The Athletics have lost their division lead in just four games. But losing is not what is upsetting manager Mark Kotsay right now. It is the fans.

A 4-6 record in the last 10 games has just made things worse. The team is already being bashed online for relocating to Las Vegas. The abuse got so bad that the team had to limit comments on social media to hide from constant “Sell the team” spam. Now, angry fans are attacking young players over a recent scoring slump. Kotsay hates seeing it.

“I read a couple of articles yesterday about players receiving a lot of hate… Everyone seems to have the right to be able to send negativity and hate towards those players… there’s really a no-win situation in this. So for these players, it’s about how do you protect them from that negativity,” said manager Mark Kotsay in the interview.

The Athletics are just two games behind the AL West leaders, but the cracks within the team are already visible. Over the last four games, the Athletics have lost 30-6, lost their division lead, and watched an offense that once fired on all cylinders vanish.

A sweep by the Seattle Mariners exposed their weakness. Seattle humiliated them 22-4 across three games. Things did not get any easier against the Yankees, who rolled to an 8-2 victory in Sacramento. The numbers make it difficult to ignore the slump. The Athletics went just 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position against Seattle and didn’t fare any better against the Yankees.

This led to the anger of the fans boiling over. Star hitter Brent Rooker went through a brutal 0-for-20 slump. Angry fans flooded social media, calling him an “automatic out.” When rookie Tyler Soderstrom struggled to get a hit against Seattle, fans demanded that the team bench him. They posted toxic comments telling him he had no business playing in the major leagues.

As the losses add up, fans get angrier. But what actually pushed Kotsay to speak out this week was a story from another team.

Just a few days ago, Dodgers star Mookie Betts revealed he had to delete his social media account from his phone after going through an 8-for-54 slump.

“You have to fail so much to figure out what’s right,” Betts said while discussing the hate he got online. The former MVP admitted that the negativity affected his sleep and focus on the game.

Kotsay read the articles about Betts. Seeing a superstar deal with that kind of hate clearly struck a nerve as Kotsay watched his own young players struggle. He knows social media makes slumps a nightmare for everyone.

“There’s no way to escape it unless you delete it. And then when you delete it, you get the hate for not being open to hearing it,” Kotsay said, reminding fans that failure is built into baseball, even for elite players.

“In this game, 70% failure rate, right? And 30% successful rate is actually great. People are in the Hall of Fame because they hit .300, not .700,” Kotsay said while discussing expectations.

With the Athletics searching for answers, Kotsay’s message was simple: struggling players expect support while working through a bad patch, not another wave of criticism waiting in their messages.

And while the players are facing nightmares on one side, they are having dreams on the other.

The dream of the Athletics in Las Vegas might be close

When the A’s announced they were leaving Oakland for Las Vegas, many fans struggled to believe it. For years, stadium talks seemed stuck, the costs kept rising, and the questions never disappeared.

Nearly three years after the announcement of the relocation, the dream project seems to be coming through. A recent construction shows the main concourse has been completed, while the crew continues to work on other things.

For a fanbase that spent years hearing promises, seeing real progress carries a different feeling.

But getting here has not been easy for the Athletics. Management spent years seeking a long-term stadium solution while playing at the Coliseum. Although the team wanted a new ballpark, funding problems repeatedly stalled negotiations. That changed on November 16, 2023, when management announced that the move to Las Vegas was official. Nevada officials approved $380 million in public funding to support the construction of the ballpark.

Even after the official statement, problems kept coming up. At one point, the Nevada Teachers Union sent a formal request opposing funding for the ballpark’s construction and urging that the money be used to fund education instead. Construction costs also jumped. The price tag quickly passed $2 billion. Still, the building goes on without major delays. Owner John Fisher pledged $1.1 billion to make sure it happens.

The debates around the relocation will never completely go away, but this is happening. The latest footage shows more than steel and concrete taking shape at the site. It shows that a relocation once debated is now moving closer to reality.

And maybe a move to a new stadium will help the team and bring out the best in the Athletics.