The Athletics have avoided arbitration with a series of key players. Of particular note, shortstop Marcus Semien will earn $13MM in his final season of arbitration eligibility, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter).
Increasingly excellent reliever Liam Hendriks also gets a nice boost, checking in at $5.3MM, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). Ditto outfielder Mark Canha, who’ll earn $4.8MM, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (via Twitter).
Also securing notable numbers were lefty Sean Manaea ($3.75MM) and outfielder Robbie Grossman ($3.725MM) with those reports also coming from the Twitter accounts of Slusser and Nightengale. Righty Chris Bassitt also finished off a $2.25MM deal at the last moment, Slusser tweets, thus completing the Oakland arb business for the offseason.
As compared to the projected arb values, most of the numbers don’t stand out. Semien is half a million shy of the mark set by the model, while Hendriks ($200K) and Canha ($100K) also come in just under that level. Manaea and Grossman bettered their projections ($3.5MM and $3.3MM, respectively) while Bassitt fell shy of his ($2.8MM).
It remains to be seen whether there’ll be further contract talks between the A’s and Semien, who stands out as an extension target as he enters his final season of team control. In all likelihood, it would take a team-record contract to keep him around after a breakout 2019 campaign. Hendriks is also slated to hit the open market at the close of the coming season.
Hurry up and extend Semien
if they do they r not extending chapman and olsen
It’s Olson for the record, and I doubt we were ever gonna extend Chappy because of Boras’s expectations. Then with Olson, I don’t think they’ll need him by the time his deal is up.
If the A’s intended to extend Semien they would have done it before this or announced an extension today instead of his final year salary. Even if he’s with OAK through the end of 2020 I don’t even see them extending the QO. Unfortunately that’s life in Oakland.
Not true at all. They extended Khris Davis after the season started because they wanted to make sure he was going to keep up the level of production he was expecting to get paid for. I see the same thing happening with Semien as well, especially since this was his first above average offensive campaign.
And Davis had a terrible season. The A’s won’t be extending Semien.
Davis was injured for most of the season. The A’s will be extending Semien.
They’ve said they are committed to changing the culture and national narrative as they build a new stadium. They haven’t done anything since to make us think otherwise really, so I have to assume they will do everything in their power to extend semien, Chapman and Olsen. At this point though we can only make educated assumptions.
It all comes down to the stadium, and we’ll know where the organization is going at the start of the season. I really like the chances of an extension for Semien to get the ball rolling, once they absolutely know for sure he’s going to produce the numbers they’re paying for.
Too old for long term
age 29-35 is just fine.
Can people stop acting like every player is unproductive after age 30? Its just an absolute lie.
The folks who act like that Strike are usually fn old. Which is irony. Lol
cool personal attack, dork
Not every contract has to be 7 years dude
Go A’s…
What a steal for Semien
I thought he’d end up with more.
This will encourage a’s fans (both of them) until they realize that Mr. Beanne and the tight fisted a’s will not sign Semien long term, thus making this season his last in the mausoleum.
Wow such a funny comment
He won’t make it past the all star break
If the Reds can’t land Lindor or Seager I see them riding out the first half with Galvis and making a push for Semien by the ASB.
Bauer and Lorenzen for Semien
or
Semien for Gray straight up
both got accepted at btv lol
You’re getting ahead of yourself. The A’s have a better chance of still being in it at the ASB than the Reds to.
You’re aware the A’s are a competitive team going into next season, correct? Why would they trade Semien at the all star break?
Agreed, its either trade him now and reconfigure the team by putting Chapman (who has insane SS metrics because he plays there multiple times a game due to the shift and is probably even more valuable there than at SS) at SS and getting a 3B or even using Neuse or an internal option there, or keep him for the long haul.
The A’s are most likely going to win 95-100+ games this year if they stay healthy. They are a much stronger contender than the Reds are. For my money (I’m big on Puk and Luzardo, but I understand that’s too bullish for some) they are the best team in the AL.
hey Jeff, can you start reprimanding commenters that use the “both of them” joke with the A’s? tired and baseless.
Dark.
As an Angel fan, I heard that in the 60s from Dodger fans. It’s old and unfunny, he might has well start his posts with “Ladies and Germs”.
Strongly agreed, so sick of this troll (one of them).
This is the kind of stuff that bothers you guys?
Clearly not, if MLBTR staff aren’t going to do anything about it. They’re clearly fine with this level of discussion in their articles.
Its in every single A’s post (All of them!) by someone who clearly is not a fan of the team.
Yes, its annoying.
Wow those crocodile tears are delicious.
But, realistically, you all do the same. Go back to Yankee posts and see what you said about them. Same old tasteless jokes that have were rode hard and put away wet.
I’m not offended, but you can’t do it, then cry foul when someone else does it, right?
Ignore it. The A’s should be good again this year so who cares.
(As a rangers fan, I like the tasteless A’s humor). Anyway, I hope that they can’t pay Semien or Hendricks what they want next year, so that they can leave, and hopefully bring a little more competition to the division.
You hope one team gets worse so the division is more competitive… right…
I mean those two leaving doesn’t make our team dogshit suddenly.
Exactly, the reason why the A’s will probably be viewed as the class of the AL by the end of 2020 is because of the insane levels of depth they have. Their AAA team next year will comprise entirely of guys who could be playing everyday in MLB if they were on another team.
Now finally healthy, I’d bet the A’s AAA rotation of Holmes-Kaprelian-Jefferies-Dunshee-Howard will be better than half of MLB’s rotations next season. Be afraid, be very afraid of Oakland….
Breaking News! The Rangers reach arbitration with Gallo, Santana, and Montero. This is the first time they have gone to arbitration with a player since 2000. (per Sam Blum of Dallas Morning News.)
Here’s four routes the A’s could take with Semien:
The best, most fan-friendly move: sign him to 6/150 deal, make him the SS longterm. Allow fans to buy jerseys of an A’s player (who is also a local guy, big in the community) for once knowing they won’t have to throw it away after a year.
The cheapest, most scummy and typical-A’s move: do nothing, offer him the QO and he accepts, he will then be a FA at age 31, which nowadays means a lesser payday and the A’s could sign him to a 3/60 deal but also could let him walk.
The Theo-ripoff Moneyball move: trade him now, move Chapman to SS and sign Donaldson.
The classic-Beane Moneyball move: trade him now, move Chapman to SS and trade for a ready-now or blocked 3B prospect.
The A’s need to make more moves like extending prospects for way below league average deals. That’s the only way they will have a stable team for a long time without having to pay out huge contracts.
They’ve been trying to but when your agent is Scott Boras…
I strongly agree, pretty clear in my post that I like option 1 the best, but I know this team and they love to make moves their fans absolutely hate.
Arrenado trade, move Chapman to SS and Semien to 2B
Arenado/Chapman together at last!
If they could get him without giving up Luzardo, Puk or Murphy they should.
I know the A’s never give out big contracts, but if they were going to make an exception- Semien is the one. He finished 3rd in MVP voting last year, plays a premier position and is a bay area native. If they can lock him and Chapman down, they will have one of the best (if not thee best) left side on the infield in MLB. His defense is average at best but having the best defensive 3B playing to his right surely cant hurt.
Who has the best left side infield in baseball in your opinion?
Angels- Rendon/Simmons
Rockies- Arenaldo/Story
Padres- Machado/Tatis jr
Indians- Ramirez/Lindor
RedSox- Devers/Bogaerts
Astros- Bregman/Correa
Cubs- Bryant/Baez
Athletics- Chapman/Semien
Strictly based on WAR it was Chapman/Semien last year
Should add:
White Sox- Moncada/Anderson
Not the best, but in the running
They will be when it comes to October and you got 2 MVP candidates on the southside.
Rockies and Angels have the best left infield imo. Flip a coin, either one is great.
Phiilies2020
That’s a very interesting question. I can make a case for everyone in that group, I can make a case against everyone in that group.
If you are telling me I’m going to get 300 games out the combination. I’m picking Bregman/Correa. But Correa is also the biggest injury concern.
Great question.
Correa isn’t an elite defender either. Often injured and isn’t a game changer on defense, on a list where there’s many who aren’t. Bad take. I think the worst two on that list are the Astros and Cubs, but they are still all elite duos for sure.
You forgot to mention Moncada & Anderson.
Grossman sucks,id much rather give one of the outfielders like fowler, skye bolt, or seth brown a shot
Seth Brown will definitely be in the running
Nick Martini > Robbie Grossman
Luis Barrera > both of them anyways. One of Grossman, Brown is holding on until the A’s re-align their outfield, putting Laureano in right, Piscotty/Canha in left and the much better center field defender in Barrera in center.
I hope we finally get to see Barrera and his crazy defense this year in the big leagues…
The A’s love of Grossman is just killing them. He should absolutely never hit in the top of the order, he’s essentially a 4th OF with a full-time role he didn’t deserve. Brown and Barrera are better than both, I agree, although we haven’t seen Barrera’s bat in MLB yet, which makes me pull back a little on him.
not defensively, offensively it’s a wash
Semien is trades this year for sure
I doubt it, A’s are contenders for years to come so they will need Semien, unless they want to let a younger player take over shortstop.
This is good news for the A’s. To be honest, the A’s potential of re-signing Semien, Olson and Chapman depends largely upon if the team can secure the Howard Terminal ballpark. If the A’s secure the go-ahead for Howard Terminal (far from a given, but they’re far closer on this than any other new stadium project) then they A’s revenue stream and budget dedicated to spend on players will mean the team will no longer be unable to keep their best players long-term.
The Environmental Impact Report comes out by the end of the month. We’ll have a lot better idea as to the real challenges of getting this across the line shortly thereafter.
They’re up to the last vote to where they can actually break ground
twitter.com/DaveKaval/status/1214980551087550464
Just waiting on the EIR at this point. Not seeing any outliers there, so we’re probably good to go.