The Athletics announced on Wednesday that they’ve signed free agent outfielder Matt Joyce to a two-year contract, which will reportedly guarantee him $11MM in total. Joyce will earn $5MM in 2017 and $6MM in 2018.
The 32-year-old Joyce spent the 2016 campaign with the Pirates and rebounded nicely from a terrible 2015 season with the Angels. In 293 plate appearances with Pittsburgh, the ACES client batted .242/.403/.463 with 13 homers, 10 doubles and a triple. Joyce has long struggled against left-handed pitching and was shielded from southpaws accordingly with Pittsburgh.
[Related: Updated Oakland Athletics Depth Chart]
Oakland, a team that is known as one of the game’s most aggressive users of platoons, figures to deploy Joyce in a similar fashion. Joyce is a career .185/.265/.310 hitter against southpaws but has hit righties at a solid .252/.353/.449 clip. Though he’s never been a standout defender, his career ratings in both left field and right field (per Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating) hover right around average.
For the A’s, Joyce fills a much-needed spot on the team’s outfield depth chart. The A’s entered the offseason with Khris Davis as their primary left fielder (though he could profile better as a designated hitter), but little else in the way of certainty on the outfield grass. Brett Eibner, Jake Smolinski and Matt Olson were among Oakland’s primary outfield options prior to the agreement with Joyce, who now figures to receive a fairly sizable chunk of playing time between the two corner spots. He could potentially form a platoon with the right-handed hitting Smolinski in one of the corners, but it stands to reason that Joyce is merely the first of what will be multiple outfield additions for president of baseball operations Billy Beane and general manager David Forst this winter.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported the agreement and the terms (via Twitter). FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweeted the annual breakdown.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bad defense, can’t hit lefties, having MLB leaning down their back to spend their rev sharing….good to see Oakland throwing in the towel for 2017 already, smh
He had a .763 OPS against LHP last year.
In 42 PA, driven by walks. Matt Olson could do that for min wage.
Drive by walks is a bad thing? What would be better, driven by BABIP?
Please do not gloss over the tiny sample scale, thats the equivalent of 10 games.
He sucked for his entire career vs LHP, then ran into a couple wild ones who walked him or got squeezed by the ump or whatever, the point is thats too volatile a sample scale to bother quoting numbers with anything more than a grain of sale, that 10000% doesn’t mean he’s going to .763 against LHP in 2017.
Why do you like Joyce? He gets on base ( .341 OBP career and .421 2016) this is money all all over again jajajajajaj
Wo wo slow down there pal…the pieces will roll in. Khris Davis was landed in February.
Doesn’t butch this up any
Had a 116 wRC+ against lefties last year. Was moderately bad, but not a putrid defender…
It was driven by his 8 walks in 42 PA/.381 OBP aka too small a sample. He still sits vs lhp, don’t let him facing a couple of wild LH pitchers tell you that OPS is real.
For his career, he’s hitting .185/.265/.310 in 424 PA’s. He makes Andre Ethier look competent against lefties by comparison.
Still not a bad signing if they can find the other half of that platoon.
Defensively, it totally is. Steamer has Joyce at 0.5 WAR.
They signed him to a $5.5M AAV deal. He’s going to be treated as a warm body during a rebuild. This is a seemingly insignificant move, but here you are, acting all cavalier about it. What else is new?
But we are talking about 5.5 million on the A’s. That is a serious money to them and to waste it on a platoon bat is kind of…odd to say the least.
Isn’t that such a typical Billy Beane player? Can only hit from one side, not very good with the bat, not very good with the glove . . . not a very good player. Perfect player for BB to go after early, because everyone is beating Joyce’s door down to get him to sign? WHAT?? Why?? BB just can’t stand the wait before he can start gambling (on players) again. He needs gambler’s anonymous, seriously! It’s the same thing every year. Last comparable only cheaper terrible mistake was Billy Butler, who couldn’t field, bat, run, stop hitting into DP’s or get along with teammates. Let’s hope this goes better than that!.
It was said by ‘A’s people’ earlier in the offseason that they have $$$ to spend on players. This (Matt Joyce) is not that (spending $$$ in 2016). Come on BB, spend some real $$$ and go get a real player to fill those real position deficits! Lew Wolffe is gone; Fisher is here and ready to upgrade everything A’s, I wish and hope! It’s time to make the A’s great (at least very good), again!
How was Billy butler cheaper than this?
Yes, the tank job started a couple of years ago. High draft picks win world series (Bryant, Russel, Bumgarner, Posey, Gordon, Hosmer, Mustakas. Beane is hoping for another year or two of high picks to mix in with the prospects he traded for over the last couple of years. This means giving Olson another year in the minors so that he still has team control when the other youngsters come up. I think BB has to make these strange signings (Butler, Lowrie, Joyce) so that there is at least some doubt to what he is really up to. I am sure if MLB and the fans would let him get away with it, the Athletic’s payroll would be about $20MM next year.
Not thrilling…but glad to see the offseason’s starting for us.
Great deal for Oakland.
I feel so so bad for A’s fans. You guys deserve so much better than what you get.
He had a 131 OPS+ last year in 140 games. The highest OPS+ on the A’s last year among everyday players was Khris Davis at 126. (Ryoh Healy had 135 OPS+ in 72 games).
Matt Joyce’s month by month OPS’s in 2016 are so bad, the more PAs he got per month the more his OPS went down. He had a nice first half but was horrible in the second, he’s simply not a good hitter despite the nice OPS. Plus, Oakland already has Matt Olson, who could play a bad RF and get a lot of walks with decent pop at the plate – why block him with an older version of his current floor?
Really discouraging sign by Oakland, who need to get better at free agency.
In today’s market though, 2 year at $11 mil is pretty cheap. Especially for a guy who walks almost as much as he strikesout. (59 BB, 67 K)
I do give you credit for looking at the splits and I see you are right that his OPS does drop each month. I still think this is a good deal for Oakland. Could they have done better? Perhaps, but they also could have done worse.
And I agree with you that ultimately, $11M for a guy who will probably end up as a 4th OF isn’t too bad, as long as they get 2-3 more solid OFers who are actually talented everyday guys. Money-wise this isn’t a big deal, but my main issue is that Matt Olson can do everything Joyce can right now. Why block him with a guy who’s ceiling is Olson’s floor?
I don’t think you have a very good concept of ceilings and floors. Olson was decent at AAA, while Joyce was great in the Majors. I’d be surprised if Olson could out produce Joyce over the next two years.
Olson is 23, Joyce is 32 and got lucky last year for 2 months that fueled his season OPS. This is a perfect example of ceiling/floor: Joyce at his best is not great, as is Olson at his worst. That’s what ceiling/floor is. Olson can get better, Joyce absolutely won’t. Olson can play a not-good RF with lots of walks and random homers, just like Joyce, only, Olson has room to adjust and improve and Joyce’s “success” last year was fueled by something that won’t happen again.
Care to take a look at his last venture into the AL West? Expect more of that in Oakland, where he has a .185/.272/.284 .556 OPS in 92 career PA at the Coliseum. This is like Butler, but on a smaller scale. He just isn’t a fit there and every sign points to him being awful. Steamer has him at 0.5 fWAR too, woof.
Joyce has had one year in the last 7 where he was a below average hitter. he’s not going to be as good as he was last year, but it would be surprising if he was as bad as he was with the angels. Joyce’s ceiling is probably ~115 wrc+ with below average defense. if that is Olson’s floor he’d be a top 50 prospect.
Wow Whyamihere….what do you call an average hitter?
In 2011 he hit .277 which was his best year. Every year before and after were much worse.
I don’t care how “clutch” Pitt fans think he was, he basically can only play against right handed pitching because he’s terrible from the left side.
Come on man at 32 how much of a rebound can anyone expect.
Olsen was our number 2 prospect couple years ago. More upside than Joyce
Typically a wrc+ of 100 is considered average, his year with the Angels was the only one he posted numbers below that.
I agree with this. There is no reason at all for them to continually sign underwhelming players and put making a profit over the quality of the team. Beane used to be magician for finding the underwhelming guys and making them very good everyday players, but the rest of MLB caught up with him – his magic worked on that level for a long time but it simply isn’t working anymore and they need to start operating like the rest of the league and sign or extend a superstar when they have one, like even the Rays signed Longoria – the A’s biggest sign is still Eric Chavez over 10 years ago for $66M.
The A’ have extremely wealthy owners who could operate the team at a slight loss with a championship-caliber roster, but instead they go for low-cost operations to ensure they are in the black every single year. It’s good for the owners, bad for the fans.
They should never have traded Cespedes then. Or at least not During the season when they had the best record in the league.
I agree, they should have never ever traded Donaldson, Russell or Cespedes. They’d be contending still if they hadn’t done that.
I think every single A’s fan agrees with that
A business should operate at a loss to make consumers happy…how about that.
Seems to work for the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants.
You think they’re operating at a loss?!?!? Oh wow
@ jaf
fangraphs.com/blogs/estimated-tv-revenues-for-all-…
Read that 98 million in just TV deal and operating @ a loss?
Where are you reading $98M?
Yearly TV revenue estimate is $41M ($1B/21yr deal expires 2029).
That link in the box
Oakland A’s
CSN California
$43-$48 (average annual rights fee)
$900-$1,000 (total deal value)
term: 2009-2029 (with opt-out after 2023 season)
A’s underperform market because sfgiants success, $41m estimated value per fangraphs. Still not seeing your $98M.
The Yankees own their RSN, btw.
Oops. I was talking about 2015 and earlier, but it looks like all but 3 teams, the Dodgers, Phillies and Rangers operated at a loss last year. The Yankees used to regularly do that though. Interesting development….
forbes.com/mlb-valuations/list/#header:operatingIn…
Great
and Angel fans rejoice!!!!
Re-Joyce
Not a fan of this guy and wanted him away from the AL
Minor deal for the A;’s they get another platoon outfielder while they rebuild the team. Team still needs a CF badly.
What is Oakland doing? They have such little precious money and they wasted it on Matt Joyce. Lol
they have $33 mil committed to next year (not including this signing) and their payroll was almost $90 mil last year and the cheapest part of their ownership is now gone….they have $$
Why didn’t they give Cespedes 5/150 then?
Cespedes…for $30 mil a year….for 5 years…..LOL
Nobody offered that. Why would the A’s?
Because he didn’t want to sit in a dugout that smelled like Dookie
Great first half followed by a pretty terrible second half in 2016. I have no idea why the Pirates didn’t trade him at the deadline. I think 2/11 is an overpay considering SRod got the same deal with the Braves. SRod and Joyce have comparable career numbers but SRod has all of the positional flexibility Joyce does not.
Chortlesome.
Wonder why the A’s seem immune to the blanket judgment that “bad teams should rebuild by selling everyone who isn’t tied down, and should not double down by adding league average veterans at FA prices”? If this were any other sub-70-win team the SABR bros would be shaking their heads and chuckling about how stupid the team is.
Totally agree, Beane has been so unbelievably bad at free agency his entire career it’s almost on a comedic level. He’s good at trading, and good at signing minor league FA’s, but MLB ones are just a disaster. Like, he really did give Billy Butler that deal. WTF.
Matt Olson 2017 is Matt Joyce 2017, why not just make Olson the RF? Idiotic sign by a team that’s looking at 2018-19 to contend again.
Billy Beane signed Rich Hill. That worked out. He signed Cespedes. That worked out ok, too. Frank Thomas was a decent player.
Those are 3 very out of the box signings, nothing like Joyce at all. Now if this was 1 year ago and he snagged Joyce on the minor league $1M deal Pittsburgh gave him, that would be a good sign. Giving a clear outlier season $11M to be a replacement level player is not a good sign.
You’re jumping the gun because this has shades of the Billy Butler signing. It’s possible Joyce rakes this year and is flipped at the deadline for a competent prospect
Also, I don’t think Matt Olson comes close to being the hitter Joyce will be in 2017. He ain’t ready yet.
Yeah because that Billy Butler signing was so great…wait, no it wasn’t. It wasted money on a severely limited player who did little for the team. Also, it is more likely that Joyce will do nothing and the A’s release him.
Is it not worth it to make Olsen at least earn a spot? They have to spend their revenue sharing some way or else they get in trouble from the league. They could do alot worse and if Olsen is OK one goes to the bench were Joyce might be @ his best plus who’s in left and dh might fit all into the same lineup. Not a great signing but not a terrible one and if Oakland is as bad as we think they are they can always trade him @ the deadline someone always needs an outfield/bench piece and get something back like Atlanta always does.
Quick side question: how can you read “Olson” then write “Olsen”, repeatedly? Just curious as to why that happened.
Your twenty comments on this post beg the question: Are you Matt Olsen’s mother?
You counting of my posts begs this question: are you my personal historian? I’m responding to those who reply to me, is that wrong now???
I just really don’t like Matt Joyce, Olson’s not great either but this is like the reversal of what a “Classic Beane deal” is, which he has been doing a ton of in the last 5 years – not to say he’s incompetent, but he used to be almost flawless, a guy who’s moves were head scratchers but you knew they’d pan out no matter how odd they looked at the time. He’s not that anymore, he’s pretty much like any other longtime GM of a bad team.
Perhaps because “o” and “e” actually look somewhat similar on a small font?
Perhaps because people genuinely don’t care about a tiny spelling mistake?
You really nit-pick about the weirdest of things…
Personal historian, that’s funny crap, LOL thanks for the giggle
U welcome 🙂
He came in clutch for Pittsburgh, but his arm is terrible. Best of luck.
Can’t be worse than Davis’ arm. At least I hope it’s not.
If there is a border line starting position player on the market, the A’s will pounce on them like they’re a young Alex Rodriguez
Without the steroids and PEDs
The A’s may give Angel Pagan a 100 million dollar 5 year deal
Awful signing. A’s ownership should have signed Cespedes above Beane’s head just to be able to tell him there’s no money left for free agents, go be a good boy and find cast offs for free.
Why sign with a team that will just trade you in July?
Now he gets more $ and moves to a contender in July. I’d actually take this money to be traded to a contender in a few months if I was in his position.
Stupid signing
Why oh why…..One would think we could have had Austin Jackson for this kind of money.Or dig a little deeper and get Fowler. Joyce is Khris Davis without the pop.I don’t want to see Smolinski out in center or anywhere else again next year.Wish we had ownership as passionate about this team as we (the fans)are!
You call yourself a passionate fan yet you want Austin Jackson on your club. Those two things don’t go together.
I’m not an expert on the A’s, nor do I have an ear to the ground regarding the state of their fanbase, but if them signing a position player for less than an average reliever is this big of a crisis, perhaps their organization is in worse shape than I thought.
Was really just wanting to go young with Maxwell,Healy,Wendle,Chapman,Semien,Brugman,Eibner,Olson,Davis and find a CF to go with Eibner,and hope to trade Semien at the deadline and bring up Barreto and still Canha, Vogt, Lowrie,and Smolinski coming off the bench
This is their first signing and everyone is saying it’s the worst move. It’s not like the A’s are done making moves they needed more outfielders and Joyce is one that has some pop it works
except that Eibner’s terrible and Brugman’s numbers don’t necessarily scream ‘GIMME THE STARTING CF JOB!!’ it’s not even December yet, how do we not know that Joyce is a backup OF/pinch hitter option for this team yet?
You’re forgetting about Phegley instead of Vogt. Vogt is as good as gone.
Sean Rodriguez’s money. Hopefully, it will work for the A’s…
If the A’s want a more productive season, they need more than Joyce! Get Encarnacion! Get Napoli! Get someone who can lead a productive offense!
There is way to much conversation on here about what Joyce does against LHP. WHO CARES!!! He isn’t going to face lefties. He’s going to be in a platoon with Smolinski. Smolinski carries a career .866 OPS vs. Lefties and Joyce has a career .803 OPS vs. righties. This is your RF platoon for 2017. How many other teams are going to get a near .800 OPS in RF for $6 Million?
Now they need to go get a guy like Kevin Pillar or Kevin Kiermier to put in CF between their below average OF’s to make this work.
I’m not an A’s fan, but I don’t have a problem with his actual signing. He’s a long-sided platoon guy and teams nowadays need guys like this. What I don’t get is the contract. His inconsistent play is not worth a multi-year deal. Teams are still paying him for his production with the Rays.