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)
SAN FRANCISCO & JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 12, 2026--
Abridge, the leading enterprise-grade AI for clinical conversations, is collaborating with Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, to launch a first-of-its kind prior authorization experience. The engagement uses cutting-edge technology grounded in the clinician-patient conversation to facilitate a more efficient process between clinicians and health plans in medical necessity review.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112960386/en/
Rather than creating parallel AI systems across healthcare stakeholders, Abridge and Availity are working together to ensure shared clinical context at the point of conversation powers administrative processes, such as prior authorization review and submission, improving outcomes for patients and the teams delivering care.
This collaboration unites two trusted and scaled organizations: combining Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform, serving over 200 health systems and projected to support over 80 million patient-clinician conversations in 2026, with Availity’s next-generation, FHIR-native Intelligent Utilization Management solution, which helps payers and providers digitize and operationalize coverage requirements within administrative workflows.
Availity’s FHIR-native APIs enable fast, scalable, and secure connectivity of payer information across the entire healthcare ecosystem. With Abridge’s Contextual Reasoning Engine technology, clinicians can gain visibility into relevant clinical information during the conversation to support documentation aligned with prior authorization requirements.
“At Availity, we’ve invested in building AI-powered, FHIR-native APIs designed to bring clinical policy logic directly into provider workflows,” said Russ Thomas, CEO of Availity. “By embedding our technology at the point of conversation, we’re enabling faster, more transparent utilization management decisions rooted in clinical context. We’re excited to collaborate with Abridge and to demonstrate what’s possible when payer intelligence meets real-time provider workflows.”
The development of real-time prior authorization is just a component of a broader revenue cycle collaboration that is focused on applying real-time conversational intelligence across the patient, provider, and payer experiences. The companies intend to support integration by collaborating on workflow alignment between their respective platforms in the following areas:
“Abridge and Availity are each bringing national scale, deep trust, and a track record of solving important challenges across the care and claims experience to this partnership,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge. “We’re building real-time bridges between patients, providers, and payers, unlocking shared understanding, focused at the point of conversation.”
About Availity
Availity empowers payers and providers to deliver transformative patient experiences by enabling the seamless exchange of clinical, administrative, and financial information. As the nation's largest real-time health information network, Availity develops intelligent, automated, and interoperable solutions that foster collaboration and shared value across the healthcare ecosystem. With connections to over 95% of payers, more than 3 million providers, and over 2,000 trading partners, Availity provides mission-critical connectivity to drive the future of healthcare innovation. For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Follow us on LinkedIn.
About Abridge
Abridge was founded in 2018 to power deeper understanding in healthcare. Abridge is now trusted by more than 200 of the largest and most complex health systems in the U.S. The enterprise-grade AI platform transforms medical conversations into clinically useful and billable documentation at the point of care, reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout while improving patient experience. With deep EHR integration, support for 28+ languages, and 50+ specialties, Abridge is used across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient.
Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform is purpose-built for healthcare. Supported by Linked Evidence, Abridge is the only solution that maps AI-generated summaries to source data, helping clinicians quickly trust and verify the output. As a pioneer in generative AI for healthcare, Abridge is setting the industry standard for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems.
Abridge was awarded Best in KLAS 2025 for Ambient AI in addition to other accolades, including Forbes 2025 AI 50 List, TIME Best Inventions of 2024, and Fortune’s 2024 AI 50 Innovators.
Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation
Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation
