The A's exercised Coco Crisp's 2011 option, according to the outfielder's Twitter account. Oakland will pay Crisp $5.75MM next year instead of buying him out for $500K.
Crisp, 31, batted .279/.342/.438 with 26 extra base hits last year, though he appeared in just 75 games. He missed months with a pectoral strain and also battled finger and knee injuries. He was an unranked free agent, so the A's could not have obtained compensation if he had turned down an offer of arbitration to sign elsewhere.
The A's also have 2011 options for Mark Ellis and Eric Chavez. It looks like they'll pick up Ellis' $6MM option and they'll certainly choose to pay Chavez a $3MM buyout instead of a $12.5MM salary.
I think this will lead to the A’s shopping Rajai Davis. If Crisp can stay healthy, this was a wise move; Crisp was a 3.3 WAR player in just 75 games last year.
Crisp also had a career high in SB, which surprised me, given he played less than half a season. 33 swipes, caught only 3 times for a phenomenal 91.6%.
I could see the Braves interested in Davis. Wren wants to add speed and defense to the team, which Davis brings plenty of. If only he could keep his OBP up…..
Too bad for Eric Chavez, he used to be a good player before injuries a few years ago.
Oh man, he was a GREAT player. Five or six consecutive all-star-level seasons, despite never making the All Star team. It’s a shame. You can say this for dozens of players throughout baseball history, but he was on a Hall of Fame career path for awhile.
Good move for Crisp. I thought that when Boston got him from Cleveland, he would thrive with a contender. He turned out to be a huge disappointment there, and compounded with the injuries, he never seem to get it together. This second half of the season resurgence in Oakland has been a pleasent surprise. Hope he can recapture what he was in the past with the Indians again.
Crisp is a waste of money
Nice analysis. Care to explain why?
i can’t understand why you would go by coco if your name is covelli loyce crisp.
Maybe ’cause you can’t say it three times fast — or even once!
:D
Maybe he really likes cereal?
It’s a great move considering the lack of options for CF FA’s. The injury history is a drawback but the A’s can afford to move Sweeney to CF if Crisp goes down again and Davis is shopped. Rajai’s 1.0 WAR isn’t very enticing but hopefully for the A’s some teams are willing to overlook or overpay for Davis with the lack of open-market options. The A’s need to look for a corner OF with pop without sacrificing a ton on defense. This is certainly the most pressure they’ve faced going into an offseason in awhile, but so much money is coming off the books with Sheets, Chavez, and Duchscherer that they’ll have more wiggle room in a bidding war than we’ve probably seen since their payroll was near the top, roughly two decades ago.