ESPN MLB insiders Jeff Passan, Buster Olney blast MLB for ‘debacle’ of Athletics leaving Oakland

ESPN MLB insiders Jeff Passan and Buster Olney blasted MLB and its team owners Thursday in scathing social media posts lamenting the Athletics’ departure from Oakland.

The A’s, who moved to Oakland in 1968, played their final game in the Oakland Coliseum Thursday, a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers. The team will play at least the next three seasons in Sacramento, while it pursues a new stadium deal in Las Vegas.

Emotions were obviously high in Oakland, as sad history unfolded.

While fans have been venting their anger and frustration with team owner John Fisher for several years, the team’s finale in Oakland sparked a wave of emotions from fans, past and present players and A’s announcers. Yet it also prompted angry X posts from Passan and Olney who pointed out the situation could have—should have—been avoided.

“The Oakland A’s were killed by greed,” Passan wrote. “Do not allow the people responsible for this to spin it any other way. John Fisher did not have to move this team. Major League Baseball and its owners did not need to be complicit in it. This was a choice. A wrong one. History will sneer.”

MLB owners voted in late 2023 to approve Fisher’s bid to relocate to Las Vegas, after years of failed attempts to get a new stadium built in Oakland. Olney pointed out the Athletics’ temporary home for at least three seasons in a minor-league stadium in West Sacramento is an “embarrassment.”

“What remains a total mystery is why the other owners in baseball stand by as the A’s debacle plays out, and they don’t do anything,” Olney wrote. “And the situation will continue to be an embarrassment for them all, as the team moves to a minor-league park. It’s mind-boggling.”

Those are valid points by both Passan and Olney, but they will fall on deaf ears. The decision has long been made, and the Athletics are leaving behind their home of 57 seasons.

[Jeff Passan on X/Twitter]