Butler grateful for his Athletics journey after earning extension originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Star outfielder Lawrence Butler couldn’t help but express gratitude about his turbulent journey with the Athletics organization when speaking on Monday at the press conference for his massive seven-year contract extension, which the franchise made official hours prior.
“It’s amazing,” Butler told reporters at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz. “I played with a lot of these players on my team since I was in Low-A. For a lot of us to come through the system together and make it to the big leagues – and have success in the big leagues – is huge. It’s huge for us, it’s huge for the organization. It’s huge for everybody.
“It kind of shows that the A’s don’t just draft players and put them on the shelf. We love to develop players. We try to get everybody better every day. Every year, it doesn’t matter the [draft] round, everybody has a helping hand in everybody’s career.”
Butler sure has developed since the Green and Gold selected him at the age of 17 with the No. 173 overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft.
In fact, Butler played in 589 games – over stints in rookie ball and with Short-Season A Vermont, High-A Lansing, Low-A Stockton, Double-A Midland, Triple-A Las Vegas and the big-league Athletics – leading up to the afternoon acknowledgment of his life-changing contract.
“We’ve got a number of these press conferences this offseason, and each one is kind of unique in its own way; this one is no different. This one was unique because of Law,” Athletics manager David Forst told reporters. “His A’s story represents the absolute best of this organization and the best of what we’re looking for in players.
“This is not a former first-round pick sitting here; this is a sixth-round pick, a scouting triumph by Jemel Spearman, an area scout who’s been here for 13 years. [Butler] is a guy who touched every level of our organization; it’s an absolute player-success story. … He powered himself through every level of our system.”
Butler’s numbers speak for themselves.
He slashed .291/.330/.565 with 89 hits, 50 RBI and 20 home runs over the Athletics’ final 84 games of the 2024 MLB season and helped his team finish a relatively strong 35-35 after it disappointingly started 34-58. That’s pretty good.
Butler, though, has yet to put up similar figures for an entire MLB season. However, the 24-year-old believes both he and…