Athletics Rumors

Tim Lincecum’s Showcase Set For Friday

By Mark Polishuk | May 2, 2016 at 2:28pm CDT

MAY 2: The Athletics will also be in attendance, tweets John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group. Meanwhile, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (Twitter link) and Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link) report that the Rockies and Mets, respectively, will not be in attendance. Puma notes that the Mets are already comfortable with their pitching depth, and as Saunders notes, it’s highly unlikely that the Rockies would be able to convince Lincecum to attempt to revitalize his career at Coors Field.

MAY 1: Tim Lincecum will hold a long-awaited throwing showcase for scouts on Friday in Scottsdale, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter links). As many as 20 teams are expected to attend, including representatives from the Orioles, Padres and the Giants, Lincecum’s former team.

As of February, a return to the Giants was still Lincecum’s preference, as the right-hander told at least one person while visiting his old teammates during Spring Training, CSNBayArea.com’s Alex Pavlovic reports. The Giants have long said that they would be interested in a reunion with Lincecum if “the Freak” was willing to take on a bullpen role, and Pavlovic reports that this relief-only stance hasn’t necessarily changed even though the club’s rotation has had some early struggles.

Lincecum, for his part, wants to return as a starter and has been working out all winter in order to rebuild his durability and velocity following hip surgery that shortened his 2015 season. He reportedly wanted to be in top form before officially throwing for scouts, which is why the showcase (rumored to be imminent for four months) is only taking place this week. There is no small amount of mystery surrounding Lincecum’s condition as scouts have been kept away from his workouts, though recent reports have him throwing 70 pitches on an every-five-days basis and throwing in the 90 mph range off of flat ground.

If Lincecum looks good in his showcase, he would likely be able to find a starting job with one of the many interested teams, though it might be on a minor league contract given his health history. San Diego and Baltimore have both been connected to Lincecum all offseason, with both clubs perhaps in more need of starting pitching depth now due to injuries and ineffectiveness within their current rotations. The Orioles just added some veteran depth earlier this week by signing Wandy Rodriguez to a minors deal.

Injury Updates: Hardy, Britton, Hamilton, Alvarez, Kelly

By Mark Polishuk | May 1, 2016 at 9:14pm CDT

Here’s the latest on some injury situations around baseball…

J.J. Hardy fouled a ball off his left foot today, leaving behind an injury that is being termed as just a contusion for now since x-rays were negative. The Orioles shortstop will undergo a CT scan on Monday to check for any further damage, manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko). Hardy was plagued by injuries last season and already missed some time this season with calf and shoulder issues. Hardy is hitting .244/.291/.410 with two homers in 86 plate appearances.
In other Orioles injury news, closer Zach Britton will undergo an MRI on his left ankle on Monday. X-rays were negative on Britton’s ankle, which he sprained during Saturday’s game. Showalter hinted that the O’s will use a closer-by-committee based on situations, though if Britton has to miss a significant amount of a time, you would think ideally a single reliever may emerge as the top replacement closer. Be sure to follow @CloserNews (MLBTR’s sister Twitter site) for more on Britton’s status and news about all ninth-inning situations around baseball.
Josh Hamilton felt soreness in his left knee while running the bases in a rehab game today, as Rangers GM Jon Daniels told reporters (including Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram). Hamilton was pulled from the game and given a cortisone shot, with an eye towards getting back on the field next week. Hamilton’s bothersome left knee has undergone two operations within the last eight months and this latest setback is another ominous sign for the former AL MVP.
Henderson Alvarez looked good in a rehab start on Saturday, and Athletics manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including MLB.com’s Willie Bans) that the righty could be ready to make his A’s debut during a mid-May homestand. Alvarez missed most of 2015 due to shoulder problems that required required last July, and after the Marlins non-tendered him, the A’s inked Alvarez to a one-year deal worth $4MM in guaranteed money.
Joe Kelly tells WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford that his right shoulder is feeling much better after he began strengthening exercises targeting the muscles around his labrum. The Red Sox righty is hopeful that these new exercises will get him back from the DL in due course and also help solve what has been a long-term nagging injury for Kelly over his career.

Cafardo’s Latest: Hanley, Kemp, Braun, Hill, Panda

By Connor Byrne | May 1, 2016 at 10:29am CDT

Red Sox first baseman Hanley Ramirez, Padres right fielder Matt Kemp and Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun have all helped their respective trade values early this season, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Ramirez is the only one of the three whose offensive production was subpar in April, but Cafardo points to his hustle, enthusiasm and dedication to the team this year as reasons for his improved stock. The 31-year-old Kemp – signed through 2019 at $21.5MM annually – is the most available of the trio, per Cafardo, who adds that he could be a target of the Red Sox if Chris Young doesn’t start playing better. On the notion of acquiring any of them, a National League general manager told Cafardo, “Are they all $20 million-plus players? I’d say not. You’d have to be able to get them for $10 million-$15 million. There are different ways to reach that number through negotiation and the caliber of players you’d have to give up.”

Here’s more from Cafardo:

Athletics left-hander Rich Hill followed last season’s torrid September with a great April, during which he threw 26 innings of 2.42 ERA ball while striking out 12.81 batters per nine. Assuming he continues to serve as a quality rotation option, the 36-year-old will be a sought-after arm around the trade deadline, Cafardo reports. Hill is scheduled for free agency at year’s end, but the AL West doesn’t look like a division anyone will run away with and the A’s could be inclined to keep him if they remain in the hunt.
Dr. James Andrews’ Monday examination of Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval’s injured shoulder will be “huge” for both the player and the team, Cafardo writes. He doesn’t rule out a club, perhaps the Padres, having interest in Sandoval if the injury is minor. That certainly seems like a long shot, though, given that Sandoval will collect $75MM through 2020 – including a $5MM buyout – has been worth minus-2.2 fWAR in 129 games dating back to last season, and has a major weight problem.
Outfielder Grady Sizemore remains a free agent and has not retired, agent Joe Urban told Cafardo. The 33-year-old posted an .800-plus OPS during the second half of 2015, but he has been a minus player according to fWAR in each of the previous two seasons.

AL Notes: Yankees, Choo, A’s

By Connor Byrne | April 30, 2016 at 9:16pm CDT

The short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium isn’t an advantage anymore for the Yankees, Joel Sherman of the New York Post argues. The fact that defensive shifting has become so common means the Yankees can no longer fill their lineup with pull-oriented lefty swingers and rack up singles and doubles at their home park, which has the least right field square footage of any stadium in the majors, Sherman writes. “It definitely has lent to us realizing that a stadium design that used to move us to gravitate to stack lefty hitters and take advantage of our stadium for 81 [home games] has been negated to a significant degree by the shift,” said general manager Brian Cashman. “You have to be aware of it when you acquire talent.” This isn’t necessarily a new problem for the Cashman-led Yankees, who have been shifted against a major league-leading 3,677 times on balls in play since 2010, according to Sherman. In those instances, the Yankees have put up the second-worst batting average in baseball, .193, on grounders and short line drives.

More from the Bombers and two other American League clubs:

Performance-enhancing drugs are a hot topic in baseball right now in light of the suspensions given to Chris Colabello and Dee Gordon since last week. Unfortunately, Yankees manager Joe Girardi doesn’t expect PED use in the sport to ever go away, he said Friday (via Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald). His reasoning: “Because I think the rewards are too great from a financial standpoint and I think guys get caught up in being ultra-competitive and they do things that they wish they could’ve done a little bit different.”
An MRI on Friday revealed that Rangers outfielder Shin-Soo Choo’s strained right calf is “80 percent better,” he said (link via Dave Sessions of MLB.com). Choo is aiming to begin a rehab assignment sometime in the next two weeks and hopes to return to big league action by the third week of May. Choo has been out since April 8 because of the injury, and his departure from the lineup led to the promotion of Nomar Mazara. In Choo’s absence, the rookie phenom has batted .344/.403/.475 with two home runs in 72 plate appearances.
Athletics outfielder Sam Fuld will face a 12- to 15-month recovery period after he undergoes surgery on a torn rotator cuff, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache will perform the procedure on or before May 18, Fuld said Saturday. Fuld, 34, is now poised to miss all of this year and a sizable portion of the 2017 campaign. He’s scheduled to become a free agent during the offseason.

Chris Bassitt Has Partially Torn UCL, Could Require TJ Surgery

By charliewilmoth | April 30, 2016 at 2:15pm CDT

Athletics righty Chris Bassitt has a partially torn UCL and is getting a second opinion as to whether he’ll need Tommy John surgery, according to various reporters on Twitter, including the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser. Bassitt will meet with Dr. Timothy Kremchek in Cincinnati on Thursday. Regardless of the outcome, Bassitt doesn’t seem likely to return from the DL, where he was recently placed with an elbow strain, anytime soon.

Bassitt’s velocity has been inconsistent this season, notably dipping several miles per hour in a start against Toronto last week, and (via MLB.com’s Jane Lee) he has also recently complained about his struggles to throw good breaking pitches. “I can’t throw offspeed. I literally can’t throw offspeed,” he said after his last start. “My curveball was nothing, my slider was straight. My best pitch honestly out of every pitch I threw was my changeup.”

Bassitt has pitched 114 innings in parts of two seasons with the A’s since arriving from the White Sox in the Jeff Samardzija trade, with a 4.18 ERA, 6.9 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in that time frame while pitching both in the rotation and in relief. With Bassitt on the DL, the suddenly-jumbled Athletics rotation now includes Sonny Gray, Rich Hill, Kendall Graveman and the newly-promoted Sean Manaea and Jesse Hahn.

West Notes: Hahn, Bassitt, Gutierrez, McCullers

By Steve Adams and Jeff Todd | April 29, 2016 at 9:29pm CDT

After giving Sean Manaea his first start tonight, the Athletics will recall right-hander Jesse Hahn from Triple-A Nashville to start tomorrow’s game against the Astros, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The 26-year-old spent much of the 2015 season in Oakland’s rotation after coming over from the Padres in the Derek Norris trade, but his season was cut short by an injured right flexor tendon and a woeful Spring Training landed him in Triple-A. Hahn has recorded a 2.04 ERA in four starts with Nashville this season, though he hasn’t been as dominant as that mark might initially suggest. Hahn has lasted a total of 17 2/3 innings in those four outings with a 13-to-9 K/BB ratio.

Sam Fuld Will Miss Season After Rotator Cuff Surgery

By Jeff Todd | April 29, 2016 at 6:23pm CDT

Athletics outfielder Sam Fuld requires surgery on a torn rotator cuff, MLB.com’s Jane Lee reports on Twitter. He’ll undergo the procedure on May 18 and will not be ready to return during the 2016 season.

Fuld, a 34-year-old veteran of eight MLB campaigns, avoided arbitration with Oakland at a $1.93MM salary. He’ll continue to accrue service while he’s shelved, and will qualify for free agency after the season.

While he’s seen fairly consistent reserve action since 2011, Fuld has never been very productive with the bat. He owns a .227/.307/.325 career slash line over 1,535 plate appearances. He does add some value with his legs, with 67 career stolen bases and generally excellent baserunning metics. Most of all, Fuld has long been known as a quality defender, with advanced metrics placing strong ratings on his work in left and center.

Oakland would surely have preferred to have Fuld as a depth option, but doesn’t have a particulary strong need for him at present. Indeed, the team’s addition of Chris Coghlan — like Fuld, a left-handed hitter — seemed to occupy his most obvious place in the organization.

West Notes: Rockies, Garcia, Hill, Gray

By Steve Adams and Jeff Todd | April 28, 2016 at 9:38pm CDT

The Rockies have already burned through much of their rotation depth, Nick Groke and Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post write. Injuries, poor performance, and roster pressures have conspired to leave the club scrambling for arms despite seemingly entering the year with plenty of volume (to go with plenty of questions, of course). It remains to be seen whether former top prospect Eddie Butler will get a crack at a starting gig, as he’s slated for pen duty initially, but he’ll be one of several arms that the Rockies will need to contribute if the club is to stay in contention.

Here’s more from out west:

Dodgers right-hander Yimi Garcia still hasn’t picked up a baseball since landing on the disabled list with right biceps tendinitis this past weekend, tweets J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles News Group. While Garcia has yet to undergo an MRI, that’ll be the next step for him if he doesn’t improve in the relatively near future. The 25-year-old Garcia has a surrendered three runs through 8 1/3 innings this season, though he’s struck out just four batters after whiffing 68 men in 56 2/3 innings last season.
The Athletics have been rewarded handsomely thus far for their roll of the dice on veteran journeyman Rich Hill, and ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield believes that Oakland will continue to receive good work from the lefty. As Schoenfield explains, Hill has continued to show elite swing-and-miss numbers with his fastball, which he pairs with a frequently used curve. Indeed, Hill has picked up right where he left off last year: though his walks have crept up a bit, he is striking out 12.8 batters per nine and inducing grounders on more than half of the balls put in play against him, with metrics supporting his 2.42 ERA in 26 frames.
Meanwhile, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney wonders whether there could be a “perfect storm” that allows the Athletics to cash in on ace Sonny Gray. It’s looking like a seller’s market, both at the deadline and next winter, and Gray could stand out. It’s far from clear whether the A’s will have strong interest in striking a trade, of course, but it’s easy to imagine widespread demand. And as Olney notes, this summer could well prove a high-water mark for the righty’s value.

Reddick Not Aware Of Any Significant Extension Talks With A’s

By Steve Adams | April 28, 2016 at 1:06pm CDT

Athletics right fielder Josh Reddick tells MLB.com’s Jon Morosi that he’s not aware of any substantive extension talks that took place between his agents, Seth and Sam Levinson of ACES, and the team during Spring Training.

That doesn’t mean no talks took place at all, though, as Reddick told his agents that he himself didn’t want to be involved in the process unless a deal became close. “I’ve told [my agents], ’I don’t want to even get a phone call if we don’t think it’s the right deal for me,'” he said. “They understand that. They’re right on the same page with me. The A’s told me they still wanted me, and they want it to be at the right price, and that was obviously great to hear.” Reddick, though, is a free agent at season’s end, and the tight-budgeted A’s could very well have a hard time retaining him if he reaches the open market. Reddick was said to have placed an end-of-Spring-Training deadline on contract talks, though a report from late March indicated that talks could potentially continue into the season if they show “sufficient promise of completion.” That’s similar to the thinking we heard from Adrian Beltre’s camp, and Beltre indeed agreed to a new two-year deal following Opening Day (despite having set an end-of-spring deadline himself).

Interestingly, Morosi focuses in on the fact that Reddick is a longtime favorite of Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, and Reddick himself confirmed as much. “[Epstein] told me he would never trade me, either,” Reddick tells Morosi. “Then he left — and I got traded [to Oakland, in December 2011]. I think I was Ben Cherington’s first or second move after he took over.” Morosi notes that Epstein was the Sox’ GM when Reddick was drafted and adds that it’s conceivable that Chicago could seek a corner outfielder this summer on the trade market following Kyle Schwarber’s season-ending injury.

Of course, it should also be noted that it’s still rather early in the season, and the Athletics are sporting an 11-11 record in a tightly contested AL West. In order for a trade of Reddick to even be considered a plausible scenario, Oakland would have to fall behind in the standings by a fairly wide margin, as he’s an easy candidate to receive a qualifying offer following the year. Beyond that, the Cubs have Jorge Soler as an option to pick up the slack in Schwarber’s absence. While Soler is struggling at the moment, he’s also enjoying a career-best walk rate and a career-low strikeout rate; at least some portion of his struggles can be attributed to a .205 average on balls in play, though Soler’s line-drive and hard-contact rates are somewhat diminished this season. It’s certainly plausible that the former top prospect, still just 24 years of age, could turn things around at the plate in short order. Suffice it to say, quite a bit would need to transpire over the coming months for a trade scenario to play out.

The likelier scenario, as it stands, seems to me to be that Reddick rejects a qualifying offer and tests the open market in what will be a weak crop of free agents. He’ll play this season at age 29 and is off to a strong start, batting .282/.352/.474 with four homers (including the base hit he collected just minutes ago as I was writing this). With the exception of a down year in 2013, Reddick has been a decidedly above-average bat with the A’s, and he’s posted a cumulative .269/.328/.450 slash since the opening of the 2014 campaign. Those numbers, of course, are suppressed to some extent by the cavernous dimensions of O.Co Coliseum, and context-neutral stats like OPS+ and wRC+ feel that Reddick has been 16 to 18 percent better than the league average hitter. While he struggles against left-handed pitching, he’s a strong bat against righties with an excellent glove in right field, per Defensive Runs Saved (+51 for his career).

Those skills, combined with his age and the aforementioned thin crop of free agents landed Reddick sixth on the first installment of MLBTR’s 2017 free agent power rankings, with Tim Dierkes writing that Reddick could be a sneaky candidate for a $100MM contract. I’d agree with that assessment and may even be higher on his chances at that nine-figure threshold than Tim, assuming Reddick is able to approximate his 2015 production. Reddick is, in many regards, a similar player to Jason Heyward and Alex Gordon, though he’s three years older than Heyward and three years younger than Gordon. That skill set has proven to reward free agents handsomely, positioning Reddick for a hefty contract if he continues his recent success.

AL West Notes: McBride, Manaea, Zunino, Wilson, Heaney

By Steve Adams | April 27, 2016 at 8:26pm CDT

The Athletics have called up catcher/first baseman/outfielder Matt McBride in order to prevent the 30-year-old from signing with a club in Japan, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. McBride received an offer from the Yokohama DeNa BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball, Slusser reports, and his contract contains a clause that would’ve allowed him to opt out and pursue the deal. Rather than allow the versatile McBride to leave the organization, Oakland added him to its 25-man and 40-man roster (Felix Doubront was transferred to the 60-day DL). “I’m happy to be here,” McBride told Slusser following the promotion. “I knew it would be one or the other, and I think everyone wants to get the chance to play in the big leagues.” McBride does have some Major League experience, having spent parts of three seasons with the Rockies. In 158 plate appearances in the Majors, he’s batted .199/.228/.305. The A’s, then, will hope that his production can more closely resemble his lifetime .315/.351/.527 line at the Triple-A level (1418 PAs).

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