The Rangers announced that they’ve traded right-hander Cory Gearrin to the Athletics in exchange for minor league right-handers Abdiel Mendoza and Teodoro Ortega. Oakland also announced the move, adding that righty Paul Blackburn will go from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL to clear 40-man roster space.
Gearrin, 32, had spent the past several seasons in the bay area with the cross-town Giants. But he landed with the Rangers after being included in a mid-season move in which the San Francisco organization shed some salary obligations, including the remainder of Gearrin’s $1.675MM salary.
The remainder of that money will now be paid by the A’s, who have added several bullpen pieces over the course of the summer as they have flown up the standings. The Oakland ballclub currently sits 2.5 games back of the division-leading Astros, but still has time to make up that ground and also enjoys a healthy 4.5 game pad over the Mariners for the final Wild Card spot.
Gearrin will not only help the A’s by bolstering their middle-relief mix, but will perhaps also help reduce the load on several of the team’s other bullpen arms down the stretch. He has never really functioned as a late-inning arm, but that’s not really something the Oakland organization is much in need of at the moment.
[Related: Oakland Athletics depth chart]
Since landing with the Rangers, Gearrin has turned in 21 1/3 effective innings. He carries a 2.53 ERA in that span, leaving him with a 3.51 mark on the season, and has been more effective at limiting the long balls that plagued him earlier in the year in San Francisco. At times in the past, Gearrin has produced quite a few groundballs, but he’s getting them on less than forty percent of the balls put in play against him in 2018.
While this move is no doubt mostly intended to boost the team’s immediate outlook the A’s will also gain some potential future considerations in the swap. Gearrin can be controlled for one final season via arbitration.
On the other side of the bargain, the Rangers will lose the chance to hang onto Gearrin at a fairly cheap rate for 2019. Instead, they’ll pick up a pair of lower-level arms. Mendoza, who’ll soon turn 20, owns a 3.32 ERA with 6.5 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in 57 innings at the low-A level. Ortega is just 18 and is in his first professional season in the Dominican Summer League. He impressed there, however, with a 2.11 ERA and 10.1 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 over his 42 2/3 frames, which have come over six starts and eight relief appearances.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Have fun A’s!
Need any more relievers there Oakland???
FO said they would be having a lot of bullpenning games this month, guess they weren’t kidding!
Must be losing confidence in Trevino
Agreed, Trivino is so gassed. 64 IP before September is a lot of usage. He threw 68 all of 2017. Currently sporting a 8.38 ERA over his last 12 appearances, 5.00 ERA over his last 20 games. He’s either toast, completely done for the year, or needs a week or two off, or everyone’s figured him out. I think he’s been overused by Melvin much too much this year. Melvin seems to think every RP can throw 30 pitches or 2 IP every time out, which is obviously wrong. Trivino has thrown 20+ pitches 15 times this year.
How many relievers have been acquired by Oakland this season? Rodney, Kelley, Familia, Gearrin, and wasn’t there one more, or was that it?
Wilmer Font?
You might also being thinking of Fiers, because he’s an “added pitcher” albeit a SP.
We had to rely so much on Trivino because we didn’t have good replacements for Casilla or Hatcher in the minors, and there were no good deals to be made.
Wendelken is in his first full season removed from TJS, Bobby Wahl’s walk rate was alarming for a reliever, Jake Sanchez and Kyle Finnegan weren’t good and Dull couldn’t get healthy. Trivino with Treinen kept us relevant for so long.
Still need a SP, Jordan Zimmermann owns the Yankees in his career, he’d actually be a wise get if he’d waive his NTC. Otherwise, just go get Gio .
Zimmerman is owed $25 million each of the next two years. Unless the tigers cover a majority of that, I don’t see why the A’s would do that.
To beat the Yankees in both the upcoming series, and the playoffs. Only reason.
And yes, the Tigers would pay some of that. Depends on prospect coming back. A’s could easily afford $14M a year on him. Maybe even more if nothing big is traded. They could also trade him this offseason.
14M a year gets you way better than Jordan Zimmerman. Absolute waste for a small budget team.
Name some names available right now who have pitched well their entire career as well as this season against the Yanks and I’ll probably agree. Slim pickings currently.
Great addition! Zimmerman will be nice to have too but money is a factor as usually is in life…
Gerrin sucks! I’m so glad he’s not a Giant anymore.
He always looks like he’s about to cry
Ortega could be a diamond in th rough down the road
Glad to see rangers adding talent to the farm. If they can just develop pitchers is the next thing.
Gearrin last came into a game in the 8th inning on Wednesday. Given how long he takes between pitches, he’s probably still pitching that inning.
The A’s get Derek Holland too. Complete the set of rangers / Giants pitchers.
Good move, A’s. Rangers also trying to acquire any and all young arms, hoping someone turns up aces.
Looks like the A’s will be following the Rays in starting relievers.
Dude left the Giants and turned into a lights out middle relief option lol
Actually a big fan of this for Texas. Rangers basically turned PTBNL or cash considerations into 3 pitching prospects with real potential. Not bad at all JD