The Athletics are dealing with a run of injuries that VP of baseball operations Billy Beane calls “the worst one since I’ve been here,” as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. The pitching staff, in particular, has been dogged by health issues.
“Where it’s really hit us has been our starting pitching — and that’s an area we tried to create a lot of depth,” explained Beane. “We’ve already wiped out that depth in the first six weeks.”
That doesn’t mean, however, that Oakland is ready to sell. In Beane’s view, “There’s no rational reason to move anyone when you don’t have enough bodies.”
It’s fair to note, too, that several of the team’s hypothetical trade pieces — especially outfielder Josh Reddick, but also infielder Jed Lowrie and even staff ace Sonny Gray — are or recently have been unavailable due to injury, meaning that they aren’t really near-term trade candidates regardless. That also helps to explain some of Oakland’s struggles.
On the other hand, the A’s now sit nine back in the division, in a dead heat with an Astros club that also hopes to climb out of the cellar. And the team has numerous other players that could hold significant appeal to the rest of the league.
No player has done more to increase their stock early in 2016 than southpaw Rich Hill, who Beane says is “doing exactly what you want a number one starter to do.” MLBTR’s Connor Byrne took a look at Hill’s trade deadline profile just yesterday, explaining that he could conceivably be the best starter made available this summer. While his modest $6MM salary making him affordable for any contender, he could be in high demand.
Hill isn’t alone, of course. Oakland could market third baseman Danny Valencia, who is stinging the ball while earning a reasonable $3.15MM salary with one more year of arb control still to come, and is also capable of playing the outfield. Veteran outfielder Coco Crisp owns a useful .250/.305/.429 slash in the final guaranteed year of his contract, though as MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted recently his vesting option could come into play. The 36-year-old is also playing on a relatively expensive $11MM annual salary, and defensive metrics have soured considerably on his glove.
Struggling DH Billy Butler wouldn’t seem to hold much appeal to other organizations, but pen arms such as Ryan Madson, Sean Doolittle, and John Axford might. All three of those relievers come with future seasons of control, though only the southpaw Doolittle is controlled at below-market rates.
As Slusser explains, the A’s do not typically prefer to abandon hopes of contention, and probably won’t have much interest in a full-blown teardown. But the club is in a tough spot. While it seems that the front office will at least give things a few weeks, it may prove hard to resist an opportunity to cash in a few expiring assets later this summer, with Hill and Reddick still looking like the most plausible and valuable chips.
You know what’s even more detrimental to the A’s than the injuries? Billy Beane.
Shirley, you must be joking.
Hey, don’t call me Shirley!!!
Billy’s trade for Khris Davis could be the deal of the year. Like all GMs they make some good decisions and some bad decisions.
I don’t know…..Bowdien Derby is the man…..just kiddin. Davis is a bomber.
I think you’re severely overrating Khris Davis… He’s not very good at anything besides hitting home runs. His OPS is like 60 points lower than last year, and he’s only getting on base at a .264 clip so far. That’s pretty awful…
The Todd Frazier deal was a significantly better one imo. I’m sure there are more out there as well, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head, and I don’t really feel like looking right now.
I agree. Davis was a savvy acquisition, but it’s merely an “honorable mention” following a list of the Best 5 or so of the offseason.
Nonetheless, the guy has proven to be second to none in getting huge mileage out of a paltry payroll. Put any other GM in the game in the situation of having to face every all star they have walking in FA (and often being priced out of the A’s payroll merely in arb years), and Oakland looks a helluva lot more like a perennial doormat San Diego club than a perennial dark horse division winner.
What made the Davis trade so great is he gave up very little for him. Frazier was a great trade too but they gave up more to get him than the A’s did. Reds sure blew that trade big time in what they received for Frazier.
He gave up very little and got very little. Davis literally does nothing but hit home runs.
It’s amazing Beane still is a GM in this league. I get the whole moneyball thing but it clearly hasn’t worked well for Oakland.
I’d challenge you to name a single organization with a similar payroll, that has experienced more success than the A’s over the past 15 years.
Hint: He’s been the 5th winningest GM in all of baseball during his tenure. Despite ownership hamstringing him with the 25th-ranked payroll.
depends on if you measure success with wins or championships. He’s definitely kept them in it. His track record over the last 2 years is questionable. Trading Russell and JD and putting together one of the worst defensive teams for two years running makes you wonder his strategy as of late. Getting rid of Butler and Crisp will Shirley help when the youngsters come up.
billy beane was never a great GM when he traded cespedes, doanldson and russell it made him look like he was a complete idiot
It’s surprising to me that there’s so much contempt for the guy, honestly.
He has a 20-year body of work, across which he’s taken a bottom-5 payroll and produced top-5 wins. That’s remarkable, no matter how you slice it – every small-mid market club out there dreams of a GM who could do that.
2-3 deals that look bad in the near term (but could very well prove great moves in the longer 3-5 year term) shouldn’t tarnish his stature. Even if 4 years out the deals still look at bad as they do today, it’s asinine to expect a GM to be immune to a regrettable deal or two. And he’s earned himself a spot on a very short list of guys who have earned a long leash (alongside Epstein/Cashman/Friedman, imho).
8 postseason appearances in 17+ seasons (and no-playoff 91 win and 88 win seasons too). He’s really good at his job but has made mistakes like every GM has, just his are under a microscope because dumb people think he commissioned a book to be written about himself and he cast Brad Pitt to play himself in the movie version of said book, neither of which are remotely true. Only dumb people hate Billy Beane.
Don’t forget the signing of the Immovable Pancake, Billy Butler.
That’s because he’s not even their GM
David Forst is the GM. Beane got promoted…
he is a part owner now as well
hes not going anywhere
Well he’s been part owner for a while.
“doing exactly what you want a number one starter to do.”
He’s gone over 6.0 IP twice (and under 5.0 IP twice) in 10 starts. That’s hardly a number one starter.
I by no means think Beane is a bad GM but I fail to see what earns him such unquestioned adoration. Through 2007 he and Terry Ryan were basically the same guy. Beane has generally avoided low lows which is good, but it seems like he does that by keeping the upper minors stocked with trades rather than drafting and developing. He’s always had relatively low payrolls but it’s not like he’s been totally hamstrung – for a good portion of his tenure payrolls were always lined up with most of the entire bottom half of the league when you look at payrolls for what they are rather than how they rank – when numerous teams are /- 5m from each other, hard rankings are mostly meaningless.
He’s not the GM tho…
I forgot all about that very clear distinction between a GM, a PBO, and a GM five years ago, sorry
Billy “Josh Donaldson for Brett Lawrie” Beane.
More like Franklin Barreto and a pile of junk. Man beanie better hope Barreto at least turns into a perennial allstar, because none of the other pieces in that deal are going to
I still think if Beane gets Stroman instead of the 2 crappy pitchers he for some insane reason thought were good (he wanted Nolin for months – whyyy), that trade makes sense. Barreto, Stroman and Lawrie is a perfect trade for Donaldson. Getting Graveman and Nolin instead of Stroman is the biggest mistake.