WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The current condition of the playing surface at Sutter Health Park is better suited for Bigfoot trucks than a baseball game.

Just seven weeks remain before the renovated minor-league ballpark on the banks of the Sacramento River is scheduled for its soft reopening March 23: an exhibition between the Triple-A River Cats and the San Francisco Giants. The River Cats will play their home opener against Albuquerque on March 28. Then the team formerly known as the Oakland Athletics, after opening at the Seattle Mariners, will stage the first regular-season major-league game here March 31. The A’s will play host to the Chicago Cubs and begin what they are calling a three-year tenancy in Sacramento while they work toward their stated ambition of moving into a permanent facility in Las Vegas in 2028.

The ballpark’s major-league facelift is still a major work in progress. The field at Sutter Health Park has been dug out, lowered and regraded. A new drainage and irrigation system is in the process of being installed. Major League Baseball officials believe (or hope) the improvements will give a natural grass surface a fighting chance of holding up over a summer of triple-degree heat and the daily pounding of baseball spikes.

New clubhouses are under construction beyond the center-field fence. Cranes and bulldozers are parked where outfielders will eventually camp under fly balls. The batter’s eye has been removed — the old one was a frequent source of complaints from hitters because of early-evening glare — and the footprints are being installed for a new and improved video scoreboard.

It takes some dreaming to envision the final product.

“There’s … some work to do,” Giants right-hander Logan Webb said as he surveyed the ballpark from the suite level while attending the Giants’ FanFest caravan stop in West Sacramento. “I was excited to come see it. I thought it would be closer to done and … it is not close.”

“It’s hard to believe they’ll be ready in time,” Giants infielder Tyler Fitzgerald said. “But they’ll have to be.”

Soon to be a major league (sort of) facility.

Temporarily sharing Sutter Health Park with the A’s might be an inconvenience for the Giants’ player development folks, but it’s also a means to an end for a franchise that could have the Bay Area to itself as soon as 2028 if the A’s are successful in plans to build their permanent home in Las Vegas.

The siege warfare worked. The Giants spent decades blocking the A’s from moving to the South Bay and potentially tapping into one of the world’s wealthiest corporate hubs. Now the A’s are headed out of town. But there’s still some semblance of a turf war between the franchises in Sacramento. Once the grass is planted, anyway.

The A’s announced they have sold out all available season ticket packages for 2025. But the Giants aren’t about to abandon their many fans here.

“Could people in Sacramento come into the city and go to FanFest at (Oracle Park)?” Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey said while visiting Sutter Health Park on Saturday. “Yes, but I think it’s a nice touch for the players to make the effort to come here and show these fans that they’re appreciated.”

Undaunted by miserable weather, an estimated crowd of 6,000 Giants fans showed up Saturday and nearly all of them huddled underneath the concourse while trying to stay out of the rain. They waited in line at autograph stations and photo booths. They shopped for orange and black merchandise — you had to search hard to find any A’s apparel — and they assembled under a tent to hear Posey take questions not as a franchise catcher but as the club’s president of baseball operations.

“Coming here is always awesome,” said Webb, who grew up in nearby Rocklin, Calif. “I think the weather was worse last year and there were just as many people. All of Northern California is the Giants. So being able to come to the fans in these places is cool.”

For the second consecutive year, the Giants broke up their FanFest into satellite events in Napa, San Jose and Sacramento. Last winter, the Sacramento stop drew the largest crowds. Saturday’s event, which required fans to apply for a free ticket, was nearly as well attended.

“When I knew this was one of the three options, I immediately chose this one,” said Fitzgerald, who played in 102 games for the River Cats in 2023 and 14 last season before becoming a breakthrough rookie on the big-league roster. “This is where I know people and fans know me. I didn’t play in San Jose and there’s no team in Napa. So it was a no-brainer to me to come back and see these fans who cheered for me and pulled for me to get called up for so long.”

Fitzgerald said he can’t wait to experience the environment when the Giants visit the A’s over July Fourth weekend.

“This place is pretty exciting when it’s packed,” Fitzgerald said. “I think it’ll be great for the A’s players and the city of Sacramento and hopefully the River Cats, too.”

There will be no shortage of logistical issues to overcome while two teams attempt to share one facility. The River Cats announced last month that they will move one six-game home series to Tacoma, Wash., in June so groundskeepers can resurface the field at Sutter Health Park. That’ll mean three consecutive weeks on the road for the Triple-A team.

“I think everybody is doing the best they can with the situation,” Posey said. “That’s all you can ask for. We know some of the hurdles, but most likely others will pop up. We’ll be ready to work together to solve those.”

The A’s tenancy will serve as an audition of sorts for Sacramento in its bid to snag a permanent franchise. Vivek Ranadivé, who owns the River Cats as well as the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, has made no secret of his desire to bid for a potential expansion team. There also remains plenty of skepticism that the A’s will make Las Vegas happen and that Sacramento won’t be a waystation at all.

Webb said he is certain of one thing: Major League Baseball will be supported in Sacramento.

“There will be fans here all the time watching the A’s,” Webb said. “Sacramento has a really good fan base. Look at the Kings. They have one of the best fan bases in the NBA. I would say the best. It’ll be a shorter drive for baseball fans to see the (New York) Yankees and other teams that come into town. I know Vivek will do everything he can to get a major-league team here, and I’m an advocate for it. I’d love to have a team in Sacramento.”

The River Cats were an A’s affiliate when Webb grew up coming to home games. It’s one of the reasons Webb considered himself an A’s fan even though all his friends rooted for the Giants.

“I’m walking in today and all the bobbleheads are still there: Mark Ellis, Jack Cust, Bobby Crosby, Eric Byrnes — all the A’s players I watched when I came to games here,” Webb said. “There’s definitely more Giants fans here, though.”