The Athletics have had minimal contract talks with their free agents this winter, with the exception of Jonny Gomes, writes Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Sources say that Oakland presented Gomes' former agency, ACES, with an offer at the end of the season. The two sides were unable to come to terms on a deal, however, and the A's went on to trade for Chris Young. Here's more from Slusser..
- Brandon McCarthy has drawn immediate interest from numerous teams including the Cubs, White Sox and Blue Jays. McCarthy was impressive when healthy but missed significant time thanks to shoulder issues and the scary line drive incident in early September.
- Oakland hopes to continue talks with shortstop Stephen Drew, who became a free agent after the club declined their side of a $10MM mutual option. The shortstop posted a combined batting line of .223/.309/.348 in 327 plate appearances for the Diamondbacks and A's in 2012.
- The Athletics won't totally rule out a return for Brandon Inge, but he hasn't been considered a strong candidate to return.
- The A's agreed to a new one-year deal with Bartolo Colon earlier this afternoon, and GM Billy Beane told MLB.com's Jane Lee that he considers the right-hander low-risk depth (Twitter link).
- Slusser notes (on Twitter) that the Colon deal will not impact the club's attempts to re-sign McCarthy.
Mike Axisa contributed to this post.
Please sign McCarthy and his wife Blue Jays!
Lmao. That was awesome.
She would certainly attract fans as well.
I hope we bring back McCarthy. Man would hate to see him go.
Yeah, but would you want him for 2 years and twenty million? I like him at 4M; I’d be fine with him at 6M; but I’d be scared of him at 8M–and that’s on a one year contract. Makes sense for the mid to large market teams, because who can you find with that upside for that money? Certainly beats giving Lohse 5 or 6 years.
Was hoping the Sox would decline Floyd and sign McCarthy, but I guess they could still sign him, would be a hell of a number 4 or 5.
I’ll give you behind Peavy and Sale (assuming health for peavy holds up).
But who else are you putting him behind? Either way, he’d be a nice pick up for any team
I think Danks is a better overall pitcher.
When healthy yes, but that’s certainly in question next year
I’m sorry, is it less in question with McCarthy?
Both are kind of question marks. But if you remember Danks was traded for McCarthy in a deal that the White Sox clearly won as Danks went on to pitch remarkably while McCarthy was rather unimpressive and spent the bulk of his time with the Rangers on the DL. So yes, both are injury risks but these are the moves the Sox are going to need to make; lower risk, high reward. .
If Drew goes elsewhere it will be the first real fail of the new Beane era that was so successful. That was the last bit of wool in Towers’ sheep he took with Drew and they need him (concretely when the option still being proposed is Escobar). There’s no way he’s as bad as he was this year when fully healthy and he fits what the A’s need at the top of the LU to a T. As a Giants fan I frankly hope he stays in the AL.
Well it depends.
If Drew’s taking a one year deal, he has plenty of incentive to take it in a hitters’ park (buff up his offensive numbers to set up for a big multi year deal next year). That’s not on Beane at all, since he can’t control how the Coliseum plays.
Also the A’s still have a chance to resign Drew. Just because they didn’t want him at 10MM (which I don’t understand, frankly), doesn’t mean they don’t still have a chance to get him on a 2 year deal.
There’s also the option of finding a better or equal shortstop via trade.
You have to understand the “failure” that I speak of is not getting Drew for the long term after the heist the trade was. But there’s a little sarcasm in there as well, Beane’s already won the deal, now he just needs to stick it to Towers and Boras to punch it home as he’s been able to do with Cook and Parker.
I understand them declining Drew’s option but his #’s this year were skewed completely by the injury he tried to come back from too quickly. To get Drew it will take a multi-year deal but that is ideal for the A’s- a patient hitter ala Scutaro to the Giants is an invaluable piece.
The A’s saw the most pitches in mlb this year but they also had huge K totals. Trying to rebuild the LU from young players requires having a vet around to enstill patience- same reason Colon was brought back for the young pitchers. Bottom line somewhere Beane is going to have to spend a little bit to get the LU solidified and Drew is a good place to start.
Who can they trade? They’re not going to get another proven mlb SS for what they have to offer at this point which is mainly pitching prospects in the minors.
Yeah, totally, if they don’t resign the guy that came mid-August and was average after he came over and atrocious in the playoffs, that will totally destroy their chances in 2013. Or, will have no effect whatsoever.
Big, big fan of McCarthy. Would love to have him in Toronto.
I hope the Jays can sign him.
i think dempster goes to the blue jays, mccarthy to the cubs.