Butler blossoms and gets his flowers

MESA, Ariz. -- In recent months, the Athletics extended manager Mark Kotsay’s contract, signed starting pitcher Luis Severino to the largest guaranteed deal in franchise history and extended All-Star slugger Brent Rooker. Now they have added another long-term contract to the list.

On Monday, the A’s announced a seven-year deal with outfielder Lawrence Butler that includes a club option for 2032. The deal is worth $65.5 million, a source previously told MLB.com.

“[Butler’s] A’s story represents the absolute best of this organization and the best of what we’re looking for in players,” Athletics general manager David Forst said during a press conference on Monday. “This is not a former first-round pick sitting here. This is a sixth-round pick, a scouting triumph by Jemel Spearman, our area scout who’s been here for 13 years.

“This is a guy who touched every single level of our organization. It’s an absolute player development success story. … We couldn’t be more excited to have Lawrence locked up into our new home in Las Vegas in 2028 and well beyond.”

Butler had a slash line of .262/.317/.490 with 22 home runs and 57 RBIs in the Majors in 2024. After getting off to a slow start, he was optioned to Triple-A in mid-May. When he returned to the Majors in June, he was one of the best players in the league. In 73 games from July 1 through the end of the season, he posted a .943 OPS with 20 homers, 49 RBIs and 14 stolen bases.

• "Sky's the limit" for newly inked Butler

With just over a year of service time under his belt, the 24-year-old Butler could have waited to pursue a long-term deal. Perhaps, he could have earned more by doing so. But this contract still represents life-changing money -- and an opportunity to be part of an emerging A’s young core for many years to come.

“It's amazing,” Butler said. “I've played with a lot of these players on my team since I was in low-A. For a lot of us to come through the system together and make it to the big leagues and have success in the big leagues is huge. … It just shows that the A's don't just draft players and put them on the shelf. We love to develop players.”

The press conference Monday took place on the grass in right field at Hohokam Stadium -- representative of the position Butler figures to play for the foreseeable future. As was the case with Kotsay’s extension presser in February, the whole team showed up to support.

Rooker, who signed his extension in January, was happy to see Butler follow.

“It's awesome,” Rooker said. “It's well deserved. It continues to show the turning of the page and the moving into an era where we think we're very close to being very competitive and winning a lot of games, and Lawrence is at the center of that.”

When asked about Butler’s growth in 2024, Rooker pointed to his confidence.

“You saw a guy who is very clearly good enough to be a superstar in this league start to believe that about himself,” Rooker said, “... That was reflected by the kind of numbers he put up.”

A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson was in Triple-A last year when Butler was optioned.

“You could just see the fire when he got there,” Wilson said. “It’s just like, ‘What can I do to get better and get back up?’ And, obviously, you see him go up and do his thing in that second half. He dominated.”

Forst said that after the club finalized its relocation plans last year, he started having internal discussions about the possibility of signing some long-term contracts.

“These are things we’ve talked about for years and just never really had the ability to do,” Forst said. “Until our future was secured with Vegas, until we had these plans and now have a timeline for 2028, they just weren’t realistic.”

Butler still holds a special place in his heart for Oakland fans.

“The [Oakland] fans always stuck by me,” Butler said. “They always were behind me no matter if I was in low-A or the big leagues. They were still rooting for me, wanting me to get up as quick as possible. I just got to say thank you.

“There's a lot of fans that I made connections with over the years through Oakland. I just hope that they don't stop watching us play and know that everything we still do, they're a part of it.”