to grasp what he’ll be missing.
“The people you meet there in Oakland — the attendance numbers were what they were the last few years — but the people who show up are very passionate and very friendly and go out of the way to ask about you and your family,” Rooker said. “So I’ll miss the people and the relationships that I built there.”
For A’s players, it’s time for something new. There are practical questions about how the field will play. It’s possible the renovations might change gameplay, as new construction can do. In past seasons, Sutter Health was said to play fairly for hitters and pitchers, at least in comparison to other homer-friendly parks in the Pacific Coast League.
A’s infielder Zack Gelof, also their player representative for the union, says the team’s mindset will be fine as long it’s realistic about the totality of what is coming. And remembering the players cannot control where they play.
“Obviously it still is a Triple-A ballpark, but from everything that we’ve gathered, it’s going to be as best as it can be, and it is what it is,” Gelof said. “It’ll be good enough. Now as players, we’re just kind of focused on winning.
“We’ve done our best to make sure that, from an ownership standpoint, coaches, players, I think we all looked at making Sacramento home for three years. We will try to make it the best that we can. I think everything’s set up for us to just do what we want to do.”
