The future? The past? Or this frustrating baseball limbo?

The A’s seem stuck, repeating the past over and over while promising that things will be brighter in the future.

On Wednesday night, the Oakland Coliseum was wrapped in a sense of déjà vu.

Another 97-win season. Another playoff loss. Another lawsuit over the Coliseum property. More threats about moving, from yet another Major League Baseball commissioner. More customers wondering if an investment in a No. 26 Matt Chapman jersey will be worth it.

And more promises that the future is going to be fantastic.

“We’re excited for next year,” executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane said on a postmortem conference call Thursday.

The future is usually bright for the A’s, who are masters at finding and developing young players. It’s the present that isn’t always bright. Specifically, the October present.

How do the A’s lose these elimination games? In every way conceivable.

To the loaded Yankees on the road, pitching an opener rather than a typical starter (2018). With one of the top lefties in the game on the mound (2014). With one of the promising young righties on the mound (2013). By getting Verlandered (2012 and 2013). As youngsters losing to the big-money Yankees (2000 and 2001). As experienced players losing to Minnesota (2002). As a supremely talented team (2003) losing to the wealthy Red Sox, leading a supremely frustrated Beane to say afterward, “Give me $50 million more and we’ll do it.”

And then this week, October 2019. The most difficult of all?

“That was a tough one,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We really had a good feeling about” beating Tampa Bay.

The A’s had everything they wanted. Home field. A record crowd on hand. A swagger and confidence. A solid lineup with playoff experience. The correct pitcher on the mound based on both analytics and his recent performance. And an opponent that was making its first playoff appearance in six seasons, bringing an even lower payroll than the A’s.

Sure, listing all these failures together isn’t fair. Each season-ending loss is a relatively isolated incident. Each October gut-punch is unique, happening to an entirely different team, save for the laundry on the players’ backs.

“Each one is frustrating,” Beane said.

When asked about the seeming pattern of the franchise, he said, “The fact that you get to ask that question means we’ve been to playoffs a lot of times, so that’s a good thing. You’re talking about 25 guys who have been to the playoffs twice and got beat in the wild card. That’s the only history they have.

“One game is not a referendum. Not on a 162-game season, or even a franchise.”

But this is becoming a thing. The elimination-game losses are happening to the same franchise and to the same fans. So, it feels repetitive. Habitual.

And though the future looks bright, even that trope feels stale. You can’t keep selling the future without delivering eventually.

It’s all oddly familiar, right down to the lawsuit filed by the city of Oakland to block the A’s partial purchase of the Coliseum site. And to the threats by baseball’s commissioner — no longer Bud Selig, now Rob Manfred — that the team could be moving if things aren’t resolved quickly.

“There needs to be a plan to move this franchise forward,” Manfred told The Chronicle. “I’m hopeful it’s going to be here in Oakland.”

Once again, question marks abound. Every A’s fan has to wonder if Chapman, who is under the A’s control for four more years, is going to be around or is going to be this era’s Josh Donaldson.

At one point, there was optimism that this team would be kept together and open a new stadium. With each passing year with no shovel in the ground, no solid stadium plan, that seems more and more unlikely.

The wild-card format is unforgiving. The primary key to success seems to be a lights-out pitcher. It’s how the Giants won two wild-card games: with Madison Bumgarner dominating. And it is no mistake that the one place Tampa Bay chose to spend money was on Charlie Morton, who has won three winner-take-all postseason games. In contrast, the A’s, as Beane pointed out, basically created their rotation from scratch this season.

“We take the good with the bad when it comes to the wild card,” Beane said, adding that a team with 97 regular-season wins should feel pretty good about itself but understand the wild-card deal.

“One game possibly defines your season.”

Over. And over. And over.

Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion