The latest on Oakland…
- The Athletics agreed to reunite with right-hander Trevor Cahill on Saturday, and they may not be done adding old friends to their pitching mix. The team is considering signing left-hander Brett Anderson, who’d likely receive a minor league contract, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Anderson debuted in the majors with the A’s in 2009 and was mostly effective in Oakland through 2013, but injuries prevented him from realizing his potential. Those injury woes have seldom let up for Anderson, now 30 years old, in his post-Oakland stops. Most recently, he struggled mightily last season across 55 1/3 innings (13 appearances, all starts) between the Cubs and Blue Jays. Anderson pitched to a 6.34 ERA, albeit with a fairly encouraging 4.10 FIP, and logged 6.18 K/9, 3.42 BB/9 and a 49.2 percent groundball rate.
- Oakland pared down its rotation competition Sunday, sending southpaw A.J. Puk to minor league camp. That seems to leave Cahill, Paul Blackburn, Andrew Triggs, Daniel Gossett and Daniel Mengden as the contenders for the last three spots in their rotation. While the 22-year-old Puk ranks as one of the game’s top prospects, expectations were that the A’s would send him down, as he hasn’t even reached the Triple-A level yet.
- Catcher Josh Phegley has a pair of broken fingers on his right hand and will cease baseball activities for at least two weeks, Jane Lee of MLB.com tweets. That should take Phegley out of the running for a roster spot in Oakland, though it looked unlikely he’d earn one anyway after the club recently signed Jonathan Lucroy. He should team with Bruce Maxwell to comprise the A’s top two backstops, leaving Phegley – with his one option remaining – to head to Triple-A.
I think Cahill has a decent shot at being the 3rd or 4th starter for the A’s. Even if he doesn’t make the rotation he could work out of the pen and be a spot starter unless another injury occurs in the rotation.
That doesn’t look well for the A’s pitching.
Trevor Cahill isn’t a better starting pitcher than Paul Blackburn though. If Blackburn or one of the others gets hurt, then we will see Cahill the SP. If Manaea-Graveman-Mengden-Triggs-Blackburn get out of spring healthy, Cahill will go to the pen and the A’s will finally get rid of that waste of time Alcantara. Cahill was pretty good as a RP, so I think this is more of a wait & see thing with him as to where he pitches. Blackburn is probably the better SP of them as of today so I’d hope the A’s would make him the 5th SP over him, but then again, this is driven by health.
People forget Brett Anderson won America a bronze medal in 2008 by going 7 strong against Japan. Have to consider that when signing him.
Lol WBC expert
No you don’t. That was a decade ago
“People forget Brett Anderson won America a bronze medal in 2008 by going 7 strong against Japan. Have to consider that when signing him.”..and…..”People forget Frieri pitched in the 2017 WBC for Columbia. Still some gas in the tank.”….. and “People forget Joey Gallo was the 2014 Futures Game MVP. Merits an extension.” Anyone else see a pattern in Sack’s postings?
Yes. This a key point. When Brett Anderson takes the mound we must all salute him for his brave service to our country.
10 yrs ago mate
If the A’s get Anderson then their next move should be trying to acquire Gio back from the Nats
I would honestly love Gio back on the A’s
They should just get him in FA next offseason, being that MLB scolded them for not having a big enough payroll. Give him 5/80, who cares if he falls off, Beane is better at finding good cheap players anyway.
Wasn’t MLB, was MLBPA, and it was for the 2014 season (when we were falling out of contention and making trades to try to get into the playoffs). MLB said it saw no grounds for grievance.
Either way, they should give him that deal anyway, and he’s still awesome at both pitching and staying healthy while pitching.
5/80 or more, he deserves it.
Seeing what Darvish and Arrieta received, I wouldn’t bet on it
MLPA is again charging the A’s and three other teams are not spending enough on payroll.
Is there a way they could add several guys like Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson, hoping that one or two of them actually pans out as a viable starter?
No way no how. Anderson is made of glass and Cahill just plain stinks. Oakland is hoping they get the “first 10 starts of 2017” Cahill and not the rest of his season, when he was awful, but that’s hoping to catch the same fire twice, doesn’t work that way.
Cahill wasn’t even good when he was on that Cubs team, his FIP was 4.35 and the Cubs defense behind him got him that 2.74 ERA. He’s simply not very good, but Puk is, and that’s all Oakland is trying to do here: in case one of the current 5 gets hurt, Cahill can eat innings til Puk.