Billy Beane would “love” to acquire a shortstop who could provide the streaking Athletics with an offensive boost, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports. The A’s, who aren’t presently in serious trade talks with any teams, could pursue Yunel Escobar or Stephen Drew.
The Blue Jays are willing to trade Escobar, Rosenthal reports. Shortstop prospect Adeiny Hechavarria has convinced Toronto’s decision makers that he can play in the Major Leagues, so the Blue Jays could listen to offers on Escobar, Rosenthal writes. The 29-year-old Escobar has a .251/.295/.339 batting line and earns $5MM per season through 2013.
The A’s have also tried to upgrade over the slumping Brandon Inge, Rosenthal reports. Here's a look at potentially available shortstops and third basemen.
Please take Nick Punto Billy.. he can catch just about anything. Pay no attention to his bats however. Customs confiscated them they think after he signed as a FA and they never arrived in Boston.
Seriously.. Maybe Boston would move Avilles and call up Iglesias.. Some of the Sox fans here (me included) are tired of his non patient approach at the plate. he does drive in runs, has good power for a SS and surprisingly fair range at the position.. Wonder if Beane is even interested in him and if Cherrington has ideas of moving him?
Though the A’s need to find someone better than Pennington at SS, I’m not sure Billy would go for Aviles. Aviles has played pretty good defense and he’s got some decent power, but I just don’t think he walks enough.
That is his issue. he has this “thing” you get strike one and it’s like he will chase anything after that..
Utility guy? Perfect man, starting SS/3b/2b? Nope, not to me at least and impatient approach at the plate is the reason.
Why don’t they try to reacquire Scutaro? He played well for them the first time around, and I’m sure the Rockies would only require a B prospect for him.
I would love to bring back Marco (clap clap) Scutaro (clap clap). He was so much fun to watch in 2006.
As a rental, I think he would be a great fit. When he was with Oakland, he was pretty clutch with men on and I think he would make a good clubhouse presence to the younger guys. The addition of Scutaro would also give some fire for Pennington to pick it up given he is on his way to his worst year ever in the bigs. Another guy I think could be a fit for the A’s would be Chase Headley. He’s shown the ability to get on base, has some pop, and plays good defense. Not quite sure what the Padres will ask for him (probably a lot given he has another 3 years of control after this season), but if the A’s could get him at the right price, he would be a solid addition to the lineup.
I’m scared of Scutaro playing short. When the pitching staff is pitching well, but not striking out a lot of batters, I could see huge defensive problems with Scutaro being the full time SS. And a run saved is a run scored.
I really, really want Chase Headley on the A’s. I’m not so sure what the Padres’ price would be (rightfully, a lot), but the A’s could offer a pitching-ridden package for him.
Well we would have Pennington off the bench, and Melvin would have the option of putting him in late in the game for defensive reasons. Scutaro’s offensive stats may not be overbearing, but what he’s posting this season would be a huge upgrade over Pennington. And if Pennington happens to get hot, then you put him in the lineup over Scutaro and allow him to be the utility infielder. I don’t think Scutaro should cost too much, given he can become a free agent at the end of the season and is 36 yrs old, so I think potentially benching him in the case that Pennington gets hot wouldn’t be a huge waste.
Stephen Drew and Upton in a deal.
(cont’d)
….would cost way too much
No, to expensive for the A’s and the A’s will not give up a prospects for Upton and Drew
PLEASE TAKE JIMMY ROLLINS. hes from oakland
He’s actually from Alameda. Just outside of Oakland.
LOL. The same Jimmy Rollins everyone except Amaro and Philly fans were laughing at Amaro resigning over the winter?
Nobody will touch that 3/easy vesting 4 year contract.
its really not a bad contract, considering how terrible shortstops as a whole are offensively.
3/33 with a fairly east 4/44 vesting option and his numbers have been falling offensively since ’08. I threw Mike Avilles name in this topic as a joke, but really..He gets on base about the same, has more power and even has a little better than average range at SS (this year) at 1m. Rollins will just give a team a GG type defense for huge costs and he is not the XBH machine at a very friendly offensive park anymore.
That’s why was mentioning Philly just has no chance of moving that deal Rex. It was awful when given out. comparable to the one NY gave Jeter. Philly would have been better off chasing Gonzalez. He’s hurt now (again) but think he ended up in like the 4-5m range.
And this is incredibly worth it, especially considering how defense-dependent the pitching staff is in oakland.
he’s a very good defender with plenty of range and a far better batting line than cliff pennington. if he isn’t good, then he’ll be relegated to a part time role in year 3, which should stop the option from vesting.
and he’s a huge improvement over absolutely anyone the a’s have at ss over the next 2-3 years, and i can’t see stephen drew coming to oakland in FA.
if the a’s are giving up nothing of value in return and only taking the salary, it would be a fairly smart idea for the a’s.
I agree, the $ isn’t really an issue for the A’s, they just make it sound like an issue so they can get a new ballpark. Lew Wolfe is loaded, he can afford to spend some money.
Pick up Rollins so they don’t have to give up much in the way of prospects, then just pay the guy. They were willing to pay coco, why not Jroll, and he’s local and might get a boost of attendance because he’s a ‘star’
What’s going on with Grant Green? Wasn’t he the SS of the future?
his defense isn’t going to be good enough to stick as a full time SS, and the A’s have a pitch to contact staff so MIF defense is huge.
Would love to get Yunel, Drew’s just been too injured for my liking. I’d prefer they wait til he has his option bought out (if that happens) and try and sign him to some incentive laden deal.
Only problem is that AA would try and pry someone like Straily from the A’s. If all it would take was McCarthy or Colon, then yeah I’d be fine with it but those are underpays. Yes, while McCarthy is an awesome pitcher when he does take the hill, he’s injury prone enough that it would be an underpay.
I have a hard time seeing the Blue Jays move Escobar for a prospect. They’re trying to get better at the big league level. Even McCarthy probably doesn’t pry him away without some sort of extension being agreed to ahead of time.
True, but Straily is actually very Major League ready. His stuff is better than AJ Griffin’s and MUCH better than Milone’s and it’s all refined at this point (as witnessed by, funny enough, the Blue Jays AAA team last week).
The things keeping him down at this point are that he’s only 23 years old and that this is his first year above high-A, and he’s not on the 40-man.
I keep hearing the criticism of Milone, but for a guy who has “average” stuff he’s done very well. Leads the team in victories with 9 and would have a few more if he had much run support early in the season.
I don’t think the A’s would hesitate to bring Strailey up if the need arose in a month or so. Look how quickly Sean Doolittle raced through the ML levels when he dominated. 23 isn’t THAT young. And, you can always find a roster spot on the 40 for a talented player.
Yes, he’s done very well because, even though he has actually below average stuff, he has impeccable command of it.
And Doolittle was raced because he was just making a mockery of hitters for 1 or 2 innings.
And 23 isn’t that young in general, but he’s now slightly ahead of the learning curve in terms of development and so it wouldn’t hurt him to keep him at AAA longer, but I agree that they wouldn’t hesitate to bring him up if he would start
Yeah, I don’t think the roster spot is the problem; there are quite a few guys who could be DFA’d to make room (Jim Miller and/or Brandon Hicks please).
In a month or so, if the A’s are still in it and Straily continues to K everybody, Straily should absolutely be brought up.
Milone’s been stellar this year, although he has only a very tiny margin for error.
Tommy Milone is basically a Tom Glavine type of pitcher. I don’t hear anyone say Tom Glavine had “below average” stuff. Give the guy a break. Look at the numbers Glavine put up in his first few seasons. Not everything in pitching is about throwing 95mph.
Glavine was a stud, Hall-of-Fame pitcher. He could hit corners his entire career… but he arrived at the big league level throwing 90-93 mph’s (IIRC).
Drew has been injured once. It just so happens it was a broken ankle. So yeah, there is concern. If/when he gets healthy/right again, he is a stud SS. The Dbacks will never see that day regardless. He’s one guy that you can almost bank on now, being traded by the deadline, even if it is for a A talent and a bag of nice bats and some BP balls.
I know I’m dreaming but:
A’s get: Escobar
Phillies get: Gose
Jays prospect
A’s prospect
Jays get: Colon
Balfour
Halladay
Dreaming? You must be on drugs.;)
So… the A’s give up a starting pitcher, a relief pitcher and a prospect for a SS who has an OPS of .635 and an OBP under .300? Yeah, you can dream all you want, but that won’t happen.
Yes, the A’s give up Colon and his expiring contract, Balfour, a relief pitcher who voiced his displeasure publicly when he was removed from the closer role and prospect TBA for an above average, premium position in Escobar batting .285/.357/.393 lifetime.
While Escobar may be having an off year at the plate, hitting .251/.295/.339, those numbers are still a improvement over current A’s SS Cliff Pennington and his .203/.266/.290 line.
Offensive numbers aside, Escobar has been one of the best defensive SS this year and being signed to a team friendly contact that runs through 2015 is another reason I could see Billy Beane and the penny pinching A’s paying that price.
Must be a Blue Jays fan.
“Billy Beane would ‘love’ to acquire a shortstop who could provide the streaking Athletics with an offensive boost.”
Who wouldn’t love to acquire a SS who would provide an offensive boost?
Well when your starting shortstop has a batting line of just .203/.266/.290 this season, there’s a little more motivation behind getting an improvement…
The Marlins?
I know it’s not a flashy name and he’s no sure thing. But Tyler Greene seems like the kind of guy the A’s would go after. He wouldn’t cost much and shows his potential once in awhile. If the A’s let him play every day, he might just be a decent SS.
i think he could be had by the a’s for little to nothing, you guys throw us a low level A reliever and we shake hands, i just want him gone
not sure if those reports on jays wanting/willing to move are accurate. reason being is he just signed a team friendly extension last year. maybe in the off-season if they resign KJ (which i doubt) and escobar pisses more ppl off. there is a higher probabilty KJ is available – hech can move to 2nd if need be…
I would love for the Jays to get Brandon McCarthy, but they have enough pitchers on the DL. Besides, I think he said he wants to stay on the West Coast so he’d pretty much be gone after these two months.
I’m a Phillies fan and it’s been an awful season up to this point. I know that the A’s are never a team looking to add a great deal of salary. If I were Ruben Amaro, I would be trying to move Rollins to Oakland. If this means the Phillies swallowing a large part of the salary, then so be it. The Phillies have made a mistake by bringing Rollins back. Maybe a change of scenery to his hometown team would bring out some passion for the game for Rollins again.
As a Jays fan, I was wondering if there were any suggestions as to who would be a good fit for the Jays from the As. I like the idea of promoting Hechavarria to the big leagues, so trading Escobar (and maybe a prospect) if needed for a good SP would be a great boost for us.
I doubt the A’s would move him but Parker is a fit in what the Jays are doing.
No way are they getting parker
I said that was just answering his question for who would be a fit in what the Jays are trying to do that they have. AA seems to pull rabbits out of his hat and him and Bean have a good relationship it seems they do more trades between them than any other teams that I can think of. I wouldn’t be surprised to see if Escobar is moving him going to the A’s.
You aren’t getting Parker for an overrated, plays hard when he feels like it SS with a a slash line that mediocre and a $5 million salary. C’mon. Maybe a AA “prospect.” At best, Tyson Ross.
I hear the walk/SO machine Derek Barton is available…
parkers numbers in his rookie season make him overrated as well. people are way too quick to hate on escobar. despite his poor slash line this season, he is still a top ten SS in WAR thanks to fabulous defense and above average baserunning. given his track record, you’d have to bet on the bat to turn around as well. toss in an extremely affordable contract, premium position and 3 years of control, and escobar is probably worth parker+
A’s fans would like to think the jays would make like the braves and sell the guy off for 50cents on the dollar cause of a perceived and likely inconsequential, even if it does exist, attitude problem.
We got tons of starting pitching maybe mccarthy or bartolo and a prospect for escobar
lol Bartolo. Yeah, that ain’t happening. Yunel isn’t getting traded for a soon to be free agent either.
I think a fair trade is Escobar for: two of Peacock/Taylor/Krol
The Blue Jays are not willing to move Escobar at all, don’t know where Rosenthal gets that idea. They signed him to an extension just last year. Jays love that they bought Escobar low and have turned him into a top level player. Maybe once Hechavarria is in the bigs for two or three years, then Escobar becomes avilable, but not before then
The Jays are willing to move any player in the system if the deal is right. Escobar is by NO MEANS untouchable.
What you can definitely count on is that if AA pulls the trigger, there are going to be significant MLB-ready assets coming north of the border. Much more significant than the Alex Gonzalez the Jays gave up for Escobar.
The A’s could use a 1st baseman too.
They are a pretty good team, better than I thought they would be.
However, to try and compete with the Angels and Rangers is kind of fool hardy at this point.
The most they’ll win is 85 games, that’s not going to get it done in 2012.
Besides, I don’t think anyone will trade them anything good at this point.
I would wait.
I think the A’s are fine at first base. The platoon of Moss and Carter has been very productive so far.
Can I offer you Mark Reynolds for 3rd base as a peace offering?
sorry, the A’s already have a full DH spot.
For the first time in a while, the A’s do not need help at 1B. Carter and Moss are doing a very good platoon right now, and Carter or Moss can probably handle it alone even.
Also, 2012 may be the start of an era where 85 wins DOES get it done.
The guy that I would like the A’s to acquire is Jed Lowrie.
Too bad he’s hurt though.
Was only a matter of time for him to get, yet another, freak injury. Poor guy is cursed, and he was off to the best year of his career.
I think Drew would be a great fit in Oakland for the 2nd half of the season. AZ would love to shed the 3+ million owed to him for the 2nd half, knowing there is no way he will re-sign with them in the offseason. They might as well try to get some type of prospect for him. Although Drew missed almost a year, it was due to a freak injury. He does not have an injury history, so there is no real issue there, because he is back to playing normally now, showing his ankle is fine.
I like Drew better than Escobar. Escobar is having a bad season unless he cost nothing more than Colon but any price higher would be a big gamble for Beane. Drew could bounce back and be a quality SS. With a surplus of outfielders you can bet Micheal taylor name is being mentioned in trade talks. If a trade happens it will be closer to the dealine.
How about Alcides Escobar at SS and Chase Headley at 3B…? New A’s line up 2B.Weeks SS.EScobar CF/DH.Cespedes RF.Reddick 3B.Headley 1B.Carter LF.Smith DH.Gomes C.Norris
If the A’s were to swing a deal, it wouldn’t be “and”, it’d only be “or”, they’d get one, not both.
That’s also with the caveat that Alcides is pretty much untouchable and Headley is unlikely
well we might as well trade for mauer too, LET’S DO THIS!!
Jays fan: your team is not nearly as good as you think, stop drinking the gregg zaun kool aid
Why do people not understand what value is? A young player before their prime years 27-28 years old can generally be traded for upside value. Getting more in return than their actual worth due to the fact they have a chance to get better. Like the Gio and Cahill trades for instance, you can get back more than the current worth of the player due to team control and perceived value going forward. If a player is past his prime years he is worth what he is based on what he’s doing now. There are obviously exceptions like injuries but thats what he’s worth. Just look at Youkilis as a prime example. The Jays don’t need to trade Escobar but if they do he’s worth only what he’s done this season and no more than that.
Escobar for Braden and cash money
Is Castro available?