The A’s current approach to rebuilding has some fans nervous, because it relies on the success of many prospects and nothing is less predictable than the fate of prospects. Oakland has been disciplined in not trading any of its "exciting young core," preferring instead to sign free agents who have in common that are may not be elite players but they also will not block young players as they arrive. Matt Joyce, Rajai Davis, Trevor Plouffe, and Santiago Casilla are all on 1-2 year deals for relatively little money.
The risk, of course, is that the A’s are leaning heavily on success from players who have yet to enjoy success in the big leagues — in many cases they haven’t even had so much as a cup of coffee and in other cases a small cup is exactly the sum total of their experience.