Bryce Harper isn’t coming to Oakland anytime soon, unless his new team arrives on a road trip. The A’s just can’t, and shouldn’t, get into the free agent market for stars. You can trade for a star but it will cost you dearly from a farm system that needs to be the life blood of a low payroll organization.
The way a team like the A’s can have stars is to draft them, or shrewdly acquire them before their talents fully manifest themselves. Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito were homegrown stars along side Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada.