The Athletics have signed veteran outfielder Alejandro De Aza to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training, the team announced on Friday. De Aza can earn at a $1.75MM rate if he cracks the MLB roster, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (Twitter links), with another $1MM in available incentives.
De Aza, 33 in April, posted underwhelming numbers with the Mets after signing a one-year deal last winter, though he finished the year considerably better than he began. After batting a woeful .158/.216/.232 through the end of June, De Aza turned a corner and slashed a respectable .237/.348/.381 from July 1 through season’s end (164 plate appearances). He’s also just one season removed from a solid .262/.333/.422 batting line in 365 plate appearances split between the Orioles, Red Sox and Giants.
The A’s currently figure to have Khris Davis, Rajai Davis, Matt Joyce and Jake Smolinski see plenty of time in the outfield now that Brett Eibner has been designated for assignment. De Aza will compete for a bench spot and could serve as a left-handed complement to either Davis (both hit right-handed), though he’s spent considerably more time in the corner outfield than he has in center in recent years. De Aza did log nearly 300 innings in center for the Mets last season and receive roughly average rankings from Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating, but his overall marks since 2012 aren’t encouraging and, at age 33, it’s tough to reasonably expect a dramatic rebound.
Time for a change of scenery…like Japan or Korea!
I too love Sox
And Cubs
Billy is going for Moneyball 2 with this island of misfit toys they are assembling this year
Well, we know how successful these MoneyBall Geniuses are…
Hey, overratedsandy, in between your babbling you might want to check out Keith Law’s farm rankings, they just came out this week..
Law’s one of the most (if not the most)respected minor league writers out there, he has the Mets ranked as the seventh best farm in baseball, He raves about our recent drafts and how deep the system is.
It’s great reading, you might wanna check it out.
Thanks for supporting the cause against idiots.
BB has been doing this for awhile now in Oakland. Won’t commit to a rebuild and retools with an assortment of “misfit toys”. Kind of like the White Sox in the past few years, up until this offseason when the organization finally chose a clear path to start anew.
Btw-De Aza was a useful player with the White Sox from 2011 through 2013. He actually compiled a 2.5 WAR in 2011 and 2012. That metric was outstanding in 2011 considering he only played in 54 games with them. His sabermetric numbers would have been better in 2013 but his poor base running and defense negated his other positive offensive numbers.
He is fine spring training competition for Smolinski, who isn’t very good even as a roleplayer.
Aging player with average defensive value, minimal speed, and no power. I doubt he makes it past spring
You clearly haven’t seen how barren the A’s OF depth is.
de aza bats a respectable .237/.348/.381 from July 1 through season’s end (164 plate appearances.
brandon moss swatted an impressive 28 home runs, but he nevertheless posted an unspectacular .225/.300/.484 line in 464 plate appearances.
between those two, please draw the line between respectable and unspectacular.