The Athletics have announced (on Twitter) the acquisition of infielder Jake Elmore from the White Sox in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier this morning that the A's may be close to acquiring Elmore after reporting that Andy Parrino had been designated for assignment.
Elmore batted .242/.313/.325 in 136 plate appearances for the Astros in 2013. The highly versatile 26-year-old accomplished a rare feat last season by appearing at all nine positions on the diamond. Even more rare is the fact that he both pitched and caught in the same game on Aug. 19.
A teammate of Oakland's Eric Sogard at Arizona State University, Elmore was selected by the Diamondbacks in the late stages of the 2008 draft (34th round). His minor league numbers to date are strong, as he's a career .291/.387/.394 hitter, including a robust .326/.419/.453 triple-slash in 821 PAs at the Triple-A level. Though he offers little power, he's averaged exactly 30 steals per 162 games in the minors, so he brings some speed to the table.
Elmore appeared at all nine positions on the diamond last year and the Ray’s didn’t acquire him, wow.
Yeah well if it wasn’t the Rays, you know it was going to be the Billy and the A’s.
A’s twitter says they acquired Elmore for cash and PTBNL, while Steve Adams wrote it was cash or PTBNL. Can you tell us which is correct, Steve?
It was cash and/or a PTBNL for career minor leaguer
Love the name, it sounds like the missing Blues Brother.
One of the best names in baseball.
I don’t get it. He is fast and gets in base and plays the middle infield. So a middle infielding lead off hitter? THATS EXACTLY WHAT THE SOX NEEDED LAST SEASON. Why not give him a chance. I never understood why guys with really good minor league numbers never seem to get a shot at the bigs.
Elmore is a 27 year old with 209 career PA and a .223/.290/.298 career MLB line, I wouldn’t say he’s exactly what the Sox need
Right. And that guy you’re describing actually sounds more like Marcus Semien, who is a lot younger than Elmore. And behind him there’s Leury Garcia, Carlos Sanchez, Micah Johnson, and, eventually, the best of the bunch, Tim Anderson.
And maybe trea turner if they draft him which most likely won’t happen
I thought that, too, but prob. not now that Anderson is on the verge of breakout. Doug Laumann, at Soxfest, gave strong indication that they will be drafting a pitcher.
Oh, maybe because the Sox have 4 younger candidates ahead of him on the depth chart, not counting Gordo. This sounds like the kind of guy Kenny would have collected. Surplus.
I love strange trivial facts like that!
“Even more rare is the fact that he both pitched and caught in the same game.” At the same time?!
His fastball was so slow, he could get back behind the plate to catch it…nobody saw though because it was an Astros game.