MESA, Ariz. (AP) — Lawrence Butler walked into the bright Arizona sunshine and sat down at a table and chairs on the field at Hohokam Stadium, grinning from ear to ear now over his $65.5 million, seven-year deal with the Athletics.
The exact location of Butler's seat was no accident: in the middle of right field.
The goal is that the 24-year-old standout will be a mainstay at the position through at least 2031 as the A's franchise embarks on a three-year stretch at a minor league park in the Sacramento area before moving to Las Vegas.
“It's amazing,” Butler said. "I've played with a lot of these guys on my team since Low-A ball. For a lot of us to come through the system together, make it to the big leagues, have success in the big leagues, it's huge for us and the organization.
“It shows the A's don't just draft players and put them on the shelf. We love to develop players.”
Butler's deal includes a team option for 2032 that could make the contract worth $81.5 million and escalators that could increase the value to $87.5 million.
A Georgia native who was a sixth-round pick in the 2018 amateur draft, Butler was on Oakland’s opening-day roster last year before being demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas on May 14 after hitting .179 with seven RBIs in his first 41 games.
He was recalled on June 18 and batted .291 over the rest of the season, finishing with a .262 average, 22 home runs and 18 stolen bases. Butler's improvement coincided with much better baseball by the A's, who had a 32-32 record after the All-Star break and now believe they can realistically compete for a playoff spot in 2025.
“His A’s story represents the absolute best of this organization and the best of what we’re looking for in players,” Athletics general manager David Forst said. “This is not a former first-round pick sitting here. This is a sixth-round pick. A scouting triumph by Jemel Spearman, our area scout who has been here for 13 years.
“This is a guy who touched every level of our organization.”
After finishing with the lowest payroll in the major leagues for three straight seasons, the A’s have become a big-spender heading into the 2025 campaign, the first of at least three in West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park.
In addition to Butler, they signed designated hitter/outfielder Brent Rooker to a $60 million, five-year contract, right-hander Luis Severino to a team-record $67 million, three-year deal and extended manager Mark Kotsay through at least 2028.
“It's an exciting time to be with the A's, no doubt,” Forst said. “These are things we've talked about for years and never had the ability to do, to be honest. Until our future was secured with Vegas, until we had these plans and have a timeline for 2028, they just weren't realistic.”
Butler gets a $3 million signing bonus, payable $1 million within 30 days’ of the contract’s approval by the commissioner’s office, $1 million next Jan. 15 and $1 million on Jan. 15, 2027.
He receives salaries of $2.25 million this year, $3.25 million in 2026, $5 million in 2027, $8 million in 2028, $10 million in 2029, $14 million in 2030 and $16 million in 2031. The team option is for $20 million with a $4 million buyout, and the price can increase by a maximum of $6 million based on MVP voting: $1 million for each top six-10 finish from 2029-31 and $2 million for each top five finish in those years.
Butler earned $627,000 last season under a split contract that paid at a rate of the $740,000 minimum while in the major leagues and $121,826 while in the minors. He was on track to be eligible for salary arbitration after the 2026 season and for free agency following the 2029 World Series.
AP Baseball Writers Janie McCauley and Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb
Athletics' Lawrence Butler, center, celebrates after his three-run home run with Jacob Wilson (5) and Jhonny Pereda (64) during the second inning of a spring training baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Athletics' Lawrence Butler, left, celebrates after his three-run home run with Jacob Wilson (5) during the second inning of a spring training baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Athletics right fielder Lawrence Butler shouts runs to catch a fly ball hit by Cincinnati Reds' Jeimer Candelario during the second inning of a spring training baseball game, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.
Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.
Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.
About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.
Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.
The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.
Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.
In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.
Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.
The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.
Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.
"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.
There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.
The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."
Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.
Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.
Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
