The Athletics announced that they’ve claimed right-hander Josh Smith off waivers from the Reds.
Smith, 29, has picked up 92 1/3 innings for the Reds over the past two seasons but struggled at the Major League level, yielding a 5.46 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 4.6 BB/9 and a 40.5 percent ground-ball rate. His numbers did take a step forward in 2016 thanks largely to improved control (3.9 BB/9 in 59 2/3 innings), though the resulting 4.68 earned run average is still fairly pedestrian. Smith averaged just under 91 mph on his heater this season while appearing in 32 games (two starts), and he does own a more encouraging 4.28 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 290 1/3 innings in Triple-A over the course of his professional career.
Smith does have minor league options remaining, so if he survives the offseason on Oakland’s 40-man roster, he won’t need to make the team right out of Spring Training and can function as a minor league depth piece.
Meh. Best of luck to him, but Reds needed the 40 man spot
Don’t get it–I know it has no risk and depth is always good- but Colton Murray, Dali Hinojosa and Abel De Los Santos are just a few examples of righties with minor league options they passed on who have a higher ceiling. I know it’s a nothing move but what did they see in Smith? You want a swing, Ryan Weber and Adrian Sampson are both younger with options remaining. Smith just seems like a guy who should clear and become a minor league free agent. Reds fans, am I missing something on him?
Not really. Just a run of the mill average pitcher used for spot starts and swing duty. Like the article stated, he’s a ground ball pitcher. Not sure how that plays in Oakland.
The answer: the A’s front office has really fallen off a cliff in understanding what their needs are. How did they pass on Maybin when they have currently have zero OF?
Probably because the A’s owners are a bunch of cheapskates and would rather pocket that $9 million than spend it on someone.
Funny you bring that up, as they currently are under investigation for not spending their share of profit sharing – that would lead you think that they might actually throw around big money this offseason, because if they don’t they risk losing that revenue.
It would not surprise me at all to see them throwing $100M at the FA market or to trade prospects for big money players on bad teams, just to get MLB off their back.
I’ve been an A’s fan since I was a kid and I hope they really are being investigated!! These’s owners are a F$
Correct. A’s upper management – Beane is a just a minority owner – only cares about the profit they make. Very sad. I think MLB is looking into this erratic professional behavior…
I hope they fire everyone and a new owner lets say BILL “money” Gates buys it and hires Theo Epstein. How good would that be
The answer is simple: $.
Ehh, I’m glad they passed on Maybin. I’d rather see them give whatever AB’s Maybin would’ve received to Olson and/or Brugman. They could sign a player of higher caliber than Maybin for 9M.
Josh Smith is a fringe AAA player, not worthy of a 40-man roster slot. The A’s would be better served with two Rule 5 picks versus cannon fodder waiver wire players. A 29-year old unsuccessful minor league player is not a way to improve.
Look at the player we got for Coco…compared to him Smith is Pedro Martinez
Colt Hynes, a 31 year-old reliever who is a free agent now, was never intended to be kept by the A’s as anything of value. It was all optics. Beane wanted to dump Crisp for challenging him about playing time and it looked better than trading him for a ham sandwich or outright releasing Crisp.