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Athletics player Brent Rooker points to a Las Vegas logo on his jersey during a press conference, Friday, March 7, 2025, in Las Vegas. Photo by: Wade Vandervort
By Case Keefer (contact)
Thursday, July 3, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Most Athletics fans remember dominant closer Rollie Fingers most for the three straight World Series titles he helped the franchise win from 1972 to 1974 near the start of his Hall of Fame career.
But that’s not where the now 79-year-old Henderson resident starts when he reflects on his journey. He goes all the way back to when the A’s called him up to Major League Baseball in the first season after the team moved from Kansas City to Oakland.
“In ‘68 when I joined the A’s, we were a little shaky,” Fingers recently reminisced. “We played together for about three or four years and then it clicked. Baseball is a funny game. It can change in a hurry. You can be bad one year and then the next year if it works you can be in the playoffs.”
The Athletics are hoping to repeat history and time their latest spike in success to coincide with their MLB-record fourth relocation in 2028.
That’s when the ballclub is slated to move into a planned $1.7 billion stadium on the Las Vegas Strip where the Tropicana previously stood for 67 years.
Franchise leaders and elected officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site on June 23, even though preliminary construction began a month earlier.
There was a lot of talk about the A’s future at the event, and it didn’t only regard the anticipation of watching the plush 33,000-seat venue come to life. A’s owner John Fisher expressed just as much excitement about the team that will take the new field.
The A’s have been one of the worst teams in baseball for the last three seasons and are on pace to finish near the bottom of the standings again this year, but Fisher vowed that’s going to flip in Las Vegas.
“We expect we’re going to have one of the most exciting teams in baseball,” he said. “We have the pieces to make that happen.”
The hope is that the A’s are currently mired in a period of growing pains not unlike the one Fingers described living through a half-century ago.
The outlook was bleak after the 2023 season when the A’s finished as one of the 30 worst teams in the modern era of baseball with a 50-112 record, but there have been reasons for optimism since.
Namely, there’s been hope in the A’s youth.
The team has the ninth-youngest roster in baseball this season with a bunch of up-and-coming players that will remain under team control and should be entering their primes together in Las Vegas.
“The A’s have put together one of the most talented young rosters in Major League Baseball as they begin to build toward 2028,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Players like Jacob Wilson, Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler should help bring not only a baseball team but a winner to here in Las Vegas.”
The trio referenced by Manfred could conceivably be the top three hitters in the A’s lineup on Opening Day of the 2028 season.
The 23-year-old Wilson, a shortstop, is currently running away with this year’s American League Rookie of the Year award as one of the league’s surest hitters.
The 24-year-old Butler, a leadoff-hitting right fielder, recently signed a seven-year, $65 million deal with the A’s. The 30-year-old Rooker, a designated hitter, has shown off one of MLB’s most powerful swings as somewhat of a late bloomer in the three years since he emerged after a minor-league stint with the Las Vegas Aviators.
Other former Aviators with star potential include a trio of recent first-round draft picks—first baseman Nick Kurtz, outfielder Tyler Soderstrom and catcher Shea Langeliers.
Meanwhile, starting pitcher Jacob Lopez has come on as the A’s most reliable arm and, if anyone can channel Fingers, it’s closer Mason Miller, who had 15 straight scoreless appearances as a rookie in 2024.
Fingers is predicting big things for the A’s in Las Vegas, and he’s not alone.
“Our goal is to continue to build upon what we have,” Fisher said. “Building a team is like building anything else: Sometimes it takes more time than you want it to. It’s like building a stadium, but we think that we have the pieces to make ourselves successful.”
This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.
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