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Archives for January 2015

Rangers, Padres, Cardinals, Red Sox Are “Primary Suitors” For Cole Hamels

By Jeff Todd | January 15, 2015 at 10:10am CDT

The Rangers have joined the Padres, Cardinals, and Red Sox as the four primary teams pursuing Phillies lefty Cole Hamels, according to a report from Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. Texas has previously been mentioned as having interest, but not much attention has focused on that possible destination.

It is worth noting that Philadelphia is not interested in simply finding the highest bidder. Rather, per the report, the club is holding firm in demanding two premium talents in return and will keep Hamels at least through the summer if it is not satisfied with an offer. Among the possible trade partners, Boston may be “most in the background” at present after its run of pitching acquisitions, Salisbury adds.

Nevertheless, the Phillies do appear to be serious about making a deal. Ruben Amaro Jr. has dedicated significant resources to scouting systems of the clubs he has been in contact with, says Salisbury, who notes that the embattled GM can ill afford a misstep with the organization’s best MLB asset.

Philly is especially interested in adding a young catcher, says Salisbury, who notes that several of the teams most heavily involved on Hamels possess top backstop prospects. The club would likely insist on adding Blake Swihart in a deal with Boston, or Austin Hedges in a deal with San Diego. And, as Salisbury notes, the Rangers also possess a top minor league receiver in Jorge Alfaro along with a nice collection of other heralded young players.

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Boston Red Sox Newsstand Philadelphia Phillies San Diego Padres St. Louis Cardinals Texas Rangers Cole Hamels Ruben Amaro Jr.

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Mariners Designate Anthony Fernandez

By Jeff Todd | January 15, 2015 at 9:40am CDT

The Mariners have designated lefty Anthony Fernandez for assignment, the club announced yesterday (h/t to Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune for the reminder). Fernandez lost his roster spot to make way for the acquisition of fellow southpaw Mike Kickham.

The 24-year-old Dominican native has yet to see MLB action. He has worked as a starter in the minors, reaching Triple-A briefly last year before going down with a torn UCL. Fernandez had entered the year rated 30th among Seattle’s prospects, in the view of Baseball America, with only one plus offering (his change) but strong marks for his control, competitiveness, intelligence, and attention to detail.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions

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East Notes: Yankees, Rays, Moore, DeJesus, Duquette, Desmond, Kimbrel, Braves

By Jeff Todd | January 15, 2015 at 8:08am CDT

The Yankees may not have stowed away their checkbook, as MLB.com’s Barry Bloom reports. Owner Hal Steinbrenner told reporters yesterday that time remained for moves. “It’s not over until it’s over,” he said. “We still have a full month before Spring Training. … [W]e’re still the New York Yankees, all you guys know that. We know what the fans expect. We know what the town expects. We’re not going to be afraid to spend money.”

  • If the Yankees are still the Yankees, then so too are the Rays still the Rays. As Andrew Astleford of FOX Sports Florida writes, trading away Ben Zobrist is just the latest reminder of the team’s continued strategies. “These trades are difficult, but they’re a necessary part of how we operate,” said president of baseball operations Matthew Silverman.
  • One other hallmark of the Rays method is early-career extensions, and one area of risk in such deals is injury, especially for pitchers. Lefty Matt Moore, who is controllable through 2019 under just such a contract, lost virtually all of last season due to Tommy John surgery. He is in a good physical and mental state, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, and hopes to return to the mound soon while building toward a return to the roster this coming June.
  • Topkin also wonders (via Twitter) whether the Braves and Rays could be a match on outfielder David DeJesus. The veteran is owed $5MM this year and a $1MM buyout on a 2016 option, which makes him a reasonably priced target but also does not leave him with a ton of trade value.
  • Though Orioles owner Peter Angelos threw cold water yesterday on the idea that momentum was building toward a deal that would result in executive VP Dan Duquette taking over the Blue Jays’ front office, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports says that the possibility still remains. If nothing else, Duquette wants the job in Toronto, per the report, which chalks up the Angelos statement to negotiating tactics.
  • The Mets should make a hard push to acquire shortstop Ian Desmond from the Nationals, Rosenthal argues in the same piece. The recently-acquired Yunel Escobar provides an alternative to Desmond in D.C., and Rosenthal suggests that including Daniel Murphy and adding prospect value could make the trade palatable for the Nats. While I would not write off the idea entirely, it would seem likely that the Nationals would demand a particularly significant return to move Desmond to a rising division rival.
  • Staying in the division, Rosenthal says that the Braves should deal away closer Craig Kimbrel. The righty is an expensive luxury for a non-contending team, says Rosenthal, who does note that the club might get better value for him at the trade deadline. That may well be, but it would be interesting to see what teams would give up now for one of the game’s most dominant arms; I’m guessing quite a bit. For its part, Atlanta is “optimistic about the coming season” and has no interest in dealing away Kimbrel, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets.
  • The ship has sailed at this point, of course, but Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution opines that the Braves may not have been in need of such a dramatic renovation. While the plan to re-build around young pitching obviously makes sense directionally, Bradley argues that the team now looks destined to be rather dreadful for the next season or two and wonders whether a less drastic plan could have been pursued.
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Atlanta Braves Baltimore Orioles New York Mets New York Yankees Tampa Bay Rays Toronto Blue Jays Washington Nationals Craig Kimbrel Dan Duquette Daniel Murphy David DeJesus Ian Desmond Matt Moore

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West Notes: Gattis, Rangers, Astros, Padres, Dodgers

By Steve Adams | January 14, 2015 at 11:10pm CDT

It’s been a hectic day in the AL West to say the least, with the Astros acquiring Evan Gattis from the Braves and the Athletics flipping the recently acquired Yunel Escobar to the Nats for Tyler Clippard. However, multiple reports indicated today that the Rangers were heavily interested in Gattis as well, and Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram sheds a bit of light on those talks (Twitter link). Per Wilson, the Rangers were in on Gattis but balked at Atlanta’s asking price of right-hander and former first-round pick Alex Gonzalez and/or top outfield prospect Nomar Mazara (who received a hefty $5MM bonus to sign with Texas in 2011 and reached Double-A last year). In the end, the Astros landed Gattis for righty Michael Foltynewicz, right-hander Andrew Thurman and third baseman Rio Ruiz.

Here are a few more notes on Houston and the game’s Western divisions…

  • The Astros still have some money to spend, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, and the team is currently looking at both the starting pitching market and at corner infielders. Astros fans with visions of elite starters in their minds should temper those thoughts, however, as Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the club is thinking more along the lines of back-end starters such as Ryan Vogelsong and Kyle Kendrick.
  • MLB.com’s Corey Brock spoke with Padres GM A.J. Preller and chairman Ron Fowler about the team’s flurry of moves this offseason. Specifically, Brock and Preller touched on how differently the offseason could have played out had the Friars secured their top target: Pablo Sandoval. “You’ve got to be prepared to move on to Plan B, C, D or F or Z. We don’t have a [front-office] group that dwells on things too long,” Preller told Brock in reference to losing out on Sandoval, who signed with Boston. “…Each decision takes you down a slightly different path. … If we had signed Pablo, it would have changed our course a little bit. That’s just the nature of the offseason.” Fowler told Brock that Preller has often worked on four or five deals at once, and his approach was so tireless that right after acquiring Matt Kemp, Preller said to Fowler, “Let’s go after [Justin] Upton.” The Upton acquisition, Fowler said, was possible due to the fact that the Dodgers front-loaded the money they sent to San Diego in the Kemp deal, sending $18MM of the $32MM right off the bat.
  • Earlier tonight we noted Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi’s candid acknowledgment of the club’s pursuit of Yoan Moncada when speaking with Jim Bowden on MLB Network Radio. The audio clip of that discussion is now available, and within it, Zaidi sidesteps a fairly loaded question about Max Scherzer and James Shields, to an extent, but acknowledges that the L.A. front office won’t close any doors. Said Zaidi: “I’m going to give you the same boring and annoying answer that I give to our local media — and they already love me for it — that we don’t comment on free agents that are out there. I will just say we’re not closing any doors at this point. I get asked a lot, ’Are you guys done?’ And you’re never done. You’re constantly evaluating new options to improve the team, and we’re still in that phase. And if there’s a guy out there that we think makes us better and is available at the right price, we’ll absolutely consider it.”
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Atlanta Braves Houston Astros Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Padres Texas Rangers Kyle Kendrick Nomar Mazara Ryan Vogelsong

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Dodgers Will Pursue Yoan Moncada

By Steve Adams | January 14, 2015 at 9:49pm CDT

JAN. 14: Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi spoke with Jim Bowden on MLB Network Radio’s Inside Pitch (via MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick) about Moncada and candidly declared his club’s interest in the Cuban star:

“Moncada, we’ve scouted extensively. We have the checkbook. Young elite talent in baseball is the most valuable asset to have. To the extent that our evaluation of him matches or exceeds where the market goes, we’ll definitely be players for him.”

Zaidi continued, explaining that in this type of situation the Dodgers will evaluate Moncada as a talent and Moncada as a person. The GM noted that with an investment of this size, no stone can be left unturned.

JAN. 13: To this point, the Yankees and Red Sox have been the teams most commonly connected to 19-year-old Cuban phenom Yoan Moncada, but MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez adds the Dodgers to the mix of clubs expected to make a serious run (Twitter link). According to Sanchez, the Dodgers “aggressively” pursued right-hander Yoan Lopez, and, having missed out on Lopez to the division-rival D-Backs, will now shift their focus to Moncada. Sanchez adds that a private workout for the Dodgers can be expected.

Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel has called the Yankees and Red Sox the “heavy favorites” to sign Moncada, but the Dodgers certainly possess the financial wherewithal to go toe-to-toe with both of those clubs in terms of spending. Los Angeles has invested heavily in Cuban players over the past 18 months, spending a combined $57MM on Alex Guerrero and Erisbel Arruebarrena. While those acquisitions were made under different management — Andrew Friedman, Farhan Zaidi and Josh Byrnes were tasked with leading a revamped baseball operations department this winter — the signings do show that ownership is willing to devote significant resources to the international market.

Moncada, of course, is expected to absolutely shatter Lopez’s record-setting bonus of $8.25MM; estimates on his signing bonus have ranged from $30-40MM. And, because clubs are required to pay a 100 percent tax for any spending that exceeds their assigned international bonus pools, the total outlay for Moncada could approach $80MM.

A switch-hitting infielder said to have four plus tools — hit, power, arm and speed — Moncada has been labeled by Baseball America’s Ben Badler as a potential franchise player. For the time being, however, Moncada cannot sign with any club, as he is still awaiting clearance from the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control, and there’s no word on a timeline for his approval.

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Los Angeles Dodgers Newsstand Yoan Lopez Yoan Moncada

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Astros Acquire Evan Gattis

By Jeff Todd | January 14, 2015 at 9:05pm CDT

The Astros have added more right-handed power to their lineup, acquiring catcher/outfielder Evan Gattis and minor league right-hander James Hoyt from the Braves, the teams announced. In return, Atlanta will acquire a trio of prospects: right-handers Michael Foltynewicz and Andrew Thurman as well as third baseman Rio Ruiz.

MLB: Atlanta Braves at Pittsburgh Pirates

With the DH role likely going to Chris Carter and four catchers on the 40-man roster, the Astros will use Gattis primarily in left field, MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart tweets. He’ll also be used sparingly at catcher and first base, per McTaggart.

By adding Gattis, the Astros are adding another big right-handed bat to a lineup that already features two of them in Carter and George Springer. As I wrote in a profile of Gattis as a trade candidate, the bat-first backstop has limited defensive value (whether behind the dish or in the outfield) but has established himself as a legitimate contributor on offense. After posting a .243/.291/.480 slash with 21 home runs over 382 plate appearances in 2013, Gattis stepped things up with a .263/.317/.493 line and 22 long balls last year in 401 turns at bat.

Of course, Gattis also comes with an attractive contractual situation. He will play at league minimum for the final time this year before qualifying for arbitration in 2016. Though his power numbers should inflate his earnings, Gattis will nevertheless remain an affordable piece for some time.

The 28-year-old Hoyt, meanwhile, is an interesting story. After going undrafted out of Centenary College of Louisiana, he began working on sailboats for a living before an independent league tryout got him back into baseball (via Baseball America’s most recent scouting report on Hoyt [subscription required]). Eventually, he was picked up by Atlanta at age 25. Hoyt rose through Atlanta’s ranks, compiling particularly impressive marks at the Double-A level in 2013 (1.82 ERA, 11.5 K/9, 4.2 BB/9). That earned him the No. 30 ranking on BA’s list of top Braves prospects, with BA praising his 94-96 mph fastball and a slider that could develop into a plus pitch.

Another fact that becomes all the more obvious with this move is that the Braves are not playing for 2015. Atlanta has undergone a significant amount of roster turnover this offseason, with new president of baseball operations John Hart driving the change. The club already dealt away its two star corner outfielders, Justin Upton and Jason Heyward, and replaced their expiring contracts with a four-year deal for free agent Nick Markakis.

Without Gattis to plug in left, current options are few. The club could strike a deal for a younger player, make an upside play for someone like Colby Rasmus, or make a run at Nori Aoki — a solid, high-OBP veteran in the general Markakis mold.

The Rangers also expressed heavy interest in Gattis and were even next in line to acquire him, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets. The deal took awhile to get across the finish line, as there was some significant concern as to how Gattis’ back and right knee would look when examined by doctors, per Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). Those concerns ultimately failed to derail the deal.

As with the Braves’ other moves, young pitching will come in return. Foltynewicz, who briefly reached the bigs last year as a reliever, sat at number three on Baseball America’s list of the best ’Stros prospects and at fourth on the MLB.com version. He will likely be given a chance to continue his development as a starter, and could even have a shot at a MLB rotation spot this year. Thurman, 23, was taken in the second round in 2013 but has struggled to adapt to pro ball. Last season, pitching at the Class A level, he threw 115 1/3 innings of 5.38 ball with 8.3 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9.

Ruiz was set to jockey with trade deadline addition Colin Moran to be Houston’s third baseman of the future, and was ranked by BA right aside Moran at eighth amongst the team’s minor leaguers, with MLB.com placing him ninth. The 20-year-old slashed .293/.387/.436 with 11 home runs in 602 plate appearances at High-A last year. Ruiz fills a gap in the club’s corner infield pipeline created by the recent trade of Kyle Kubitza.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today first reported on Twitter that Gattis was slated for a physical and that there were advanced negotiations with the Astros. Braves blogger Martin Gandy was first to tweet that something might be in the works between the clubs. David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first tweeted that the deal was in place, pending the physical. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the return for Gattis (Twitter links). MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reported the deal’s completion and Hoyte’s inclusion (Twitter links).

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Atlanta Braves Houston Astros Newsstand Transactions Evan Gattis Mike Foltynewicz Rio Ruiz

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Minor Moves: Goebbert, McCutchen, Mattheus, Anderson, Schlereth

By Steve Adams | January 14, 2015 at 8:53pm CDT

Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…

  • Padres outfielder/first baseman Jake Goebbert has cleared waivers after being designated for assignment and was outrighted to Triple-A, tweets Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Goebbert, who was acquired this past May in the Kyle Blanks trade with Oakland, hit .218/.313/.317 in 115 PA with the Padres.
  • Also from Lin, the Padres have signed right-hander Daniel McCutchen to a minor league contract. The 32-year-old made one appearance with the Rangers last season, yielding a pair of earned runs in 2 1/3 innings. That marked McCutchen’s first big league action since 2012 with the Pirates, for whom he played parts of four seasons (2009-12). The former 13th-round pick owns a career 4.47 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 in 527 2/3 innings at Triple-A.
  • The Angels have signed right-hander Ryan Mattheus to a minor league deal and invited him to big league Spring Training, reports James Wagner of the Washington Post. The 31-year-old Mattheus was a vital cog in Washington’s division-winning club back in 2012, but he struggled in 35 1/3 innings in 2013, posting a 6.37 ERA. Mattheus suffered through a pair of rib injuries last season that limited him to 8 2/3 innings in the Majors, where he allowed just one run. However, he did struggle to a 5.80 ERA in Triple-A while dealing with his injuries. Overall, Mattheus has a 3.60 ERA in 142 1/3 big league innings with 5.0 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9.
  • The White Sox have signed their former first-round pick, Brian Anderson, to a minor league deal, tweets Bruce Levine of 670thescore.com. Anderson, who doesn’t receive a camp invite, has been out of pro ball since 2012 but has a .273/.337/.454 batting line at Triple-A and also dabbled with pitching from 2010-12, totaling 31 innings with a 1.74 ERA between the minor leagues and independent ball.
  • Lefty Daniel Schlereth is back with the Tigers on a minor league deal, per the team’s transactions page. The 28-year-old notched a 3.98 ERA with a 69-to-46 K/BB ratio with the Tigers’ bullpen from 2010-12 after coming over in the Max Scherzer/Curtis Granderson/Ian Kennedy blockbuster. He split last season between the Triple-A affiliates for the Pirates and Tigers, battling his control (7.1 BB/9) en route to a 5.89 ERA in 36 2/3 innings.
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Chicago White Sox Detroit Tigers Los Angeles Angels San Diego Padres Transactions Brian Anderson Daniel McCutchen Daniel Schlereth

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Rockies Sign Tyler Chatwood To Two-Year Deal

By Steve Adams | January 14, 2015 at 8:02pm CDT

8:02pm: Chatwood will earn $1MM in both 2015 and 2016, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. He will be able to earn an additional $250K in 2016 based on games started.

7:09pm: The Rockies announced tonight that they’ve inked right-hander Tyler Chatwood to a two-year deal to avoid arbitration. The contract will pay the RMG Baseball client roughly $1MM in 2015 as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, per the Denver Post’s Nick Groke (Twitter link), though complete terms of the deal aren’t yet known.

The 25-year-old Chatwood enjoyed an excellent season in 2013, pitching to a 3.15 ERA with 5.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and a 58.5 percent ground-ball rate in 111 1/3 innings of work for the Rockies. However, he was limited to just 24 innings and a 4.50 ERA in 2014 before an injury sidelined him and eventually led to his operation on July 19.

Originally a second-round pick of the Angels back in 2008, Chatwood was acquired by the Rockies in a one-for-one swap that sent Chris Iannetta to the Halos. He’s yet to establish himself as a consistent force in the Majors, though he appeared to potentially be on his way to doing so prior to his injury. While he’s unlikely to pitch until late in the 2015 season at the earliest, the Rockies will retain control of him through the 2017 season, so he still has time to deliver value. In particular, his excellent ground-ball rate — he posted a 57.7 percent mark from 2012-13 when healthy — is very well-suited for the homer-friendly Coors Field.

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Colorado Rockies Newsstand Transactions Tyler Chatwood

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Players Avoiding Arbitration: Wednesday

By Jeff Todd and Steve Adams | January 14, 2015 at 7:54pm CDT

We’ll keep track of the day’s smaller arbitration deals in this post, with all projections mentioned referring to those of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. Here’s the latest…

  • Kristie Rieken of the Associated Press tweets that the Astros have avoided arbitration with Chris Carter, settling on a one-year, $4.175MM pact. Carter, 28, cut back on his strikeout rate to an extent in 2014 (it still checked in at 31.8 percent), but the real improvement came in terms of his power production. The slugger finished with 37 home runs, trailing only Nelson Cruz and tying him with Giancarlo Stanton for second in the Majors in long balls. His elite power served him well, as Swartz’s projection model had him ticketed for $3.5MM.
  • In addition to avoiding arb with Drew Stubbs (link) and Tyler Chatwood (who inked a two-year deal), the Rockies have also avoided arb with right-hander Jordan Lyles, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Lyles will earn a salary of $2.475MM in 2015, per Heyman. A client of Palmetto Sports Group, Lyles enjoyed a nice season with the Rockies that was shortened, to an extent, by a fractured broken left hand (his non-throwing hand). Still, the 24-year-old worked 126 1/3 innings, posting a career-best 4.33 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and an excellent 51.7 percent ground-ball rate. Lyles’ performance prior to the injury — 3.52 ERA, 3.76 xFIP — was markedly better than his post-injury performance, though the discrepancy between his post-injury ERA  (5.31) and xFIP (4.23) indicates that there could be further improvement. He had been projected to receive $2.5MM.
  • The Yankees have announced a deal to avoid arbitration with righty Ivan Nova. He will earn $3.3MM, per a tweet from the New York Post’s Joel Sherman. That sum also matches Nova’s salary from 2014, unsurprisingly, as he missed most of the season due to Tommy John surgery after struggling out of the gate. Nova, who just turned 28, had a highly productive 2013 campaign (3.10 ERA in 139 1/3 frames). Though he posted significant innings totals in prior years, he had never put together a season like that in terms of both results and peripherals (3.47 FIP). All said, it was an easy call for New York to roll the dice on Nova’s rehabilitation.
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Colorado Rockies Houston Astros New York Yankees Transactions Chris Carter Ivan Nova Jordan Lyles

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Nationals, A’s Swap Tyler Clippard, Yunel Escobar

By Steve Adams | January 14, 2015 at 7:40pm CDT

Yunel Escobar’s tenure with the Athletics lasted all of five days, as he has now been traded to the Nationals in exchange for right-hander Tyler Clippard, the Nats announced on Wednesday.

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Escobar, of course, had only just been acquired by the Athletics this past weekend alongside Ben Zobrist in a trade that sent a prospect package headlined by Daniel Robertson to the Rays. A trade of Escobar likely means that infielder Marcus Semien, acquired by Oakland in their trade of Jeff Samardzija to the White Sox, will again be ticketed for an everyday role in the middle infield. Indeed, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that Semien will be the club’s shortstop, teaming with Zobrist to comprise the club’s double-play tandem.

As for the Nationals, the acquisition opens a number of avenues. First and foremost is that Escobar simply supplants Danny Espinosa as the team’s second baseman, pairing with All-Star shortstop Ian Desmond. In that scenario, Escobar, who is controlled through the 2016 season at a reasonable total of $13MM (plus an option for the 2017 season), could slide over to shortstop next year if Desmond signs elsewhere as a free agent. However, the possibility of an eventual Desmond trade cannot be outright ignored, as the Nats reportedly discussed a three-team swap with the Rays and Mets last weekend that would have netted them Escobar and Zobrist, with Desmond heading to New York.

The 32-year-old Escobar, typically a sound defender, had somewhat of a down season on both sides of the ball in 2014. Though he picked things up with the bat late in the season to salvage a .258/.324/.340 batting line (92 OPS+, 95 wRC+), he posted a UZR/150 of -26, and Defensive Runs Saved dinged him equally, rating him at -24 runs. However, Escobar also battled shoulder and knee problems last season and has otherwise always been regarded as an excellent defender, so while some will assume this to be age-related decline, there’s reason to believe that he could rebound in 2015.

Clippard, 30 next month, is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $9.3MM in 2015 — his final year of team control before hitting free agency. Clippard has been a staple in the Nats’ bullpen dating back to 2009, pitching to a 2.64 ERA with 10.4 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in that time, though his control has improved significantly since 2011. Despite being an extreme fly-ball pitcher, Clippard has never had a huge problem with home runs and will likely be able to avoid such problems at the spacious O.Co Coliseum. One large reason for his ability to keep the ball in the yard is that a number of his fly-balls are of the infield pop-up variety — 15.5 percent over the past six seasons and a whopping 19.3 percent in 2015. That trend figures to continue, given all of the space in Oakland’s park, as Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron notes (on Twitter).

This marks the second straight offseason in which the A’s have traded for a high-priced reliever, although the two deals are markedly different. Last winter, Oakland acquired Jim Johnson from the Orioles in what essentially amounted to a salary dump, while parting with Escobar (two to three years of him, no less) represents a significant value heading to Washington. In this instance, however, Clippard seems likely to remain in a setup role, as Oakland has lights-out closer Sean Doolittle currently manning the ninth inning on an affordable long-term deal, eliminating the financial risk that would have come with letting him accumulate saves while still arbitration-eligible.

On a grander scale, the move further adds to the intrigue of the Oakland offseason. After reaching the playoffs via Wild Card status, Oakland began its offseason by signing Billy Butler to a three-year pact — a win-now move aimed to upgrade in the short-term. The A’s then traded away Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss, Jeff Samardzija and Derek Norris for packages of younger players (although they did receive a pair of MLB-ready pieces in Marcus Semien and Jesse Hahn). Following those moves, most assumed the A’s to be gearing up for a rebuild, but at that point, GM Billy Beane added Zobrist (with one year left on his deal) and Escobar in another move aimed at the short-term future. Overall, it seems that Beane and his staff are merely re-tooling — giving themselves a chance at contention in 2015 while simultaneously acquiring younger, more affordable players to create a lengthier window of contention (or to use as chips in further trades).

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports first reported that Escobar was headed to the Nats (Twitter link) and speculated that Clippard would be a fit. MLB.com’s Bill Ladson confirmed (on Twitter) that Clippard was indeed headed to Oakland.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Newsstand Oakland Athletics Transactions Washington Nationals Tyler Clippard Yunel Escobar

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