The Athletics have reached an agreement with left-hander Brad Mills on a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, reports Baseball America’s Matt Eddy in his latest Minor League Transactions roundup. MLBTR’s Zach Links hears that Mills drew interest from a number of clubs, but chose the A’s because he felt it presented him with a strong opportunity to make the big league club again (Twitter links).
Mills, 30 in March, split the season between the Brewers, A’s and Blue Jays organizations, seeing Major League time with the latter two. Much was made of the trade that sent Mills from Milwaukee to Oakland for all of $1, but the procedural move proved to have little impact. Mills was knocked around for nine runs (eight earned) in 16 1/3 innings for Oakland, surrendering 19 hits with a 14-to-7 K/BB ratio. Oakland designated the southpaw for assignment, and he was claimed by the Blue Jays.
With Toronto, Mills yielded 13 runs in 4 1/3 innings and found himself designated for assignment once again, this time clearing outright waivers. He elected free agency following the season.
Mills was outstanding at Triple-A this season — a large reason for the bewilderment of Brewers fans following the initial trade. In 107 1/3 minor league innings, Mills pitched to a pristine 2.01 ERA with 8.6 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9. He will provide the A’s with some rotation depth which is much needed, as Jon Lester and Jason Hammel are free agents, while A.J. Griffin and Jarrod Parker are both recovering from Tommy John surgery.
The Athletics have reached an agreement with left-hander Brad Mills on a minor league contract worth $1. plus incentives.
Doesn’t Oakland have Parker, Griffin, Kazmir, Gray, Chavez, and Samardzija in the fold? Shark, Kazmir, Gray, Chavez plus one of the two TJ guys isn’t a bad plan to rely on, with the other TJ guy as depth. They still have a window of competition for 2015, but I do agree the MiLB deal for Mills is low-risk. I just can’t see this as his best path to MLB action, unless it’s as a reliever or his other options were really blocked.
Parker is coming off his second TJS and is far from a guarantee to remain a starter (I certainly wouldn’t put money on it) and Griffin is coming off TJS as well. Both of them probably won’t be ready by opening day. The depth really couldn’t hurt
A nothing move. Now, LHP, Tommy Milone would be nice to have. But, no. Beane had to keep the useless Daric Barton over Fuld early in the 2014 season. Then, he threw Milone away to acquire Fuld (was cut earlier) when Gentry and Crisp broke, as they always do.
Rinse, spin, repeat. Nothing but moving the pea around in BB’s shell game.
And here I thought I’d seen the entirety of Brad Mills’ Oakland career. But no, there are probably 2 spot starts and a couple spankings in long relief still to come!
Yeah, I can’t believe Mills even rates as major league depth at this point. He has zero value to a major league club, even as their 6th or 7th starter on the depth chart. He should go to AAA and stay there.