Starting pitcher for the Athletics, Luis Severino, didn’t hold back this week when talking about the team’s temporary home in Sacramento. And honestly, who can blame him?
“It feels like a spring training kind of game every time I pitch,” Severino told reporters. “We play in a big-league stadium on the road. We don’t have that at home right now.”
Translation: This whole setup is a joke.
Sutter Health Park—where the A’s are squatting until their Las Vegas stadium is built—isn’t just a downgrade. It’s an outright embarrassment for a professional sports franchise. Clubhouse is in left field. Tiny crowds. A TV setup so inconvenient that Severino can’t even watch the game between innings unless he hikes across the stadium.
The A’s didn’t just leave Oakland—they also left major league standards behind.
A Stadium Fit for… Double-A?
Severino’s home/road splits are brutal: 0–7 with a 6.79 ERA at home, 2–1 with a 2.27 ERA on the road. And he’s not alone. The A’s have the second-worst home ERA in baseball. Visiting players have complained about the mound being like “cement,” the batter’s box being “the worst” they’ve seen, and even hinted that the conditions may have contributed to injuries.
But sure, let’s keep pretending Sacramento is a viable temporary home.
From a logistical perspective, it’s a mess. From a competitive perspective, it’s a nightmare. And from a public relations standpoint, it’s just more proof that this franchise is running on fumes.
The $67 Million Face of a Franchise That Keeps Tripping Over Itself
When the A’s signed Severino to a three-year, $67 million deal this offseason, it was the richest contract in franchise history. It was supposed to signal a new era. A vote of confidence in spending. A star to market in their awkward exile from Oakland.
Seven months later, he calls the park a glorified spring training field and is being shopped at the trade deadline.
You can’t make this up.
Severino has already been linked to the Cubs, among others, as a possible deadline target. But trading him would expose just how flimsy the A’s so-called “new direction” really is. This is the guy you handed your biggest-ever check to—the same guy who now can’t stand pitching at your temporary home.
And he’s right.
Sacramento Is Not the Solution—It’s a Symbol
The A’s problem isn’t just the venue. It’s what the venue represents: a franchise in permanent transition, always promising the future while flailing in the present.
They ran off the fan base in Oakland. They’ve made no real inroads in Sacramento. And now they’re hoping Vegas—still years away—will somehow fix everything.
But when your ace says your stadium feels like spring training, when players openly complain about the field conditions, and when your best free agent signing in years is eyeing the exit, what exactly is there to build on?
Trading Severino Would Be the Final Punchline
The A’s are stuck. If they keep Severino, they risk wasting his prime in a setting he despises. If they trade him, they blow up the one piece of legitimacy they finally spent money on, just months after signing him.
It’s a no-win situation. Which, of course, fits perfectly with how this franchise has operated for years.
Luis Severino didn’t say anything wrong. He just said it out loud. Sacramento does feel like spring training. The only difference is: in spring, there’s still hope.
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