Taylor Smith and the Athletics front office are planning to prioritize the long-term success of the future out of the gate, and are currently looking to get a full sense of the roster before making moves. He wants to make sure he understands both the roster and the context the team is playing in, according to recent comments on MLB Network Radio. 

There are a couple of ways to interpret that information. 

The first is that he's simply taking his time to make sure he has a firm understanding of not only the statistics each player brings, but also how they fit in the clubhouse and their importance in that regard as well. 

The context piece of that equation could also be translated to mean that the team will be holding off until after the expected lockout (set to begin December 1) to make any big moves, because the context could simply be whether there is a salary cap/floor or not. That decision would have a big impact on the A's spending plans. 

The only addition that the A's have made since Smith was named POBO has been Nate Eaton, a fourth outfield option with 96th-percentile speed and 97th-percentile arm strength, making him more of a defensive addition to the club.

Combine it all together, and you get a front office seemingly ready to play it slow while both Smith and new GM Cam Castro get up to speed in their new roles. 

This certainly hasn't been said outright and may not even be on their radar, but if the goal is the team's long-term success, could they consider moving players that either aren't signed to that long-term vision or don't align with their own vision of the club?

Shea Langeliers will be a free agent following the 2028 season, and while Athletics Roundtable has put together what an extension could look like, we also noted that we're getting to a point where an extension doesn't make sense for the team, given when catcher contracts typically end.

At the same time, Langeliers would be a very valuable trade piece this winter if the front office believes he could help bring in some missing pieces while also going in a different direction behind the plate. 

Langeliers is a terrific offensive catcher who also ranked in the 92nd percentile in pop time and 76th percentile in caught-stealing above average. The backstop ranked in just the 29th percentile in blocking and the 14th percentile in framing. Given the A's young pitching staff, could the front office look to improve those blocking and framing metrics with a different catcher to give the pitching staff a boost?

Defense is one area the A's need to address, and they could do that by moving Langeliers, who may not agree to an extension, or Lawrence Butler, who is already signed to an extension through at least 2031.

He graded out as one of the worst outfielders in baseball in 2026. At the same time, Butler also entered the season coming off knee surgery, and graded out much better the previous season with +4 outs above average, compared to the -11 OAA from 2026. 

Given the A's offensive depth, they could conceivably move one of the bats in their everyday lineup in order to make dramatic gains on the defensive end. 

Whether or not that is the most prudent option for the club is something that would need some time to calculate, and it takes a number of factors into consideration to make that determination. Both players are leaders in the clubhouse, which is something that the numbers don't measure. That is potentially what Smith means when he says he wants to understand the roster. 

When the A's previous leadership traded away Yoenis Céspedes back in 2014 for Jon Lester, the team and the clubhouse fell apart. On paper, it was a defensible move, but in practice it didn't pay off. Analytics have come a long way since that trade, with team chemistry being another factor that has to be considered these days. 

The roster has already been facing the challenges of a relocation, along with playing in a minor-league ballpark. How would the players they potentially bring in embrace those challenges? 

It's too early to know which way Smith and Castro will take this roster, with Smith's comments leaving room for multiple interpretations. What's clear is that whichever path they choose this offseason will not be rushed, and they will consider a number of different factors to make sure it's the best move for the franchise moving forward.