The Athletics have acquired outfielder Ryan LaMarre from the Angels in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations, as per announcements from both teams. In a related move, the A’s moved right-hander Chris Bassitt to the 60-day DL to create roster space. Los Angeles designated LaMarre for assignment earlier this week when catcher Juan Graterol was acquired in a trade with Toronto. LaMarre, 28, signed a Major League deal with the Halos this winter but began the season at Triple-A.
Originally a second-round pick for the Reds in the 2010 draft, LaMarre has a .267/.345/.381 slash line over 2695 career plate appearances in the minors, plus 27 games in the big leagues with the Reds and Red Sox from 2015-16. He has primarily played as a center fielder during his career, so LaMarre provides the A’s with some versatile outfield depth at the minor league level.
The 60-day DL placement means that Bassitt can’t return to Oakland’s roster under June, even though an early return didn’t seem possible anyway given that Bassitt underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2016. The righty was reported to be making good progress in his recovery as of two weeks ago, though Bassitt is obviously still in need of a lengthy rehab stint in the minors.
This looks real dumb now that Leonys Martin is available
Don’t rule out getting both. A’s have literally no MLB-ready CF’s right now and Raj Davis is old and looks like he’s hurt, while Jaff Decker has been great, he’s also been running into walls and looking banged up. LaMarre could stay at AAA and Leonys could be the 5th OF. The current backup is….Matt Joyce. No.
Send Matt Olson down, Leonys to the bench. Boom. Leonys is a great COF option too, perhaps even better there than in CF. His bat is woeful, but he’s still a better defender than Joyce or Davis.
It’s a minor league transaction with CF Jaycob Brugman on the DL in AAA. The A’s are not going to pay $4 Million for Martin to sit in AAA when they can spend $35K and get LaMarre.
Honestly does Billy Beane just take in every former Red Sox player that Theo passes on?
He owes him for actually using Moneyball to win titles, not just be competitive 50% of the the time.
But also there’s been like 50 million A’s on the Red Sox in the last three decades, definitely goes both ways.