4:59pm: Via Twitter, Lee adds that the A's designated infielder Gregorio Petit for assignment as well. The 25-year-old hit .244/.292/.336 in Triple A last year, playing second base, shortstop, and third base.
12:39pm: The A's designated lefty Dana Eveland for assignment, tweets MLB.com's Jane Lee. Newly-acquired Willy Taveras was designated too, tweets SI's Jon Heyman. Joe Stiglich of the Oakland Tribune adds that the A's deal for Gabe Gross is official, and they've claimed versatile minor leaguer Steve Tolleson off waivers from the Twins. Let's break down the A's busy morning…
- Eveland, 26, is headed elsewhere unless he clears waivers. In 2009 he was terrible in the Majors and lousy at Triple A as well. He joined the A's in December of '07 as part of the huge Dan Haren swap with the D'Backs. Eveland did give the A's 29 starts of 4.34 ball in '08, despite a 1.53 K/BB ratio.
- Taveras and Aaron Miles were just passing through, acquired temporarily to facilitate deals for Adam Rosales and Jake Fox.
- Tolleson, 26, hit .266/.340/.380 between Double A and Triple A in the Twins organization in '09. He played both middle infield positions, left field, and a little bit at the outfield corners. Before the season, Baseball America suggested Tolleson's best possible outcome would be Ryan Freel's career. The loss should clear a roster spot for Jim Thome, notes MLB.com's Kelly Thesier.
too dfa’s in one day? Exciting stuff!!
I can’t wait for Dusty to convince Jocketty to resign him…..that would be classic
You know he’s going to want to bring him back. He’s the reason they got Tavares in the first place.
I’m confused. Why would a team trade for a guy and then designate him for assignment?
It’s possible they’ve already worked out a trade with him involved.
To save money. Would you really want Willy Taveras on YOUR team?
Taveras is not that bad could help a team out off the bench with some speed.
Gathright can do that for cheaper.
Gathright already signed with the Toronto.
*with Toronto.
Because the Reds wanted to get rid of Taveras but all the A’s wanted was Rosales.
@Jeff
Because they were trading for Rosales and were forced to take Taveras’ awful contract as a salary dump. They don’t actually want him
Tavares made way more than Miles- they paid $3M for Rosales??? I don’t get it… why not just DFA Miles?
Tavares made more money yes but they were also still getting Money from the Cubs for miles Contract. Basically instead of DFA Miles they got a cheap UTL IF under team control for 5 years. Cost of about 1.5 million over what they would have lost by DFA Miles
Miles’ 2010 salary = $2.7M
Tavares 2010 salary = $4M
I believe the A’s got $1M in the deal for Miles, bringing the difference between their salary to only $300K.
They didn’t trade for him, they traded for Rosales.
Apparently Mr. Beane has gone on vacation and left the grounds crew in charge. The grounds crew don’t want Tavares bc of him getting caught stealing too many times. (I know he doesn’t get caught that often, just an attempt at humor)
hopefully taveras didnt buy a house in oakland during his 6 minutes as an Athletic…
Poor Aaron Miles…his greatest value has been reduced to a salary equalizer to help acquire other players.
I wouldn’t mind Taveras being on the White Sox bench if the price was right.
I was thinking the same thing, Steve. If we need that hit-n-run to work after Konerko gets on base in the 9th inning in a tie game, I don’t want Vizquel or Kotsay pinch-running. Throw Taveras in and let him occasionally spell Rios/Pierre in CF.
Tavares and Pierre on the same team? That’s tempting fate a bit isn’t it? How many outs does a team need to give away before they realize being fast isn’t an asset if you don’t get on base?
Fast isn’t an asset that if you don’t get on base, correct. But if you hit .308 and steal 30 bases like Pierre did last year it is 🙂
As far as Taveras goes, fast is an asset if you are a pinch runner/situational pinch hitter like sac bunts.
Really surprised someone hasn’t blasted you for hyping up Pierre.
Blasting me for stating that he hit .308 last year?
Sold!
Willy Taveras, Juan Pierre, Mark Teahen, Andruw Jones, Mark Kotsay, the White Sox would be completing their group of players who just can’t hit, period.
While losing Thome and Dye, who CAN hit.
I hear ya, but in terms of hitting which is indeed what you mentioned I wanted to do some checking up here and yep you are wrong. Thome and Dye struggled mightily for the Sox last year hitting .249 and .250 respectively. If you were to just include A. Jones and Taveras in that statement then you would be 100% correct, but when you include Kotsay .292, Pierre .308 and Teahen .271 this makes you flat out wrong, period.
Juan Pierre – Lowest BA in last 4 seasons is .283. He hit .308 last year and has hit .290+ in 3 out of his last 4 seasons. On top of that has stolen at least 30 bases in the last 4 seasons.
Mark Kotsay – He hit .288 vs RHP in 2008 and .290 vs RHP in 2009. Perfect platoon player which is exactly what he is going to be.
Andruw Jones – He had an OPS of .782 last year which was better than his last two seasons. Was on pace to hit 33 HR if he played the full season. Jermaine Dye had an OPS of .790 last year and 28 HR. Not that much of a loss.
Mark Teahen – He will gain about 5 HR just from playing at The Cell. His BA was .16 better year over year. Safe to say he will hit .275 and 17HR in The Cell which is a little better than we got out of 3B last year.
Willy Taveras – Situational Player that adds speed off the bench.
we wont know until the obligatory 10 day DFA window has expired. If they straight up release Taveras then it was a strange move, but if he’s subsequently flipped for something else then it may make sense. I thought the Cubs and Reds should have swapped Miles and Taveras earlier this off season. Miles is a useful middle infielder with an unsustainable BABIP last year and Taveras is a one trick pony who could be a 5th outfielder that is just used as pinch running and late inning defensive replacements. These days thats not worth so much of a roster spot as it is $4 million. I’m interested in what the outfield will be for the A’s on opening Day. Will it be Davis-Crisp-Sweeney from left-to-right? Buck-Crisp-Sweeney? Gross-Crisp-Sweeney? They all make sense in their own way. Anything is better than Cust manning RF. Or even LF for that matter.
I don’t think the A’s even know what their outfield alignment will be to start the season. They have a lot of good outfielders and that’s why I was hoping the Padres would have gotten Davis for Kouz instead of Hairston. The Padres need a leadoff man and I think that trade would have been just as even as the actual trade that went down. The A’s could be a nice little sleeper this season.
All said and done the A’s got Rosales for about 2 million. The reds saved the money to buy Ocab. Eveland will be traded since a lefty always have value but most likely for a PTBNL.
This is the first time I ever read a player was gone from a team before I even knew he was on the team. Billy Beane, you magician you!
Jason Kubel vs Dana Eveland was pretty cool in High School I assume.
I like Walt Jocketty’s school of thinking. When you can’t get a player from a division rival, get another team to do it for you and get him from that team later.
Maybe the Cubs Should look into Taveras as a back up for center/ pinch runner
that would make the outfield Soriano,Byrd,Fukudome,Nady,Taveras who could come in to play defense for soriano
Oh Billy beane, you have a great sense of humor.I think the A’s only wanted Rosales so they can laugh when he sprints the bases after hitting a home run.
Ha. Gotta love the Bean lovers. Bean, who claims to not have money to spend, takes on $2 million in salary for a reserve player and people on here are falling all over themselves to try and find a way to defend it. Had Omar or some other GM who is deemed to be bad by the herd mentality done this same deal they would be rightfully blasted. Classic!
It’s Beane.
Where did Beane claim he didn’t have money to spend. He spent over 15MM on Sheets, Duchscherer, and Crisp this offseason alone.
And he traded for Holliday last offseason, and sent cash in the deal when he traded Holliday to the Cardinals for Wallace.
A’s are making moves like it’s a fantasy team.
Surprised they let Eveland go…. Thought he was a pretty good player.
what?? lol eveland was not good with the A’s lol
he was very dissapointing
Dana Eveland could make sense for the Royals. They’ve been looking for a Left-handed starter for awhile, and Erik Bedard is probably too costly for them. If they can get him for a PTBNL it might make some sense.