LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Athletics, for the second time in just more than a month, formally signed one of their young players in their future city when All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson inked his $70 million, seven-year contract on Monday.
Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom signed his deal at the same desk on Dec. 30.
It's been a bit of a theme for the organization going back to last offseason, and maybe the A's will begin to attract veteran free agents to fortify their younger talent closer to their scheduled move to Las Vegas in 2028.
They will play at least the next two seasons in West Sacramento, California, and temporarily residing in a Triple-A ballpark probably cost the A's a shot at eight-time All-Star Nolan Arenado, who rejected a trade.
“I think in all fairness, the Arenado situation might have worked out differently had we been here even next year instead of in two years,” A's general manager David Forst said. “So I think the combination of the talent we think we have with getting closer and closer to being here I think will certainly impact our ability to attract free agents. I've felt that way in conversations this offseason.”
The 23-year-old Wilson is the fourth player the A’s have signed through at least 2028.
Their other deals include an $86 million, seven-year contract for the 24-year-old Soderstrom, a $60 million, five-year contract with 31-year-old designated hitter/outfielder Brent Rooker and a $65.5 million, seven-year deal with 25-year-old outfielder Lawrence Butler. Soderstrom’s deal is the richest in team history.
Up next could be contracts with 22-year-old first baseman Nick Kurtz and 28-year-old catcher Shea Langeliers.
This offseason, the A’s made a trade with the New York Mets to acquire 33-year-old second baseman Jeff McNeil.
“We've got a lot of good veterans in our clubhouse right now,” Wilson said. “Rooker and Langeliers are leaders in our clubhouse, and we got McNeil this offseason that we're super excited to have. I'm really excited to learn from him. He's a guy who's been playing for a lot of years now. He's been very successful, and having another leader come to our clubhouse is something that our younger guys are super grateful to have.”
Wilson, selected sixth in the 2023 amateur draft, played in 92 games for the then-Oakland A's in 2024. Last season, he hit .311 with 13 home runs and 63 RBIs and was the first fan-elected rookie All-Star starting shortstop. He also finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting behind Kurtz, who was a unanimous selection.
“It's just under a year after (he was) drafted he was playing in the big leagues,” Forst said. “It opened the door for a lot of guys coming to be drafted, get here and show how quickly we can turn this team over and turn it into a team we feel is ready to compete, ready to be a playoff team again and certainly, as we head towards 2028 Las Vegas, be a team that's ready to win.”
Just as Soderstrom did in late December, Wilson toured the stadium construction site. He even autographed where home plate will be placed.
Wilson, whose offseason included marrying former Arizona softball player Logan Cole in December, said he was more than happy to solidify his baseball future.
His contract takes him through the 2032 season with a club option for 2033. By signing him now, the A’s avoid salary arbitration after the 2027, 2028 and 2029 seasons. Wilson also would have been eligible for free agency after the 2030 World Series.
“I think it goes back to the teammates you have in the locker room and the guys that you share the field with,” Wilson said. “We have a very special group here that goes to work every day. For me, it was an easy decision knowing that I'm going to share the field with those guys for the next seven to eight years.”
That will include sharing the field in Las Vegas.
Wilson and many of his teammates already are familiar with the city because Las Vegas is where the club's Triple-A affiliate is located. He played in 26 games at that ballpark in 2024 and four last season during an injury-rehab stint in August.
“When I was playing here, the fans were very passionate about their sports,” Wilson said. “I've been to a couple of (Vegas Golden) Knights games. I've seen how their fan base works for them, too. It's been awesome for us to see that and knowing we're coming into a city that has a lot of sports fans.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb
Athletics Assistant General Manager Dan Feinstein, from left, shortstop Jacob Wilson, and General Manager David Forst, pose at a news conference Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Mark Anderson)
Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson, center, joined by Assistant General Manager Dan Feinstein, left, and General Manager David Forst, signs a contract with the Athletics at a news conference, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Mark Anderson)
NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department said Monday that it had withdrawn several thousand documents and “media” related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after lawyers told a New York judge that the lives of nearly 100 victims had been “turned upside down” by sloppy redactions in the government's latest release of records.
The exposed materials include nude photos showing the faces of potential victims as well as names, email addresses and other identifying information that was either unredacted or not fully obscured.
The department blamed it on “technical or human error.”
In a letter to the New York judges overseeing the sex trafficking cases brought against Epstein and confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton wrote that the department had taken down nearly all materials identified by victims or their lawyers, along with a “substantial number” of documents identified independently by the government.
Clayton said the department has “revised its protocols for addressing flagging documents” after victims and their lawyers requested changes. Documents are promptly pulled down when flagged by victims, then evaluated before a redacted version of the document can be reposted, “ideally within 24 to 36 hours.”
Two lawyers for Epstein victims wrote the court Sunday seeking “immediate judicial intervention” because of what they described as thousands of instances when the government had failed to redact names and other personally identifying information.
Eight women who identify as Epstein victims added comments to the letter to Judge Richard M. Berman. One wrote that the records’ release was “life threatening." Another said she’d gotten death threats after 51 entries included her private banking information, forcing her to try to shut down her credit cards and accounts.
“There is no conceivable degree of institutional incompetence sufficient to explain the scale, consistency, and persistence of the failures that occurred — particularly where the sole task ordered by the Court and repeatedly emphasized by DOJ was simple: redact known victim names before publication,” the lawyers, Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards, wrote.
Berman, who presided over Epstein’s sex trafficking case, scheduled a conference for Wednesday.
Also Monday, a section of the Justice Department’s Epstein files website that had contained public court records from Epstein and Maxwell’s criminal cases and civil lawsuits was no longer functioning.
A message seeking comment on the website issue was left for the Justice Department.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that there have been sporadic errors in redacting, or blacking out, sensitive information but that the Justice Department has tried to work quickly to address them.
“Every time we hear from a victim or their lawyer that they believe that their name was not properly redacted, we immediately rectified that. And the numbers we’re talking about, just so the American people understand, we’re talking about .001 percent of all the materials,” Blanche said.
Dozens of Associated Press reporters analyzing the files have so far found multiple occasions where a name was redacted in one document, only to be left exposed in another version of the same file.
In other places, names and email addresses are crossed out but not fully blackened out, so they’re still visible. Other text redactions can be easily overridden by simply double clicking on them to reveal the hidden text underneath.
The Justice Department has said all nude or pornographic images were redacted from the 2,000-some videos and 180,000 images in the release, even if they were commercially produced, as the agency considered all women depicted in the images as potential victims.
But reporters with The New York Times still found dozens of uncensored photos of naked young people with their faces unredacted.
The newspaper said the images have since been largely removed or redacted after it notified the Justice Department. It said some of the images appeared to have been taken on the beach at Epstein’s private Caribbean island while others are in a bedroom setting.
In another instance, the AP found a set of more than 100 images of a young, unidentified female lounging on a bed, standing on a beach and at other summertime locations while wearing a short top.
The images are almost fully blacked out so only the person’s arms and legs are clearly visible, save for the very last image, a profile photo that is completely unredacted and reveals her face.
Elsewhere in the files, the face of one of Epstein's alleged underage victims was clearly shown on an organizational chart created by federal investigators.
The poor redactions didn’t just involve victim information.
One email showed Epstein’s entire credit card number, expiration date and security code. An interview transcript from the investigation into Epstein’s suicide included a jail worker’s full Social Security number and date of birth. Some email addresses were visible under thin cross-outs.
At an unrelated sex trafficking trial in New York on Monday, lawyers for two high-end real estate brokers and their brother asked for a mistrial because their names had appeared in some of the Epstein documents.
Deanna Paul, a defense lawyer at the trial of Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander, said prosecutors had “destroyed the possibility of a fair trial” by letting documents get out that falsely suggested an association with Epstein. The brothers have pleaded not guilty to drugging and raping multiple girls and women from 2008 to 2021. They aren't accused of having anything to do with Epstein's abuse of underage girls.
Judge Valerie E. Caproni rejected the mistrial request after she individually questioned jurors, all of whom said they hadn’t seen any news about the brothers. Still, she confronted a prosecutor about the matter, asking, “Government, really?”
“Yes, I understand where the court's coming from,” replied Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa.
She said the documents had been withdrawn from public circulation.
__ The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from CBS, NBC, MS NOW and CNBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.
A document that was included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is photographed Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
A document that was included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is photographed Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, shows the report when Epstein was taken into custody on July 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
