The Athletics will sign the recently-released Brandon Inge, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter link).
The 35-year-old Inge picked up just two hits in 20 at-bats with the Tigers this season after batting just .197/.265/.283 in 303 plate appearances last season. He was released by Detroit, the only organization he's ever known, on Thursday last week.
Oakland's third base situation has been in question all season. Scott Sizemore was originally scheduled to start at third for the A's, but went down with a knee injury prior to the season. The A's have since acquired Luke Hughes from the Twins, but Hughes profiles more as a utility player than a starter. Oakland was one of three teams, along with the Twins and Orioles, rumored to be interested in adding the veteran.
Inge is a career .234/.304/.387 hitter whose defense at third has long been considered to be a plus. He possess a 5.6 UZR/150 in his career at the hot corner. Inge is represented by ACES.
Seems like a very Athletics thing to do.
Very true statement.
Deficiencies in the market
I don’t know about the market, but there will certainly be more in the lineup
Inge probably isn’t a worse hitter than what the A’s currently have, as sad as that sounds/is.
Until Stephen Parker gets called up, of course.
Color me not excited. Hopefully Sogard still gets PAs.
Brandon is a good player i think he shouldve to another team but good job athletics
A good player? In what way?
Sorry A’s fans..
I’ll take him over the third baseman we got now
jesus christ, tommy hunter has just two k’s today….both are on luke hughes…ugh
not a good day for Aussies today.
seriously, but that was a rough inning to start with. Do you think grant shoulda started the inning?
Nope.
Colon wasn’t letting the ball leave the infield, and the A’s had a 2 run lead at the time, not a 1 run lead or a tie. After Hardy reached, it was debatable, but you could justify the decision to keep Colon, the A’s best pitcher this season, in either way. I can’t fault Melvin for keeping Colon in as long as he did.
Grant faced two batters (not including the IBB) and gave up two XBH.
I really wasn’t sure, still not sure haha
either way melvin was going to get some kinda blame, if he had started balfour in the inning people woulda said he should’ve left bartolo in, if he leaves bartolo in, people say he shoulda left balfour in. really lose lose for him
the only thing I’d fault Melvin for would be leaving Smith in LF while Crisp was in the game as DH. But with how hard hit that double was, it probably wouldn’t have mattered.
The rate at which Balfour is giving up HRs this year is problematic.
I’m guessing Hughes gets DFA’d again, unless the A’s have someone else they can send down…
5 years, $80 million sounds fair. Power hitter with superb defense. Yep, Adrian Beltre is worth it. Good luck with Brandon Inge as your starting 3B, Oakland.
That isn’t really fair. Have a feeling Beltre didn’t want to sign in Oakland period and Beane realized that during the negotiations finally.
Beltre realized stadiums like Safeco are brutal for his game after 5 agonizing seasons and Oakland is the exact same, if not worse in his sense and Texas was the perfect place for him, much like Fenway was for him to get back on track.
Beane was smart to cease with a 5-75-80mish offer and more or less and was smart to stop negotiating at the end point after realizing it was not going to do any good.
The a’s just need his defense to come through. All pitchers love pitching in Oakland just like all hitters love texas wind blown homeruns. You should be more concerned with your tigers stumbling through a weak schedule!
The Tigers arent hitting, and arent getting that great of pitching, but to say a weak schedule is false. We had to face Boston, Tampa, New York, and yes even the White sox. We swept the royals and the mariners got hot at the right time. Not an easy schedule at all.
Market inefficiencies- easy to sign old and horrible baseball players.
…says the Pirates fan.
Meh…Rather they wait and see what stephen parker can do, but guess they’re just too impatient
I agree, i would much rather see parker up there now and maybe later deal balfour for a third baseman and parker can back up.
i don’t want parker up quite yet (either one actually), give him another month, he also needs to prove he can cut it defensively
Inge is better than Hughes. There is not much Inge needs to do but play good D to be better. Hughes made to many bad plays at third.
the service time reason is the only reason i wouldn’t want jarrod up yet.
but i agree with you on stephen.
It sure seems clear Inge is more concerned with playing time than putting up good hitting numbers for a new contract. He’ll certainly get the lion’s share of at bats at 3B for Oakland, but his hitting numbers will suffer in that lineup and playing half of his games in that canyon of a building.
Until Seattle’s centerfielder dropped a fairly routine fly ball Inge hit and the Detroit scorekeeper gave Inge a hit instead of Seattle the error, Inge was hitting .056. That gift
raised his average to .100. There’s nowhere to go but up for Inge’s average.
Why all the hate for Brandon Inge? Sure, he’s not hitting, and never has been much of a hitter, but c’mon. Brandon, I hope you find your stroke in the Mausoleum. Show all the trolls that they’re wrong.
Yes!, I can still go watch him on my trip to Oakland to watch the Tigers, at least now I can cheer every time he strikes out.
Oh and cant forget about Texas.
He has a tremendous ego. Just listen to some of his interviews…you’ll soon be asking yourself why this guy thinks so highly of himself when he hasn’t above .262 in over 8 years…The guy is a loser and has been holding the Tigers back for years now at the bottom of the lineup.
Inge was washed up as a utility player 3-4 years ago.
He hit .180 last year.
He swings from his shoe tops and strikes out a lot
(holds Detroit Tigers team record for strikeouts).
Inge used to be an above average defender at 3B,
but even his defense has declined as of late.
If the A’s want Inge, then they must be desperate for players
and/or warm bodies.
Wait until Oakland gets a load of his excessive ego and attitude
of entitlement.
He talks a good game to the media
but can never back it up when he steps onto the field.
I will be surprised if he makes it to the All Star break
without getting released again.
that’s the thing, it might just be a minor league contract, or a very very low salary one. As for him making it to the all star break, that all depends on how he plays and how stephen parker is performing in AAA.
and trust me, the a’s looked at luke hughes for an answer at 3rd base, they’re desperate
Kevin Kouzmanoff 2.0
revolving door
Looking good so far!
“To be honest, in a couple days, I was probably going to go in there and
ask them if I could weigh my options and try to get out of there and
find a better team that would better suit me for my career,” Inge said.
“This is the strongest I’ve been – which is kind of crazy. So I’m
excited about the strength and power that’s there. Now it’s a matter of
when I get the at-bats so I’ll be able to really see what I can do.”
Watch out, Oakland! He’s about to unleash all that power that the Tigers were forcing him to hide!