MONDAY: Cahill will earn $1.5MM, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter).
SATURDAY: The Athletics have agreed to a one-year, major league contract, pending a physical, with right-hander Trevor Cahill, Jane Lee of MLB.com tweets. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier Saturday that Oakland could target Cahill, a client of John Boggs & Associates.
With righty Jharel Cotton set to undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire season, the Athletics found themselves seeking starting depth on Saturday. Cahill will provide that, and he’ll attempt to grab a spot in an Oakland rotation that lacks certainty beyond Kendall Graveman and Sean Manaea. High-end prospect A.J. Puk seems unlikely to begin the year in the majors, leaving the A’s with Cahill, Paul Blackburn, Andrew Triggs, Daniel Mengden and Daniel Gossett vying for the final three spots in their rotation (depth chart).
This deal represents a homecoming for Cahill, a California native whom the Athletics chose in the second round of the 2006 draft and who began his career as an eminently effective starter for the club.
Cahill spent 2009-11 in Oakland, where he ate 583 innings and pitched to a solid 3.91 ERA, despite less-than-stellar strikeout and walk numbers (5.48 K/9, 3.35 BB/9). The A’s then shipped him to Arizona in a five-player, December 2011 trade that brought them righty Jarrod Parker, among others. Injuries have since ended Parker’s career, while Cahill has seen his effectiveness wane dating back to the end of his first Oakland stint.
The 30-year-old Cahill started 30-plus games and racked up between 178 2/3 and 207 2/3 innings in each of his first four seasons, but he hasn’t approached those figures since. He’s only a couple years removed from essentially working as a full-time reliever with both the Braves and Cubs, but he primarily functioned as a starter in 2017.
Across 21 appearances (14 starts) and 84 frames between San Diego and Kansas City, Cahill posted a 4.93 ERA/5.28 FIP and logged 9.32 K/9 against 4.82 BB/9. He also registered an impressive 55.6 percent groundball rate (right in line with his career mark of 55.1). Unfortunately, though, shoulder issues helped derail his season after the Royals acquired him in July. While Cahill managed outstanding numbers over 61 innings with the Padres (3.69 ERA, 10.6 K/9, 3.5 BB/9), he offset those by surrendering 21 earned runs on 33 hits and 21 walks, with 15 strikeouts, during his 23-frame Royals tenure.
Cahill was on the disabled list three times with shoulder and back problems during his two-team run in 2017, surely helping lead to his inability to find a job from November until now. The A’s, on the heels of the promising Cotton’s injury, are left to hope Cahill will more closely resemble the version who held his own with the Padres than the one who scuffled with the Royals.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
solid move
Cotton TJ surgery causes this
I mean, I can see this as a depth move. I would still like to see Cobb signed but as an A’s fan, if it’s the right price, I’ll take the depth.
I’d rather go with the young guys like Blackburn and mengden
Definitely.
Rotation with Cobb –
1. Graveman
2. Manaea
3. Cobb
4. Mengden
5. Cahill/ Triggs / Blackburn
Only if Cobb goes very cheap.
I just don’t see why we overspend on Cobb. We’re not looking to compete this year, and we need to be careful with what money we do have.
I don’t foresee Cobb costing very much at this point. He’s certainly not going to get anything close to what he wanted. All of the other three big FA pitchers took substantially less money and/or fewer years, and Cobb is running out of time; he doesn’t have much leverage at this point.
Very true! No where near it!
Problem is if he falls in our price range he falls in Milwaulkee and Minnesota’s price range, and both teams have a better shot at competing this year than we do and a need for starting pitching. He’ll go to a team that has a better shot at competing, unless they don’t want him.
If neither the Brewers or Twins want him then I’m sure we’ll go after him on a 2 year deal or something, because at that point it’s either play this season or don’t play this season.
A’s don’t want Cobb because of the draft pick tied to him. A’s said they do not want to lose any draft picks signing free agents.
Billy Beane for mayor!
I like this deal if it goes through, 140-180 quality innings potentially available at a cheap cost.
I honestly thought that the Pirates may have had an interest in this guy as he had a couple of good years with the Cubs just a short time ago and would fit their economic criteria after waiting this long to sign.He may do a good job as a swing man with the A’s.I could be wrong but I think that there was interest in him from Pittsburgh last off season.
Two offseasons ago, yes. Pirates offered him a deal and an opportunity to start, but he elected to go back to the Cubs as a reliever instead.
The Pirates have had a weird off season. They got rid of some stars and then didn’t scoop up any of the bargains. I really wonder what the direction is in Pittsburgh. Cahill would’ve made sense. Heck even Anibal Sanchez could’ve made sense. Its like they think they’re playing poker and they’ll be able to bluff their way into the playoffs.
They may be playing poker but I think that they are very sober players who stick to the middle ground and do not take chances.Believe it or not I think that their team is pretty well set except that they are praying that Glasnow finally sees the light and lives up to his expectations.The additions of Siegrist and Dickerson were important to round out the roster.The two trades of Cole and Cutch added major league players which is why the front office claims that this is not a rebuild.Their bullpen was supplemented with cheap young hard throwing pitchers,and the third base hole was hopefully filled with Moran.I think Pittsburgh can be relied upon to be consistent in their outlook,but with little or no thought outside of the box..Without one or two pitcher veteran bargains,however,they run the risk of not having decent backup when injuries occur.
I would rather see jharrel Cotton be on the mound throwing left handed.
Thanks for the laugh… and the painful reality check
Welcome home Trevor. Good signing but the A’s should still sign Cobb.
Lol. Get real. Can’t believe A’s fan still think their team has an actual interest in competing.
We’ll compete if we compete. This is a development year, with our big prospects from last year getting their first full year in. We shouldn’t go for a guy like Cobb, who would require we overspend.
Of course they do. Just on a smaller budget and tighter window. Cobb would be smart to sign with the A’s if offered a contract. What better ballpark to regain his form and rebuild his value. Worked for Kazmir, Bartolo, etc.
He’s a fill-in, not a reclamation project, and most likely will stay in the pen until Triggs hits his innings limit, then be DFA’d when Puk is ready to come up.
People forget Cahill was an AS in 2010
But that was nearly 8 seasons ago.
In that case, you need to Jose Bautista.
Somebody get Hong-Chih Kuo on the line stat
Cahill is still a very solid prospect. Happy he’s back!
Couldn’t agree more. Can’t teach velo.
Prospect has passed him by a long time ago !
In what world is a man who has made $35 million in this game, with 7+ years of service time, still a prospect?
In what world is Cahill still a prospect? He was pretty bad after the Royals traded for him last year.
I think it’s a great start, but the starting rotation is still clearly the weakness of this team. They need to get like four more guys like Cahill, now. BB, what are you waiting for?
What a GREAT name for a ball player…A.J. Puke
PUK
He makes hitters do that 🙂
Decent move I think they could add another veteran starter to their collection and have a six man rotation or sub in guy every few starts.
Still think Scott Feldman is a better fit for Oakland, he’s the perfect durable arm, they should get him too. I think Blackburn and Triggs are better than Cahill in 2018, not so sure with Feldman.
Gotta give up on Cobb for now due to his draft pick comp (although they should go after him when the pick falls off in a couple months), and Dickey isn’t going to Oakland because he’s limiting his teams to near his hometown. Cahill is meh, but if the A’s are getting Anderson, they should just go full on pander mode and sign Blanton, Street & O’Flaherty too, lol
Don’t forget Zito
Jays maybe for Cobb? In case Sanchez has issues or really anyone in the rotation?
This is another guy that the cubs desperately miss. No wonder they are going to struggle this year again.
I’d prefer to keep Raul Alcantara over Cahill (or Casilla)
It’s all about being good in 2019
What, Joe Blanton not available?