The Athletics are set to embark on a monumental offseason for the club as soon as the World Series is over at the end of the month. Within five days of a new champion being crowned, Luis Severino will decide whether he will stick around in Sacramento for one more season, while the A's will make their own decisions on the player options of Jeffrey Springs and Jeff McNeil. 

Manager Mark Kotsay has made it no secret that the team plans to add some pitching depth to this club over the offseason after posting a 5.53 ERA as a team, ranking them 29th in MLB, ahead of just the Colorado Rockies. 

Part of the issue was not having enough MLB-caliber arms waiting in the wings when the bullpen began to struggle. The same goes for the starting rotation, where they gave a number of players a chance to earn a role on the team. Not including relief pitcher openers, the A's used 12 different pitchers to start a game. 

There are only so many ways to add players to a roster, but which path the A's choose should tell us a bit about ownership's desire to be competitive in 2027. For instance, if they decide to sign a free agent who can be a huge help before the expected lockout, that is a positive sign.

The same goes for the front office making a trade in the month they have between the end of the World Series and when things are expected to shut down at the beginning of December. 

With so many position players locked into roles moving forward and second base being the only potential question mark heading into the offseason, that could leave a number of prospects on that side of the ball that the team is able to move in order to land the pitching they're after. 

There are five known candidates to fill the team's vacancy at GM, but the most recent news has been former Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels taking his name out of consideration for the role. 

Which person they choose for GM will determine the team's path moving into the future — which includes Las Vegas in 2028. 

Internal candidate Billy Owens would represent continuity and loyalty, albeit with a different set of eyes. James Click has been an executive at some innovative clubs, and could help bring the A's front office up to speed. 

Former Nationals GM Mike Rizzo would be an indicator of the A's getting ready to spend on free agents. When Rizzo had success, Washington's payroll was usually in the top 10. 

The two Boston Red Sox SVP/AGMs, Mike Groopman and Taylor Smith, would each bring their own skills to the role. Groopman has been on the analytics side of things throughout his career, while Smith has been more of an analyst in different roles with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays before joining the Sox in 2024.

The offseason is typically when we see some veteran players who no longer have a role with the club designated for assignment to clear roster spots for the next wave of players for the following season. With the A's facing so many injuries in 2026, they will have to not only fit as many as 10 players back onto the 40-man roster, but also make some decisions on the players who were filling in for those injured players.

Has Donovan Walton or Alika Williams earned a spot on the roster — likely a bench role — going into 2027? Both performed well, but there will likely only be one spot available on next year's roster. Will the A's give that to Walton, who is out of options, and begin Williams in the minors as a crucial depth piece? 

That's one way to go about it. It would also mean both of them holding roster spots all winter. 

Backup catcher Brian Serven is another player the A's will have to make a decision on. He hit just .175 with a .224 OBP and a 55 wRC+, but he was a tremendous blocker behind the dish. His seven blocks above average would have ranked 9th among catchers if he'd qualified. The fact that he didn't meet the playing time requirement but was in the discussion anyway is impressive. 

The A's will need a backup catcher, but will it be Serven? 

Carlos Cortes is another guy who holds a bench role when everyone is healthy, but also showed that he can be a big contributor for stretches when needed. With the emergence of Henry Bolte in center field, that pushes Denzel Clarke to the bench.

The question will be whether the A's roll with Clarke or Cortes as a fourth outfielder, and whether the odd man out will be traded instead.

Then, of course, there are all of the bullpen pieces that were brought in during the final two months. Scott Blewett appears to have made his case well enough to be in the mix this winter, but the A's will also be after relief arms with options to give them flexibility. Chris Roycroft, Seth Johnson, Geoff Hartlieb, and Joey Estes are out of options.

While each has shown spurts of success, the big question is what the opportunity cost is for keeping each of them around all winter. These are the guys who could be in trouble as the front office looks to make those marginal upgrades to the roster, likely targeting players with more options remaining.