3:35pm: Viciedo has signed a minor-league deal and will head to Triple-A Nashville, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets.
2:46pm: The Athletics have signed former White Sox outfielder Dayan Viciedo, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy tweets. It’s currently unclear whether the deal is of the Major-League or minor-league variety, and CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman reported earlier today that Viciedo had many minor-league offers in hand but was hoping for a big-league deal.
The White Sox released Viciedo in February after a disappointing 2014 season in which he hit 21 homers but posted a .281 OBP and struggled defensively. He then caught on with the Blue Jays, but he requested his release at the end of Spring Training and has not played since. Viciedo has obvious deficiencies as a player, but he’s only 26, and as Eddy points out, he’s a career .291/.331/.507 hitter against lefties. He could perhaps be useful as a bench bat.
So did he fold or is this a Major League deal?
The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser says Viciedo has signed a minor league deal.
As long as he doesn’t get any major league ABs
Tank and Country Breakfast chugging the bases….wow…quite the wagon train. They’ll for sure need to drag that infield between innings
Stocking up replacements for a possible Zobrist or Butler trade, it looks like.
Or just minor league depth…
More than likely this. If Reddick, Canha, Butler or Fuld get hurt, he gets a shot.
Just wondering why him now and not when they went with a broken Cody Ross instead. Dayan is only 26.
Butler isn’t going anywhere with his contract and current struggles.
odd fit for the A’s given that he isn’t a pitch taker.
But the A’s do love platoons; he’s a perfect platoon bat. Not sure where he fits in though on that roster
Platoon with Reddick who is hitting .154/.228/.250 against LHP
If I remember the conversation from the offseason he doesn’t have that great of a lefty platoon split. Seems more like an intriguing AAA depth move maybe anticipating some roster openings later.
Career-wise, Vicedo is MUCH better against lefties (837 vs. 679 OPS; although his 105 vs. 99 OPS+ is much closer)
The last two years, not so much.
2014 vs L: 679 OPS, 90 OPS+
2014 vs R: 689 OPS, 96 OPS+
2013 vs L: 709 OPS, 99 OPS+
2013 vs R: 738 OPS, 105 OPS+
So it’s hard to know what to make of his splits.
He was worth a minor league deal in the offseason…its a no lose deal.
The 2014 A’s had one of the worst wOBA vs LHP and so far, in 2015, the only teams that aren’t doing better than them are the Braves, Brewers, and White Sox. Reddick’s accounted for a number of the team’s PA’s vs LHP but Mark Canha has had an equal amount and he’s even worse. On a somewhat related note, did anyone notice that the Indians have 886 PA’s vs LHP while the Pirates, who are ranked just above the A’s in this category, have 376?
Sure, but they usually don’t like platoons using players they don’t like.
I have a feeling he’s going to be coming up when Zobrist gets dealt.
Billy Butler at 5% of the cost.
The question is whether the A’s will cut bait on Butler before his contract expires. Probably too soon to do it this season, especially as this season is lost. But you wonder how long they would let this go on if they were in the race.
You might want to check out Billy Butler’s lifetime month by month OPS: he never hits well in May and gets better towards the end of every season.
Well that is encouraging, though he’s raking to the tune of .182/.229/.242 in June.
I know, small sample size. But his crappy hitting from the beginning of 2014 to the present is not.
He hit real well in April this year, so he’s not toast as a big leaguer, and as its been said, he only needs to OPS+ about 100 to be called a worthwhile signing.
I just wish there was some way to get him to run faster.
The hardest work for Dayan is on himself as coaches can only do so much outside of the hardest work of all and for all of us. Weight loss. Its no wonder he’s having trouble roaming the field at 5’11” 240 lbs.
Exactly: same thing ruined Andruw Jones’s HOF chances – and he was absolutely destined for it until he refused to change his diet when his metabolism caught up with him at age 30, and a similar thing is going on with Alberto Callaspo, who’s only 5’8″ and 230 lb.
I guess they could cut Parrino or Muncy and replace with Viciedo:
VS LHP: 1B: Canha, LF: Viciedo (Fuld as late inning defense replacement/PR)
VS RHP: 1B: Davis LF: Canha (again with Fuld in the late innings)
As an A’s fan I’m gutted Venditte is hurt already. He was pitching great. Ugh.