Meadows and Glasnow starred this season, and so did the Rays’ one luxury item. They splurged in free agency last winter for starter Charlie Morton, who signed a two-year, $30 million contract. Morton, who won Game 7 of the World Series for Houston in 2017, went 16-6 this season and was scheduled to start the wild card game on Wednesday.
Oakland’s starter on Wednesday, Sean Manaea, also reflects a cunning front office move. After the A’s lost the 2014 wild card game in Kansas City, they traded the veterans Josh Donaldson and Jeff Samardzija. Yet they also traded that winter for the versatile Ben Zobrist, a two-time All-Star with the Rays who had one year remaining before free agency.
In Zobrist, the A’s knew they had a valuable player who could either help them win or appeal to other teams in a trade. When they fell out of the 2015 playoff race, they shipped Zobrist to the Royals for Manaea, a former first-round draft pick who had not yet appeared in the majors. Manaea threw a no-hitter last season and went 4-0 with a 1.21 E.R.A. in five September starts this year after returning from an injury.
The A’s may also have a bullpen force in Jesus Luzardo, a 22-year-old left-hander who promises to be a fresh and largely unknown weapon after thriving in a September cameo. Like Manaea, Luzardo arrived as an indirect result of the A’s building up, not tearing down.
After losing 94 games in 2015, Oakland signed reliever Ryan Madson to a three-year, $22 million deal in free agency — something of a curious investment, since Madson was 35 at the time.
But Madson pitched well, and in July 2017 the A’s sent him and another reliever, Sean Doolittle, to the Washington Nationals. In return, they got a package that included reliever Blake Treinen, who was an All-Star last season, and Luzardo, a future centerpiece for a creative franchise that never gives in — just like the one it will welcome to town on Wednesday night.