The Athletics brought a familiar name back into the organization on Friday, signing Max McGwire, the son of former franchise star Mark McGwire, to a minor league contract on the 29th anniversary of the trade that sent his father to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Max McGwire has been assigned to the ACL Athletics. He is listed in the system as a right-handed pitcher, though the A’s signed him, unsurprisingly, as a first baseman. The club is betting on his power upside as he heads to the Arizona Complex League.
Most recently, Max played and pitched at Saint Louis University for the Billikens.
The timing gives the move an obvious connection to one of the most important dates in A’s history. On July 31, 1997, Oakland sent Mark McGwire to St.
Louis in a deal for three minor-league pitchers. At the time, McGwire had 34 home runs, the most by any player when traded until Eugenio Suárez reached 36 in 2025.
That swap came in the middle of McGwire’s second straight 50-homer season. He would finish with 58 home runs in 1997 and then hit 70 the following year for the Cardinals, breaking Roger Maris’ single-season record of 61 that had stood since 1961.
The A’s, meanwhile, went through two more seasons of mediocrity in 1998 and 1999 before getting back to the postseason in 2000.
Nearly 30 years later, the McGwire name is back in green and gold. Whether Max can make it mean anything close to what his father once did is a much bigger climb.
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