The AL West rival Astros and Athletics are mutually interested in making a trade that would involve Oakland right-hander Sonny Gray, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. The last-place A’s have been closely monitoring the Astros’ system, per Cafardo, during a period in which Houston’s four best starters (Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers, Charlie Morton and Collin McHugh) are on the disabled list. Gray, who would likely slot in third in a healthy Astros rotation, is only running a 4.44 ERA through 52 2/3 innings, but his secondary stats are encouraging and he’s under control via arbitration through 2019. As such, he’d warrant a strong return for the A’s.
Athletics Rumors
Athletics Select Michael Brady's Contract
- The Athletics have announced that they’ve selected the contract of righty Michael Brady from Triple-A Nashville and optioned fellow righty Zach Neal to Nashville. Brady will provide reinforcements for an A’s bullpen that has pitched 12 1/3 innings in three high scoring games in the last three days. The 30-year-old has had a long road to the Majors — the Cal product was drafted by the Marlins as an infielder in the 24th round in 2009 before switching to pitching the following year and slowly grinding his way through the systems of the Marlins, Angels and Nationals. This season, he has a 3.67 ERA, 9.1 K/9 and 1.3 BB/9 over 41 2/3 innings with Nashville.
Rays Acquire Trevor Plouffe From Athletics
The Rays have acquired infielder Trevor Plouffe from the Athletics for cash considerations or a player to be named later, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes (Twitter links). The Rays will also receive cash in the deal, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets, with Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle adding that the Rays will receive over $2MM to cover a portion of the approximately $3MM left on Plouffe’s $5.25MM 2017 salary. The Rays have moved righty Matt Andriese (hip) to the 60-day DL to clear space for Plouffe on their 40-man roster.
The Athletics designated Plouffe for assignment last week after he batted just .214/.276/.357 while striking out 29.1% of the time in 199 plate appearances this season. The 31-year-old also had a somewhat disappointing 2016 campaign with the Twins in which he hit a modest .260/.303/.420 while earning below-average marks in UZR and DRS for his defense. The Twins then outrighted him rather than taking him through the arbitration process.
Still, there’s perhaps reason for the Rays to hope Plouffe will be somewhat productive. He was a decent regular in Minnesota in 2014 and 2015, and he has decent power (with 103 career big-league home runs) and can play either infield corner. He’s also batted a solid .269/.345/.459 against lefties in his career, whereas the Rays as a team have hit a modest .227/.312/.374 against southpaws.
The Rays have established players at third (Evan Longoria), first (Logan Morrison) and DH (Corey Dickerson), but the left-handed Morrison, despite having a very strong season overall, has not hit lefties well in his career. The Rays could try to find further opportunities for Plouffe as a pinch-hitter, and he should improve their bench, which has had uninspiring options like Michael Martinez and Rickie Weeks to man the infield corners. Also, as ESPN’s Jim Bowden points out in a tweet, the Rays’ AL East rivals the Red Sox have struggled at third base this season and had interest in Plouffe last winter, and the Rays acquiring him prevents the Red Sox from acquiring him now. Plouffe is eligible for free agency after the season.
Barreto Could Be Next Prospect To Debut
- With the Athletics progressing into a youth movement, John Hickey of the San Jose Mercury News writes that top infield prospect Franklin Barreto likely isn’t far from getting his first big league promotion, though Hickey suggests that in order to create playing time for Barreto, Oakland would first have to trade Jed Lowrie. Hickey also notes that the A’s feel confident that Trevor Plouffe, who was designated for assignment yesterday to clear a spot for top third base prospect Matt Chapman, will catch on with another club. It’s not clear, though, if the A’s expect to trade him or are preparing to release the 31-year-old.
Athletics Designate Trevor Plouffe For Assignment
3:32pm: Oakland has made it official: Chapman is up and Plouffe is in DFA limbo.
1:31pm: With the A’s set to call up top prospect Matt Chapman, the team is preparing to designate third baseman Trevor Plouffe for assignment, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.
[Related: Updated Oakland Athletics depth chart]
Plouffe, who turns 31 today, signed a one-year, $5.25MM deal with the A’s this offseason after effectively being non-tendered by the Twins. His bat has yet to recover from a slow start to the season, however, as the former first-round pick is hitting just .214/.276/.357 on the year with seven homers and five doubles. As Slusser notes, Plouffe had recently seen his playing time diminish in Oakland.
When at his best, Plouffe has proven to be a serviceable defender at third base with modest on-base skills but enough pop to hit 20 to 25 homers. From 2012-15 in Minnesota he batted a combined .248/.312/.426 with an average of 23 homers per 162 games played.
Given that track record, it’s possible that the A’s could find a taker for Plouffe in trade, as teams like the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets have received little help from their third basemen in 2017. Presumably, the A’s would need to include some cash to help offset the remaining $3.13MM on his contract. Boston, for what it’s worth, reportedly showed interest in Plouffe over the winter before he signed with the A’s.
If Oakland doesn’t find a trade partner, Plouffe’s salary will very likely allow him to clear waivers, at which point any club could sign him and owe him only the pro-rated portion of the league minimum through season’s end.
Draft Notes: Lewis, McKay, Day 2, Gore, Greene, Wright, Beck
No. 1 overall draft pick Royce Lewis will take his physical with the Twins soon, tweets Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. There aren’t expected to be any hangups in negotiations, per Berardino, who notes that the industry expectation is for Lewis to receive a bonus north of Dansby Swanson’s $6.5MM bonus from the 2015 draft. The top pick in the draft came with a slot value of $7.7MM, and MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger wrote this week that Lewis could sign for around $1MM less than that sum. That’d put his bonus in the $6.5MM to $6.7MM range, saving the Twins anywhere from $1MM to $1.2MM from the slot value. FanRag’s Jon Heyman pegs the expected value at “just a tick over” $6.7MM. Rays top pick Brendan McKay, meanwhile, is expected to sign for somewhere between $7MM and $7.2MM, according to Berardino. That’d be the largest bonus ever given to a college player under the current draft structure, surpassing Kris Bryant’s $6.7MM sum.
More notes on the draft…
- The Twins “crushed” Day 2 of the draft, MLB.com’s Jim Callis opines. Adding high school right-hander Blayne Enlow, a potential first-round talent that dropped due to a strong commitment to LSU, kicked off a day in which Minnesota selected five players that ranked inside MLB.com’s top 200 draft prospects. Enlow, Callis writes, has the best curveball in the draft as well as a fastball that has touched 94 mph and has room to grow as his projectable frame grows. Callis also lauds the White Sox, Dodgers, Red Sox and Brewers for the talent they secured in rounds three through 10. ESPN’s Keith Law agrees that the Twins did quite well to land Enlow with the No. 76 pick and also gives quite a bit of praise to the Athletics, who landed a first-round talent (in his estimation) with the 81st pick by taking shortstop Nick Allen. Law opines that the undersized Allen, who is listed at 5’8″, would’ve been a top 10 pick if he were three inches taller.
- FanRag’s Jon Heyman provides some insight into the progress being made with the top five picks in the draft. The Padres, according to Heyman, are expected to sign No. 3 overall pick MacKenzie Gore, a high school left-hander, for the full slot value of $6,668,100. Reds top pick Hunter Greene, meanwhile, is expected to sign for a deal “close” to the $7,193,200 slot value of his No. 2 overall selection, per Heyman. (Also of note for Reds fans: Heyman spoke to a rival exec who heaped praise on the Reds’ draft, opining that they “won the draft by far.”) And the Braves look to be going well over slot to sign Vanderbilt right-hander Kyle Wright, as Heyman reports that they’re discussing a deal worth close to $7MM, while the No. 5 slot carries a value of $5,707,300. Of course, Wright was long rumored to be a potential No. 1 overall pick, so it stands to reason that he’d come with a fairly sizable price tag.
- Baseball America’s John Manuel reported yesterday that Stanford right-hander Tristan Beck, a potential first-round talent that missed the 2017 season due to a stress fracture in his lower back, will not sign and plans to head back to Stanford (Twitter link). That didn’t stop the Yankees from drafting him late (29th round), though New York would obviously need to give him a massive bonus in order to convince him to forgo a return to college, as a healthy Beck would do quite well in next year’s draft. The Yankees may not have the leftover money even to make a legitimate effort to sign Beck, though he makes for a nice contingency plan if the team unexpectedly finds itself with some extra pool money to play with.
Athletics To Promote Matt Chapman
The Athletics are set to promote third base prospect Matt Chapman, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. He is expected to join the team for tomorrow’s game.
Chapman, 24, was taken 25th overall in the 2014 draft out of Cal State Fullerton. He has steadily marched up the ranks for the A’s, and will now reach Oakland after hitting well in his second stint at Triple-A.
Through 203 plate appearances at Nashville this year, Chapman carries a .259/.350/.592 triple-slash with 16 home runs. Though he has also racked up 63 strikeouts, Chapman has also drawn 25 walks, so he is at least able to take some free passes despite the swing-and-miss in his game.
Chapman is regarded as a quality defender at the hot corner, which helps boost his profile quite a bit. He drew consideration at the back end of the top-100 prospect lists of both Baseball America and MLB.com entering the season.
As MLBTR’s Jason Martinez wrote earlier this week, a promotion seemed imminent with Chapman upping his performance throughout the year. As Slusser notes, Trevor Plouffe’s struggles at the plate and Ryon Healy’s iffy glovework make for an opening. It’s unclear just what the team will do with Plouffe, though Healy will presumably stay in the lineup at first or DH.
As ever, service time remains a key consideration. Per Slusser, the A’s believe they are not at risk of allowing Chapman an added year of arbitration eligibility. Because he can only achieve 110 days of service through the end of the season, Chapman is more or less assured of failing to reach Super Two status after the 2019 campaign. Regardless, he won’t have enough service to reach the open market until at least 2024.
Triggs Facing Lengthier Absence Than Anticipated
- Athletics right-hander Andrew Triggs underwent an MRI on his ailing right hip, which revealed some structural damage, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. However, A’s manager Bob Melvin stressed that it’s not yet clear if the damage in Triggs’ hip is old or is a newer ailment that will require more attention. Triggs was hoping to miss a maximum of two starts, but there’s now no timetable for his return, according to Melvin, who adds that Triggs is also experiencing some back pain. The 28-year-old Triggs was sensational through his first eight starts, recording a 2.12 ERA with 6.8 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 54 percent ground-ball rate. However, Triggs was shelled for 26 runs (20 earned) on 32 hits and seven walks with 15 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings over his final four starts prior to landing on the DL. Of the 32 hits he yielded in that time, seven were home runs.
Latest On Potential A's Draft Targets
- The Athletics are up with the No. 6 pick in the draft tonight, and Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle connects them to a number of outfielders and pitchers. High school lefty MacKenzie Gore is on Oakland’s radar, though many project him to go before the A’s are on the clock. High school outfielder Austin Beck is also an Athletics target and recently had a private workout with the A’s. Slusser notes that they’d be thrilled to see Kyle Wright slip to them with the sixth selection, similarly to the manner in which Florida lefty A.J. Puk dropped to Oakland last year after being discussed as a potential 1-1 option. Wright’s teammate, outfielder Jeren Kendall, is also intriguing to the A’s, per Slusser.
Daniel Gossett To Make Big-League Debut
- Athletics righty Daniel Gossett will make his big-league debut in a start Wednesday, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. Gossett will replace Andrew Triggs, who went on the DL Saturday with a hip injury. MLB.com rates Gossett as the Athletics’ No. 5 prospect, praising his durability and the life on his low-90s fastball. He’s produced a 3.41 ERA, 8.0 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 over 60 2/3 innings this season for Triple-A Nashville.
