12:08pm: The Dodgers have announced the deal. Minor league infielder Jordan Tarsovich is headed to the Athletics in the swap. The 25-year-old spent the 2016 season with the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate in Tulsa, batting .219/.325/.343. He’s spent time at shortstop, second base and third base since being selected in the 22nd round of the 2015 draft.
10:41am: The Athletics have agreed to a trade that will send outfielder Brett Eibner to the Dodgers in exchange for a minor leaguer, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). Eibner was designated for assignment by Oakland last week.
The 28-year-old Eibner will add another right-handed bat to the Dodgers’ outfield mix. While he struggled at the plate in his big league debut this past season, hitting just .191/.266/.353 in 208 plate appearances. Eibner has a much stronger Triple-A track record and is considered an above-average defender that is capable of playing all three outfield positions. In parts of three seasons at the Triple-A level (979 plate appearances), Eibner is a .280/.356/.474 hitter. As a bonus, he has two minor league options remaining, so the Dodgers can stash Eibner in the minors as a depth piece if he doesn’t break camp with the Major League club.
From 2010-15, Baseball America rated Eibner among the Royals’ top 30 prospects, calling him a plus defensive outfielder with above-average speed and potential 15-homer pop as recently as the 2015-16 offseason. BA also noted, though, that he’s a streaky hitter that is prone to lengthy slumps, making him a tricky player to deploy in a bench capacity. Kansas City traded Eibner to Oakland last summer in a straight-up swap for fellow outfielder Billy Burns.
The Dodgers, of course, already have a plethora of outfield options — Joc Pederson, Yasiel Puig, Andrew Toles, Trayce Thompson, Andre Ethier, Scott Van Slyke and Enrique Hernandez are all on the 40-man roster — but the team clearly still saw value in Eibner despite a glut of outfielders. As a potential plus defender with minor league options and a history of hitting left-handed pitching (an area where the Dodgers flailed after injuries to Thompson, Van Slyke and Hernandez last season), it’s not difficult to see why he’d hold appeal — especially at a modest cost of acquisition.
One question, why?
Minor league options remaining, capable of playing all three outfield spots, hits left-handed pitching… Eibner was either going to be traded or picked up by a team with a high waiver priority.
Which makes me wonder why the A’s DFA’d him to begin with, when we have career minor leaguers like Josh Rodriguez and Jermaine Curtis eating up 40-man slots. Not to mention Michael Brady and Cesar Valdez… so now we turn Billy Burns into a DFA trade. SMH Beane
Josh and Jermaine aren’t on the 40 man rosters and neither is Cesar
Agreed, yet another horrendous move by the front office, Joey Wendle is AAAA and Smolinski was literally a negative WAR player last year, but they’re committing a roster space to both, smdh
I’m hoping the plan is to wait out all the massive amount of pitching prospects who all look intriguing-to-cant miss, start knocking on the door, which leads to trades for actual position players to take the places of all the role players who peaked two years ago or AAAA types littering the 40-man.
Sorry, you’re right. I need to find a better site for 40 man rosters.
I’d still love Overton or Eibner here over Yonder Alonso and Adam Rosales. A commitment to a legitimate rebuild instead of piecing out decent young assets
Yeah I’m not so sure why we kept Alonso,I’d rather seen Olson become our left-handed 1st baseman,with Healy and Chapman brought up to play 3rd,I think Wendle stays at AAA till we move Lowrie
Yeah I’m not so sure why we kept Alonso,I’d rather seen Olson become our left-handed 1st baseman,with Healy and Chapman brought up to play 3rd,I think Wendle stays at AAA till we move Lowrie,my over all hope is once we figure out the stadium,then we’ll keep players longer,but who knows.
Adam Rosales had an .814 OPS last year
Which makes me wonder if he/she actually read the article
Thanks Steve, I hadn’t seen the updated coverage on him when the post first came out.
I bet this guy produces more this year than Toles will.
Then this trade would be a steal.
I bet he doesn’t. Toles can straight up hit.
I bet toles hits better than heyward
Did we need another outfielder? Maybe a precursor to a SVS trade? Maybe just depth?
Now you’ve done it. The first mention and beginning of the annual offseason SVS trade talk.
Will this be the year?
I hope not, I can see him going to another team and burning us like Jayson Werth did after we cut him loose
SVS has never put up a decent season. Werth actually had a decent season with us in the two years he was here in LA
He had a very solid 98 games in 2014…actually the more I look into both guys the more similarities I see, obviously prior to Werth breaking out…I’ve always been a fan of his and wondered what he would do with a full season’s worth of at bats
I honestly don’t know why he hasn’t been moved. SVS will never get the opportunity to get enough AB’s in LA to truly see what he can do. He seems to fit the bill the Marlins are looking for to be the RH platoon partner for Bour.
That seems to make much logical sense to actually work. Especially is the Fish were give Dodgers a bullpen piece. Maybe a 6th or 7th inning guy. Either handed. The emote baseball world knows Dave Roberts will need every last bullpen candidate possible
Geez, another OF?
Why does FO only trade with Oakland
This is the Dodgers’ 13th trade in the past calendar year. Only one other trade (Reddick/HIll) has been with the A’s.
They were based out of Philadelphia at one point and they’ve made a lot of trades with the Phillies already?
That was a gold glove 1B-caliber stretch job, well done.
Great – Not only do we have 7-8 starting pitchers, now we can field 2 complete OF’s and have reserves that play both inf/of
Ethier-Pedersen-Puig
Toles-Thompson-Eibner
Van Slyke/Hernandez (inf/of)
Too bad we’re still missing pieces in our pen!
Although I agree with you on the fact that we need to address the pen, this is a nice depth addition in the event of our outfield getting decimated by injuries like it did last year
Not to forget, Darin Ruf. I will wait to see who they gave up for this guy but it sure seems like he’s immediately redundant.
Send Ethier and a prospect to the White Sox as a salary dump. Creates space in payroll and the Sox can afford the hit.
Why would Ethier wave his 10-5 to go to the white Soxs? And why would they send a prospect when they are going to be over the cap regardless?
Lets not forget that if FO didn’t make minor moves like this, there would be no Toles or Culberson…, low risk guys that may make big contributions at some point in the season.
And they have a history of this… anyone remember Justin Turner before he was a Dodger?
You mean the guy the Reds traded for a part time catcher.
Unless the team is dealing major impact prospects for mediocre talent (Shelby Miller rings a bell) deals like this are nothing even if the prospect involved becomes someone like Justin Turner years down the line.
Yeah im happy we didnt trade Urias, deleon and sheffield for adam eaton. Thats the dodgers equivalent of what the nats gave up
oh no urias had way more value than gioleto maybe Alvarez DeLeon and Sheffield still a bad deal of course
A trade which was explained clearly. Why does this attract so many wimpy comments?
That’s rhetorical.
Nice under the radar pickup. He has options but I do wonder if the Dodgers are thinking they can now use an extra outfielder to trade for another strong reliever.
Possible and intriguing…what relievers do you think they could possibly target?
Or maybe they just want a cf to play at AAA allowing Verdugo to roam in RF and Bellinger to rotate in LF.
Is there a story about Matt Imhoff on here anywhere? Just read an article on ESPN about him, pretty gnarly
Confused as to why there are so many complaints. Trust me, when the injuries hit (and they will), nobody will be complaining about the amount of starting pitching and outfield depth LA has.
Don’t the Dodgers have a packed 40-man, though? Is this in anticipation of another trade, or a waiver of their own? Or is the return part of the 40, too?
Partially answering my own question: Tarsovich. Not on the 40-man. Who gets traded/DFA’d?
Frias. Okay.
Now trade Scott Van Slyke to the Marlins.
ITT: Dodgers fans incapable of
A) reading
and
B) understanding the concept and importance of depth
Rockies just signed Holland and we add another freaking outfielder – Van Slyke or Toles needs to be dealt for an arm!
SVS and Chris Hatcher for a decent bullpen pitcher