Oakland doesn’t sign its own players to multiyear deals, or so the story goes.
That hasn’t always been true, of course. The team has inked many of its key contributors to multiyear deals during the Billy Beane era, some just through their arbitration years, a few longer. And they still engage their own players in discussions about multiyear deals: Oakland approached shortstop Marcus Semien about a contract of up to five years this past winter, according to sources, and the team briefly talked to outfielder Khris Davis about a multiyear deal.
If the A’s signed Semien — who is local, from El Cerrito and Cal — to something akin to what the White Sox did with shortstop Tim Anderson, who got a six-year, $25 million deal last offseason, it would take him past arbitration; Semien is due to be a free agent after the 2020 season.