All offseason, Athletics Roundtable will be answering your questions in our mailbag, and on Wednesday, we received a doozy of a question. 

JMEnglish27 asks: The A's have been one of the last places free agents want to end up for years now, and that certainly hasn't gotten any better in Sacramento. Yes, Vegas is on the horizon, but how long do you think it'll take for sought-after players to be comfortable signing free agent deals with the A's? Will the move to Vegas be enough? Or will it require actual change, re:spending and long-term investment, staffing etc. before the poverty label wears off?

The short answer is that it will likely take some time to turn around the reputation of the franchise through a number of ways. One of the easiest would be repeated free agent contracts being handed out. Players will go where there is money being spent.

When the Miami Marlins opened up their new ballpark in 2012, their payroll went from $57.69 million in 2011 to $101.62 million in 2012. The team finished three games worse than the previous season at 69-93, and the front office tore the roster down immediately, trading Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, and José Reyes to the Toronto Blue Jays. 

Behind Giancarlo Stanton, those three were the second-, third-, and fourth-best players on the roster in 2012. 

The Marlins also traded closer Heath Bell to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a deal that netted the A's Chris Young in December. This is on top of trading Hanley Ramírez, Aníbal Sánchez, and more in July. 

Their payroll reached $115 million in 2017, but has remained between $41 million and $99 million every year since. They attempted to show they had changed by making a bunch of moves, but when they didn't work out immediately, the Marlins were back to the club they'd been in their previous ballpark.

One key factor that works in the A's favor here is that there is no income tax in Nevada, which could be an enticing bonus that some other clubs aren't able to offer. 

The bigger piece of the puzzle will be becoming a world-class organization like the Dodgers or Yankees. That requires spending money, whether it's on the roster to bring in or retain talent, or in the front office to make sure the players have up-to-date training materials and tools. It also doesn't hurt to have state-of-the-art recovery options to ensure the players are at their best. 

It's a big investment. 

The hiring of Taylor Smith as president of baseball operations could be the first step down that path, but it will take consistency in order to start changing minds, not something flashy that appears one time and then is gone. 

If you're talking about signing the biggest of fish, like Tarik Skubal this winter, that may never happen. But if we're talking about someone signing in the $150-200 million range, then these are the steps to start attracting those types of players. 

A look at the list of top players set to hit free agency in 2027 turns up guys like Logan Gilbert or Joe Ryan who could be the types of players in that range.

Having a plan for those free agents to find success in Las Vegas while paying them and treating them well at the ballpark will go a long way very quickly around the league. 

The other key will be winning, which is important for the A's to find success in a new market, too. That success will propel the funding into the roster and the facilities, and on and on it goes, with one pushing the other forward. 

Funding, facilities, and winning are the three main keys to shaking that label. How long will that take? The team could attract someone to help open the ballpark in Vegas in 2028, or it could take players a visit or two to the park, along with the word of mouth about the other upgrades that are needed, in order to finally convince the players. 

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