ARLINGTON, Texas – The Major League Baseball Players Association is in negotiations with MLB about the logistics of the A’s interim move next year from Oakland to a minor-league facility in Sacramento, Tony Clark, the union’s executive director, said.
That move, which is for three years, is pending the A’s permanent relocation to Las Vegas no earlier than 2028 as negotiations to build a domed $1.5 billion ballpark there continue to lag.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how things progress,” Clark said Friday about the Vegas move during All-Star weekend festivities at Globe Life Field. “But there are a lot of moving pieces and a lot of open questions that need to be answered.”
Sacramento is the immediate concern as the A’s prepare to abandon the Oakland Coliseum after 56 years at the end of this season. They moved to Oakland from Kansas City in 1968.
The major concern is the health and safety issues of playing outdoors this time of year in the oppressive heat at Sutter Health Park, a 14,000-seat minor league ballpark that was opened in 2000 and has been home since then to Triple-A affiliates of the A’s and now the San Francisco Giants. Particularly on a new artificial turf surface.
The average high temperature in Sacramento was 107.5 over the first 12 days of this month, with the high hitting 113 on multiple days.
“We are in discussions and negotiations as we speak about all things player centric around Sacramento,” Clark said. “We’re having conversations about the field, facilities, about the schedule. All of those things related to the A’s moving.”
To that end, major league clubhouses must be constructed separate from the minor league facilities and the lighting has to be upgraded. Since the A’s will play an 81-game home schedule wedged around 75 minor league games at Sutter Health Park, an artificial surface replacing the natural grass field is under consideration.
While older versions of artificial turf tended to heat up, there’s a newer product called ShawTurf utilized now in Globe Life Field and Arizona’s Chase Field that has the resiliency of turf, but the temperature control of grass. Both of those ballparks have moveable roofs.
All the games could be played at night.
“There are different ways to address that,” Clark said when asked about the heat factor playing outdoors during summers in Sacramento. “One of them is obvious and relates to them playing in the evenings, which tends to be a little cooler than the middle of the day. It all goes to the games that need to be played. What’s the best condition to play those games, knowing that this isn’t one game, or one series. This is a whole season that needs to be played there.”
On Saturday he told the Los Angeles Times that playing some morning games also might be a possibility.
The Basic Agreement stipulates that any facility hosting MLB games “shall have a field, dugouts and clubhouses that conform to Major League standards, and the Players Association shall have the right to inspect the facilities before the game(s), consistent with past practice.”
The union has worked with MLB before regarding converting minor league facilities for extended Major League play.
During the relocation search of the Montreal Expos, that team played 22 “home” games during each of the 2003 and 2004 seasons at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Expos permanently moved to Washington in 2005 and were renamed the Nationals.
During the 60-game, 2020 COVID-19 shortened season and a few months in 2021, the Toronto Blue Jays had to move to Buffalo’s Sahlen Field, home of the Triple-A Bisons, because of pandemic-related immigration restrictions traveling back and forth across the Canadian-U.S. border.
In both cases, wholesale improvements had to made in those facilities to accommodate the two Canadian-based teams. That was accomplished with the cooperation of MLB and the union.
“Every experience we’ve had is a model,” Clark said. “Players and their interests needed to be addressed. Health and safety.”
Any objections to the Sacramento situation?
“I’ll simply suggest that the discussions are ongoing. I’ll leave it at that,” he added.