9:30am: The A’s are closing in on a trade for Dunn, Olney tweets.
9:00am: The Giants are no longer a potential landing spot for Dunn, according to Olney (Twitter link).
8:45am: Rosenthal tweets that the A’s are the front-runners to acquire Dunn, who is willing to waive his no-trade clause to facilitate a trade to Oakland.
8:34am: The Giants, A’s and one other club are pursuing Dunn, Rosenthal further reports (Twitter links). Oakland is indeed on Dunn’s no-trade list, but Dunn will consider allowing a trade for a chance to win in the postseason, he adds. Meanwhile, ESPN’s Buster Olney hears that the Dodgers are still in discussion with the White Sox on Dunn (Twitter link).
8:31am: The Giants and A’s are both looking to make a late trade for White Sox slugger Adam Dunn, reports Tom Verducci of SI.com. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that there was a lot of chatter yesterday that Dunn could be moved in advance of the Sept. 1 deadline for postseason eligibility. Rosenthal also notes that Dunn has a limited no-trade clause, and while the teams on that list aren’t known, Oakland frequently finds itself listed on players’ no-trade clauses.
However, as Verducci notes, Dunn leads all active players in games played without a postseason appearance, and he’s also discussed the possibility of retiring after the season. With those factors in mind, it’s hard to imagine Dunn blocking a trade to a team with a good chance of providing him with the first playoff experience of his 14-year career.
Players acquired via trade after Aug. 31 are not eligible for their new team’s postseason roster, making today somewhat of a soft trade deadline (we of course have seen trades take place after Sept. 1). As such, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Dunn (and/or others) on the move, and the White Sox certainly aren’t averse to trading veterans, having just dealt Alejandro De Aza to the Orioles last night.
While there haven’t been reports on Dunn clearing revocable trade waivers, his $15MM salary and defensive limitations both make him a candidate to clear waivers. If that has happened, he’s free to be dealt to any team, and that would certainly seem to be the implication in Verducci’s article, as he notes that the Dodgers also inquired on Dunn but aren’t considered a fit. The “Big Donkey” is owed about $2.54MM in September, so Chicago GM Rick Hahn could sweeten a potential trade by offering to pay some or all of Dunn’s remaining salary.
Dunn hit his 20th homer of the season yesterday and has posted a .220/.340/.433 batting line on the season as a whole. His platoon issues have been building for years, and they’re very apparent in 2014, as he’s hitting just .154/.274/.288 with two homers against southpaws and .232/.351/.457 against righties. Dunn could be used as a bench bat for the Giants and perhaps a platoon option at DH for the A’s. Clearly, he could play a bigger role in Oakland than in San Francisco, and for what it’s worth, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that A’s GM Billy Beane has told him that he “loves” Dunn in the past.
Go ahead…make my day
Yeah at this point Dunn is nothing more than a power bat in a platoon/off the bench role. The Sox are so out of it now, you might as well trade the guys that clearly won’t be returning next season.
Wrong movie! I loved him in Dallas Buyers Club.
I’ve always found Adam Dunn to be a particularly intriguing character for some reason. Would be fun to see him in the postseason.
Tigers could sneak in and get him. They need a left handed bat that can get on base. They have no power from Cabrera right now and his batting average has dipped under .300.
If the average is going to be low anyway, why not put Dunn in there.
They could rest Cabrera, let him heal for 10+ days, put VMART at first and Dunn at DH.
He can be a bench player after that.
Resting Cabrera for 10 days is an easy way to fall out of playoff contention altogether.
They have to do something.
Cabrera is batting .252 with 1 Home Run in August. Even Don Kelly is a better hitter than Cabrera at the moment. Of course Adam Dunn would be.
Cabrera is obviously playing hurt. And of course, you know what happened to them last year, when he was never allowed to heal in August/September.
They don’t have the luxury of letting him heal. Have him play DH and let VMart man 1st.
Why? .252 with no power. You can tell he has no balance and cannot catch up to even 95MPH fastballs.
By your logic, they may NOT have the luxury to let him play if they want to win the division.
Then they should give up on the season because this team isn’t going anywhere without him.
They made up a 2.5 deficit in a week with Cabrera playing horribly at the plate. No reason they cannot mix and match at DH/1st and still stay competitive with the Royals.
Perhaps bench him for next 5 games and put him back in v. the Royals in a week… may be a good compromise.
I’m guessing you don’t watch the Tigers. Cabrera is hurt. He has no power. Can’t even jog. And because of his ankle, he can’t field to save his life.
You’d guess wrong. I understand he’s hurt, but resting him is hardly the answer for a team trying to make the postseason. DH him if you have to, but a DL trip would be pretty disastrous.
I wish Adam the best of luck in Oakland. Along the lines of Jim Thome as one the nicest, classiest guys in baseball. Hopefully he will get his first taste of postseason. My biggest Adam Dunn moment was being at the game in Kansas City when he hit his 400th career homer.
This article should be renamed Billy Beane Tries to Fix his Mistake
The narrative that trading Cespedes caused Oakland’s offense to tank seems like little more than conveniently labeling correlation as causation.
Agreed. I’ve enjoyed watching him in Boston, but it’s not like he’s completely tearing things up. The A’s have been spotty as a whole and it wouldn’t be fair to put that on trading Cespedes.
“Closing in on a deal for Dunn” and “pursuing Dunn” seem such strange phrases.