The Athletics will boost their payroll in 2019, but general manager David Forst tells John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle that there’s no set number following meetings with ownership. Oakland needs to address its rotation, second base and catcher situations, but Forst cautions that the A’s aren’t “going to shock anyone with huge deals.” Shea writes that while deals for Patrick Corbin and Dallas Keuchel won’t come together for the A’s, they’ll still be active in searching for upgrades. As for second base and catcher, the latter of the two is a more pressing urge for Oakland. Forst explains that the presence of Franklin Barreto as an MLB-ready option creates less urgency at second base than at catcher, where Sean Murphy, a fellow well-regarded prospect, is a bit further from the Majors.
More from the division…
- Astros GM Jeff Luhnow discussed his team’s options for replacing utlityman Marwin Gonzalez, as MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart covers. Moving Yuli Gurriel around the diamond could help the club make up for the loss of flexibility. Perhaps notably, Luhnow specifically references a “post-Marwin world,” which could be telling with regard to how the organization feels about its chances to retain its most versatile player. Meanwhile, says Luhnow, he’s “looking at different options to add more to our offense.” Adding a big stick certainly seems to make sense under that roster alignment, as the club would have flexibility to get a new player into the lineup at DH, first base, or the corner outfield.
- Speaking of the Astros, catching is another obvious area to address. The club has some level of interest in Yasmani Grandal, according to MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter), with the Mets also showing early signs of intrigue. As the top catcher on the free-agent market, Grandal will garner interest from a wide slate of teams. At present, the Astros’ top internal option behind the dish is Max Stassi.
- Veteran catcher Wilson Ramos is of interest to the Angels, according to Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times, with at least four other teams also in pursuit early. The fit for the bat-first backstop is perhaps not as clean in Los Angeles as it might be for some other clubs, as most of the Halos’ DH plate appearances seem already to be spoken for with Shohei Ohtani and Albert Pujols figuring to garner significant playing time in that capacity. Given Ramos’ durability issues, he’d be a more logical fit for an American League club with plenty of DH at-bats available, though he’ll certainly draw interest from clubs lacking in DH time and from National League clubs as well.
- Don Wakamatsu, who spent the 2018 season as the Rangers’ bench coach before assuming the role of interim manager late in the season, will return to the organization in 2019, tweets T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. Wakamatsu interviewed for the managerial opening that eventually went to Dodgers third base coach Chris Woodward, but he’ll return to the 2019 staff despite being passed over for the job in the end.
Nelson Cruz to the Astros would make the lineup lethal.
As for the Halos, despite the price tag, I’d rather have Yasmani Grandal, considering he’s a bit younger than Ramos, and is a switch hitter.
Dottie Hinson catches better than Yasmani
Lol
Well duh
She hits better too
Grandal was never a good framer that’s why he was traded from San Diego… the roids didn’t help his case either
Nor did the reconstruction of his knee
Grandal is an elite pitch-framer. lol
Except for the part where grandal leads the NL in pitch framing
Wow, I think you’re a bit confused. Grandal is one of the best catchers in the game-ELITE framing skills, but don’t take my word for it, do your own research. What he’s not good at is blocking balls. Offensively he has been great as well. You may not want to admit it, but he is literally one of the best overall catchers in MLB today. That’s a fact.
LOL, he’s the worst defensive catcher in baseball
Because you watched the 2 playoff games against the brewers where he made a dozen errors? Have you watched any other games outside of that? Or you just saw it once and just gonna roll with that assumption?
Dottie Hinson…..Ha! Someone else is a fan of the “There’s no crying I Baseball!” Great Show.
Haha! How does this have so many downvotes?!
Agree on Cruz.
Don’t the Astros need a LH bat far more than yet another RH bat? Altuve Correa Bregman gurriel Springer all good/great bats but it’s easier to match up with you in the playoffs when you know the best Astros lineup has 6 RH bats in a row. Adding Cruz and or Realmuto only makes it worst. Angels the last couple years have been too RH dependant as well. Yankees going down a similar road.
If no Corbin or Kechel, A’s are definitely trading with Cleveland then.
Wait a minute, the article literally says and I quote:
“The A’s are sticking with their plan to increase the payroll, which was lowest in the majors at the start of last season. Forst and Billy Beane met with owner John Fisher last week to discuss spending parameters.
“We didn’t leave with a number I can report to you,” he said. “John has been pretty consistent in being open with to we want to do so I think we feel we have some flexibility.”
Once it was evident the A’s could be contenders over the summer, they made several in-season acquisitions to beef up their pitching staff and escalate the payroll.
“We’ve got a little more payroll (next) year than in the past,” Forst said, “but I don’t think we’re going to shock anyone with huge deals.”
In other words, no Patrick Corbin or Dallas Keuchel. Those are the top free-agent starters who’ll command more than the A’s are willing to pay. Among the next tier: Hyun-Jin Ryu, J.A. Happ, Nathan Eovaldi, Charlie Morton, Gio Gonzalez and Matt Harvey.”
The writer make a huge leap to what he thinks “huge deals” means. If Keuchel can be had for under $80M then that’s not really a “huge deal” in 2018 – not to mention they can backload a contract. What a misleading piece, I hate sportswriters sometimes when they pull crap like that. John Shea literally got told “We can’t tell you how much” and then he says “Well this guy will be too much”, WTF
You have to look at what is huge for the A’s in terms of history. When was the last time the A’s gave someone 80M? It’s not happening. I will be surprised if we give someone not currently on the roster even 40M. Mark my words, not happening.
They gave Chavez 6/66, they offered Encarnacion 2/50 – they even offered Giambi the exact same contract he signed with the Yankees, the Yankees gave him an option year and the A’s wanted 6 and done – which funnily enough, is what triggered the start Moneyball….an option year.
So yeah, I don’t buy that history, never have.
btw just to underline that point:
If the YANKEES weren’t so thirsty for Giambi, then he would have signed with Oakland, which would have meant no Scott Hatteberg at 1B having a 3.5 WAR season, which is what Moneyball became about.
So Yankees fans, I don’t want to hear a peep about how “Billy Beane is overrated, he never won, Brad Pitt played him and i’m jealous” narratives from any of you – if the Yankees didn’t want Giambi, Moneyball never happens!!!
Moneyball was about having 3 great homegrown pitchers as much as anything else. Weird the movie doesn’t mention those 3 guys at all. Quit being intentionally misleading which you mentioned you hated when journalists do it.
Moneyball is about Scott Hatteberg replacing Jason Giambi and putting up comparable numbers at a fraction of the salary, due to Hatteberg’s OBP being good. The A’s lost an MVP and still won a ton of games the next year and got unluckily eliminated in the playoffs.
But then again, I’ve read the book and you have not, if you think it’s about the Big 3. It’s mostly about Beane and how he decided Hatteberg would work at 1B replacing an MVP, you troll.
I’m a troll, how mad online are you right now?
You consistently coming up with the most outlandish, bizarre unrealistic trade or signing scenarios that get laughed at by anyone who even remotely pays attention to the game, but yeah I’m a troll. Keep living in a fantasy land.
I’m more correct on my predictions than many on here. No one’s ever going to get 100% but who cares, if you don’t like it, shoot it down but use logic and reason – and on this topic, the A’s have consistently offered out contracts that fly in the face of “The A’s are cheap, they never spend on FAs” narrative that people like Shea push when he writes stuff like that. It’s kinda frustrating how often it happens when there’s never really been an statement from the FO about it, however many writers act like there was. Can you see this?
He literally said “I will be surprised if we give someone not currently on the roster even 40M.”
2 of the 3 guys you brought up as examples (Giambi & Chavez) were big stars already on the roster when offered that money. Those contracts were also offered in 2002 and 2004, respectively, so 17 & 15 seasons ago now
The 3rd, Encarnacion, is a guy everyone was shocked ran out of options last season after pricing himself out of the market otherwise. Oakland came in with a might-as-well offer late when it looked like no one else was really around, but only did so with a 2 season offer. Short of Corbin never having a market develop and settling for 2 seasons, Edwin doesn’t apply much as an apt comparison
Your examples merely seem to strengthen his argument, in my opinion
Moneyball is about finding market inefficiencies and using them to your advantage. It’s basically a business book and baseball is sexier than UPS and FedEx vs. the postal service, so Lewis wrote about baseball.
He did, however, intentionally leave out points that didn’t fit his narrative: the great pitching staff and great year by Eric Chavez.
.
It should also be said that Moneyball is just a book and subsequently become the popular term for Oakland’s style of analytics
The ideas behind moneyball have no connection to 2002 though. The ideas were introduced when then owner Charlie Finley died in 1996 and Sandy Alderson was told he had to slash payroll – he turned to anaytics as a hail-mary attempt to stay competitive on a budget; the rest is history.
This idea Oakland analytics are somehow tied to Giambi leaving for NY is just odd and way off base.
Exactly. I don’t think anyone wants to read how UPS pays $50,000 for a truck and FedEx figured out it could serve 90% of the same volume with a $35,000 truck, but it’s basically the same idea.
The largest contact in Athletics franchise history is Eric Chavez’s $66MM contract. Even a disappointing contract for Keuchel would constitute a “huge” deal for the A’s. I don’t think Shea is being disingenuous there.
I think Forst meant no $100+M deals. Being that MLBTR has Keuchel at 4/82, in my eyes that falls right into what he’s saying.
Well you need to get your eyes checked, because as every other person here has pointed out, you have a slim understanding of the A’s but are assummin of you’re an expert. Sorry, I live in the bay area, and your just flat wrong. Your reading comprehension also leaves a lot to be desired. Go back under your bridge.
I don’t really see why “huge” deals would translate to $100MM+. He hasn’t given any indication of that as far as I can see.
When I last looked through the Athletics’ payroll history on a different issue, I believe I saw that they’d never even paid a player $14MM in a single season.
That’ll change one way or another due to Khris Davis next season, but even 4/80 would count as “huge” for Oakland. I don’t see much reason to think Keuchel would come in below that, either, given that he’ll have pretty robust interest.
the question should be why would the A’s use up their payroll on 1 player when there is no need to do that. The infield is all set for the next few years. The outfield is set too. So besides catching and a few mid level starters the team is solid. They will have 4 starters coming back from injury. So maybe a couple 1 year starter deals and the team is set. Maybe another lefty out of the pen. The team is pretty much set for next year.
There’s also another question that thinking about it, I’m genuinely curious about – how many 3+ year contracts have the A’s even handed out to Free Agents anyway?
They might start giving out higher dollar amounts on occasion, but will they to guys over 4 years or more?
Would be more surprised if they are not actively involved in top of relief pitching market. Think they’ll bottomfeed on starters though. Why mess with success?
Did you watch the one game playoff?
I’m guessing the MLBPA had a quiet word with MLB about how many players have GS clauses in their contracts, when they aren’t technically starting games. A lot of contracts will need to be re-written if the teams keep wanting to have an opener.
I hope the Astros give a good look at Wilson Ramos and Nelson Cruz. Great way to replenish the lineup without dishing out overpriced long term contracts. Top it off with Britton and we got ourselves another WS run coming
after drafting so many catchers over the years why would angels need to sign a f/a starter?
Taylor Ward is now a third basemen. Matt Thaiss is now a First Basemen. Both of them were drafted as catchers in the first round, and since then have made a position change.
Probably because of Mike Scioscia
The biggest moves the A’s will make this winter will be re-signing Edwin Jackson and Jonathan Lucroy. Why should A’s fans expect anything more.
They almost always make a move late in the winter (like Ryan Buchter this year).
I know Tony Kemp isn’t graded as a great defender but I’d imagine he could fill in at every position except maybe shortstop, which Bregman could handle in a pinch.
His infield work maybe not graded highly, but his outfield work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnKDMSLwYjE
Ramos to the Angels would be great in many ways. We need a bat, have limited roster space, and he’s free of draft compensation.
But he needs some luck staying healthy and we definitely don’t have that going for us lately.
How about lucroy instead
Mets should sign Grandal. D’arnaud blew all the chances he got to be the catcher of the future.
Acuna for Trout and someone else. LOL LOL LOL
getting creative maybe we can build off this
Braves fan btw