The Yankees added some competition for their open utilityman spot Monday by bringing in an infielder with good right-handed power. Kevin Smith has signed to a minor-league contract with the club, the New York Daily News first reported. Smith, 27, is just a .173 hitter over 114 career big-league as a big-league games, all of them coming over the last three seasons, but he belted 21 homers in 91 games in 2023. Smith hit .185 with 5 homers and 11 RBI in 49 games for Oakland Athletics and for Triple-A Las Vegas raked at a .324 clip with 16 homers and 46 RBI in 42 games.

A number of former Athletics, some key players from the contending teams of 2018 through 2020, have been on the move in free agency this offseason. Most recently, former A's ace Frankie Montas signed a one-year, $14 million contract with the Cincinnati Reds. Coming off a big season with the Twins, Gray got a three-year, $75 million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Former Oakland Athletics left-hander Sean Manaea has a new home after agreeing to a two-year deal with the New York Mets worth a reported $28 million. The deal reportedly includes an opt-out after the 2024 season . Oakland traded Manaea to the Padres in April of 2022 along with Aaron Holiday in exchange for Adrian Martinez and Euribiel Angeles. He spent one season in San Diego before signing with the Giants. Manaea struggled through the first part of the 2023 season and lost his spot in the Giants' rotation. He made a late adjustment though and returned to the rotation in September pitching well over his final four starts. He opted out of his deal that would have paid him $12.5 million to enter

It's a new year, but the same old penny-pinching John Fisher at the top of the Oakland A's. In reaction to the PR hit they received for cowardly denying the Oakland Ballers an opportunity to play at the Coliseum in 2024, the A's tried to get some positive press out by confirming that the team met the requirements to indefinitely remain in the league's revenue sharing program — i.e. Of course, the A's used their external PR department, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, to disseminate their message. The franchise had a January 15 deadline to get a binding agreement for a new stadium deal, which they met long ago when they completed an agreement with Bally's Corp. to build a ballpark on the company's Tropicana site in Las Vegas.

It probably should not surprise that the Yankees and Athletics, two franchises with long histories, have a considerable trade history with each other. The first occurred in 1903 when the New York Highlanders purchased Dave Fultz from the Philadelphia Athletics — amusingly enough, New York traded him back three years later. Most recently, New York sent considerable prospect capital to Oakland to bring Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the Bronx at the 2022 Trade Deadline.

The Oakland Athletics are not in danger of being removed from MLB's revenue sharing system. The A's binding agreement with Tropicana owner Bally's Corp. to construct a new ballpark on the Strip met a mandate to keep the team in the league's revenue sharing program set by the latest MLB collective bargaining agreement, people with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the Review-Journal.

Freedman said he and co-founder Bryan Carmel had a signed contract in place and deposit paid through communication with ASM Global, which operates the building for the Coliseum Authority — an agency leasing the ballpark to the Athletics. Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved the A's relocation to Las Vegas in November, and the team plans to move into a new stadium on the Las Vegas Strip in 2028. It's not clear where Oakland will play in 2025 and in subsequent years until the new ballpark opens. For now, the A's have exclusive rights to play professional baseball at the Coliseum and declined to grant consent for the Ballers based on their license agreement with the Coliseum Authority.

The Oakland Athletics rejected the Oakland Ballers request to play a Pioneer League Game at the Oakland Coliseum on June 29, 2024, despite the Ballers having an agreement in place with ASM Global, the organization that manages the stadium. However, under our license agreement with the JPA, we have the exclusive right to play professional baseball at the Coliseum, and we therefore do not consent to your request.

The minor league Oakland B's planned to take over the Oakland A's venue at the Coliseum for a night of nostalgia in late June -- until the big league club blocked their agreement as exclusive rights holder to the building for professional baseball. Months ago, before the newly created Oakland Ballers were official and for the most part still just a big dream, co-founder Paul Freedman went back and forth by email some 70 times in an effort to secure one special game at one special venue where he and so many others hold treasured memories dating to their youths. Freedman said he and co-founder Bryan Carmel had a signed contract in place and deposit paid through communication with ASM Global, which operates the building for the Coliseum Authority -- an agency leasing the ballpark to the A's through this year.