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A’s Outright Three Players

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The A’s announced that right-hander Spenser Watkins and outfielders Conner Capel and Cody Thomas have gone unclaimed on waivers and were sent outright to Triple-A Las Vegas. None of them had previously been designated for assignment. All three are off the 40-man roster, which now sits at 37.

Oakland claimed Watkins off waivers from the Astros a few weeks ago. He made one start, allowing five runs in 4 1/3 innings in a loss in St. Louis. It was the 31-year-old’s third straight season logging some major league action. Watkins started 30 of 39 appearances with the Orioles in 2021-22. In 164 1/3 career MLB frames, he carries a 5.97 ERA with a well below-average 13.9% strikeout rate.

Watkins isn’t overpowering, but he has typically shown above-average control. He has walked fewer than 7% of opposing hitters in his MLB career. His command has been uncharacteristically wobbly in Triple-A this year, however. Watkins has handed out free passes at an elevated 12.8% clip through 54 1/3 frames between three organizations.

Capel, 26, was claimed off waivers from St. Louis last September. He raked in 13 games for the A’s down the stretch and had held his spot on the 40-man until this week. Capel has bounced on and off the MLB roster this year, playing in 32 big league games. He has reached based at a quality .372 clip in his 86 plate appearances but hasn’t made much of a power impact.

The left-handed hitter has spent the bulk of the year in Las Vegas, picking up 315 trips to the dish in 72 contests. He’s hitting .269/.362/.444 with nine homers and 15 stolen bases in 18 attempts. That’s solid but unexceptional offense in one of affiliated ball’s most hitter-friendly settings.

Thomas has played in 29 games for the A’s over the past two seasons. The former Dodger draftee has hit .250/.308/.333 in that limited look. Thomas has had a good year in Triple-A, connecting on 19 homers with a .298/.357/.553 slash over 389 plate appearances.

It’s the second career outfights for Watkins and Thomas, giving each the right to test free agency. Capel doesn’t have a previous outright or sufficient service time to decline the assignment. He’ll stick in Vegas for the stretch run but would qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season if the A’s don’t add him back to the 40-man roster.

Paul Blackburn, Now Featuring Strikeouts

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The majority of the Athletics’ fire sale has been concluded, with trades of everyone from stars like Matt Olson to little-known relievers such as Sam Moll (flipped to the Reds at this year’s deadline). The most interesting player remaining on the roster might’ve already been moved were it not for some health troubles.

Right-hander Paul Blackburn enjoyed something of a breakout with Oakland last year, pitching to a 2.90 ERA and 3.48 FIP through his first 16 starts and 87 innings. It was a largely out-of-the-blue emergence for a pitcher who’d just a year prior been placed on outright waivers and passed over by every team in Major League Baseball. Blackburn’s 18.8% strikeout rate wasn’t going to wow anyone, but he coupled it with strong command (6.2% walk rate) and a heart 48.7% grounder rate.

Clubs might’ve generally looked at him and seen a fourth starter’s ceiling, but Blackburn was earning scarcely more than the league minimum and came with three more years of club control beyond the 2022 season. Given the perennial demand for controllable starting pitching, there’d surely have been interest.

The injury bug had other plans, however. Blackburn was trounced for six runs by the Astros on July 8, and over his next four appearances he served up another 19 runs. The stretch of 24 1/3 innings with 25 runs allowed sent his ERA careening to 4.28, and shortly after the trade deadline, Blackburn was placed on the injured list. It was eventually revealed that he’d been attempting to pitch through a torn tendon in the middle finger of his pitching hand. He didn’t require surgery, but he didn’t make it back to the mound in 2022.

The A’s likely received at least some trade interest in Blackburn over the winter, but any offers for him were surely diluted by the injury-shortened season and uncertainty about the small sample size of his breakout. They opted to hold onto the right-hander heading into the 2023 season, only for further health troubles to arise. Blackburn tore the fingernail on his right middle finger late in spring training and then had multiple setbacks while waiting for that to heal, including blisters on his pitching hand.

Though the injuries were minor in nature, they kept Blackburn from taking the mound for more than a month to begin the season. Upon returning, the results weren’t sharp — 5.48 ERA through his first eight trips to the mound — but there was a noticeable change in his arsenal that led to promise of not just a turnaround but an improvement over his 2022 performance.

After throwing sliders just 4.5% of the time in 2022, Blackburn is now throwing the pitch at about four times that level. He entered the 2023 season with a career 15.5% strikeout rate but has punched out 23.1% of his opponents this season. His career 8% swinging-strike rate has jumped two percentage points, and his 29.3% opponents’ chase rate has spiked to 34.3% as well. Though Blackburn still has below-average life on his heater, this year’s 91.9 mph average is a career-high mark.

While Blackburn’s first eight starts produced that ugly 5.48 ERA, he was also plagued by a sky-high .374 batting average on balls in play and an abnormally low 67.3% strand rate during that time. Things have trended in the other direction recently. Over his past seven starts, Blackburn touts a 2.79 ERA. He’s still been unlucky on balls in play (.345 BABIP), but his strand rate has climbed back upward and now sits right in line with his 2021-22 levels. Overall, Blackburn has a 4.15 ERA but a 3.44 FIP. He’s getting fewer grounders (40.9%) because he’s throwing fewer sinkers, but that rate paired with Blackburn’s 23.1% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate have the look of a legitimate mid-rotation starter. His strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates are all roughly in line with names like Jose Berrios, Jordan Montgomery and Tanner Bibee.

As with any Oakland pitcher, it’s perhaps tempting to assume that a spacious home park is a primary factor to Blackburn’s success. He does, after all, have a 3.77 ERA in Oakland this year compared to a 4.54 mark on the road. But that’s largely a function of a .406 BABIP away from his home environs; Blackburn isn’t giving up gobs of home runs once he leaves his cavernous home setting and pitches in more neutral or hitter-friendly stadiums. He’s actually been more homer-prone at home — both this year and especially last year — than on the road.

Blackburn isn’t the same pitcher he was in 2022, but both versions were serviceable. On the whole, he has a 4.22 ERA in his past 196 innings at the big league level, with better fielding-independent marks — particularly in 2023, as he’s adopted a more slider-heavy approach that’s helped him induce more chases, miss more bats and limit hard contact at an elite level. Blackburn’s 86.8 mph average opponents’ exit velocity is in the 88th percentile of MLB pitchers. His paltry 4.7% barrel rate and 31.2% hard-hit rate rank in the 90th and 92nd percentiles, respectively.

Heading into the offseason, the A’s will have two years of control over Blackburn remaining. He’ll be due a raise on his already modest $1.9MM salary, and the injury that sidelined him into May will tamp down his raise a bit and somewhat limit his earning power. He has the look of an affordable third or fourth starter who can be controlled for another couple seasons. A league-average strikeout rate, above-average command, below-average velocity and plenty of weak contact may not be the sexiest of profiles — but it’s undeniably valuable.

The A’s don’t have much left from their big league roster to peddle in the offseason, and it’s unfortunate for them that Blackburn’s peak trade value could coincide with a deep and talented crop of free-agent starting pitchers this winter. But teams that don’t want to meet those exorbitant open-market prices and are eyeing starters who they can control beyond the 2024 campaign will surely ask Oakland GM David Forst about Blackburn’s availability. This year’s gains in strikeouts and continued strong command likely make him a more appealing arm than he has been in the past.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Oakland Mayor Reluctant To Extend A's Lease

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The Athletics are all but certain to move out of Oakland in favor of Las Vegas upon their lease’s expiration at the end of the 2024 campaign. That being said, the club’s new stadium in Las Vegas isn’t expected to be ready until 2028 at the earliest, creating questions regarding where the A’s will play in the interim. Some possible solutions that have been discussed would see the A’s look to split time in Oracle Park with the Giants or Las Vegas Ballpark with the Aviators, the organization’s Triple-A affiliate.

Perhaps the most frequently discussed option at the club’s disposal would be simply remaining in the Coliseum on an extended lease while the club’s new ballpark in Las Vegas is built, but Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle indicates that Oakland’s mayor, Sheng Thao, would not extend the club’s lease in Oakland easily. Ostler relays that Thao’s chief of staff Leigh Hanson indicated the city’s demands could include the A’s leaving the “Athletics” name in Oakland when they depart for Vegas or a guarantee of a new team when MLB eventually expands beyond 30 teams.

It seems unlikely that the A’s would be willing to give up the “Athletics” name nor that MLB would offer Oakland an expansion team in exchange for three additional years on the club’s lease in Oakland. Given those hefty demands, it seems that the A’s will have to look elsewhere as they search for an interim home while their future ballpark in Las Vegas is built. The A’s have officially filed with MLB for relocation, with their interim home ballpark remaining as perhaps the single biggest question mark regarding the relocation plan. Any interim home ballpark would have to receive the approval of not only the league, but also the MLBPA.

Athletics Could Share Oracle Park With Giants Prior To Las Vegas Move

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The Athletics’ move to Las Vegas isn’t official but there’s little doubt at this point that it will eventually come to fruition. One complicating detail is where the club will play from 2025 to 2027, since their lease at the Oakland Coliseum expires after 2024 and their new Vegas ballpark isn’t expected to be ready until 2028. In a recent conversation with Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, club president Dave Kaval mentioned that splitting Oracle Park with the Giants is one option, a possibility that John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle explored at greater length.

At this point, it’s not clear if such a plan is likely or even realistic, but it’s noteworthy that it is a path being considered. Some of the other options include staying in the Coliseum or playing out of Las Vegas Ballpark in the Summerlin South region of Las Vegas, the home of the Las Vegas Aviators, the Triple-A affiliate of the A’s.

“It really comes down to the league and the (players) union and their decision to what makes the most sense,” Kaval said to Akers. “We’re kind of deferring to them on that. We’re providing all the necessary information that they need. But in the end, we’re going to take direction from the league in the interim.”

Despite that deflection, there are reasons why the A’s might want to play their home games in San Francisco for a few years. As Shea points out, the A’s would continue to receive payouts from their regional sports network contract as long as they remain in the Bay Area. Their 25-year deal with NBC Sports California runs through 2033 and has an annual value close to $60MM. Moving the club out of the region, such as to the Aviators’ home ballpark, would mean leaving that money on the table.

Whether the Giants would be open to such an arrangement is another matter. Shea’s report indicates that the club wouldn’t be willing to have the A’s play more than 30-40 of their 81 home games at the facility, since taking on more than that would interfere with bookings for concerts, meetings, receptions and other activities when the Giants are on the road. There’s also the complication of adding a third clubhouse, as Shea reports the baseball operations staff wouldn’t want to constantly swap out all of the Giants’ gear for Athletics’ gear in the home clubhouse. But those complications aside, it would be a chance for the Giants to generate some extra revenue for a few years by charging the A’s rent. Shea adds that the Giants likely wouldn’t be keen on having Athletics’ tickets be cheaper than Giants’ games and thus undercut themselves on the market, meaning the pricing would have to be similar.

But the other options also have drawbacks. Staying in the Coliseum is complicated by the fact that the relationship between the A’s and Oakland has clearly become frosty in the wake of recent events. Moving to the Triple-A ballpark in Nevada also has complications, beyond losing the TV money. The ballpark has a capacity of just 10,000, limiting gate revenues, and doesn’t have a roof to help deal with the extreme heat of the summer.

Shea floats the possibility of playing in Summerlin to start the season before moving to San Francisco for the warmer months. That would allow them to tick all the boxes of sticking in the Bay Area and collecting the TV money, avoiding the peak Nevada heat and allowing the Giants to still rent out the venue for non-baseball events. However, that solution seems speculative and there’s nothing to indicate that’s a feasible option at the moment.

Earlier this week, owner John Fisher told Akers that the club has officially filed for relocation with MLB. They need 75% of ownership groups to sign off on the move, a vote that has not yet been scheduled, but it’s largely seen as a rubber stamp at this point. The club’s interim home is a significant unknown in the process, with the temporary relocation to San Francisco an intriguing possibility.

A’s Owner: “I Have Not Considered Selling The Team”

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Athletics owner John Fisher has become the subject of increasing levels of ire from a fanbase that has engineered “reverse boycotts” this season and initiated “sell the team” chants at parks throughout the league when the A’s are playing on the road. The vitriol is understandable from a group of fans that is none too pleased with the manner in which the team’s ostensible exit from Oakland has been ushered in, but Fisher unsurprisingly told Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal yesterday that those cries have largely fallen on deaf ears.

“I have not considered selling the team,” says Fisher, noting that he and partner Lew Wolff have owned the club since 2005. “… Our goal since then has been to find a new home and build a new home for our team.”

Fisher praised the “great success stories” of new ballparks elsewhere in the league, pointing specifically to Baltimore’s Camden Yards and Atlanta’s Truist Park. He demurred when asked whether the $380MM in public funding to which the state of Nevada and Clark County have committed would meaningfully impact player payroll, instead touting how much his own family plans to invest in the stadium.

Without delving into specifics, Fisher told Akers he “(expects) that our revenues will be considerably higher in our new ballpark than they have been to date, and that that will enable us to have a higher payroll.” Later in the interview, he claimed that the A’s expect an operating loss of $40MM this season and asserted the organization lost around $175MM during the 2020 pandemic season.

Fisher’s claim of the organization’s dire financial circumstances come at a time when the A’s have slashed spending and trotted out one of the worst rosters in recent history. The A’s are on pace for a 47-115 season that’d match the ’19 Orioles for the second-worst record of the past two decades.

The club is less than three years removed from a trio of consecutive playoff appearances, headlined by back-to-back 97-win rosters in 2018-19. Those teams were dismantled via a series of trades as the A’s sliced player payroll from a franchise-record $92MM range in 2019 to just under $57MM this season, as tabulated by Cot’s Baseball Contracts. As the quality of the on-field product has dropped and the franchise has explored relocation, the fanbase has increasingly stayed away. ESPN calculates the A’s average home attendance in 2023 at a little under 10,500 fans. That’s easily the lowest in the majors and just over half the approximate 20,500 average from 2019 — the last time the A’s had a playoff team in a season with fan attendance.

Fisher told Akers that the new stadium should allow the A’s to “keep our young talent around, as opposed to sadly seeing them go to other teams.” The A’s, of course, have regularly traded players to other clubs as their young talent reaches arbitration, often lamenting that the team’s market size, stadium and television contract don’t allow them to retain core players. The open question, naturally, is one of how strongly the A’s have tried to retain said talent. Oakland hasn’t brokered an extension with a pre-arbitration player in nearly a decade. Sean Doolitte’s four-year, $10MM contract was the last extension of its kind.

The A’s reportedly put forth an offer to Matt Chapman at one point, and perhaps they’ve made other attempts in the nine years since Doolittle signed his contract. But it’s difficult to imagine they’ve been as aggressive in trying to lock up homegrown talent as other small-market organizations like the Rays, Guardians, Brewers and Pirates have. The A’s have had dozens of high-quality players graduate from their farm over the years, and the lack of subsequent contract extensions is patently bizarre — particularly for an owner that laments his ability to retain stars and inability to field a competitive payroll; most early career extensions are signed at well below-market values. Perhaps the A’s don’t want to risk being locked into a long-term deal, but the potential “burden” of being bogged down by a pre-arb extension doesn’t seem any more glaring than signing an oft-injured Trevor Rosenthal to a one-year, $11MM pact a couple years back.

Rosenthal aside, the franchise has generally done little on the free agent market. The organization’s largest contract — a $66MM extension for Eric Chavez — predated the Fisher/Wolff ownership group. A $36MM guarantee for Yoenis Cespedes shortly after he defected from Cuba stands as their largest contract of the last 18 years. Among traditional MLB free agents, Billy Butler ($30MM), Ryan Madson ($22MM) and Scott Kazmir ($22MM) are the only players to whom they’ve given a contract exceeding $20MM.

As for the relocation process itself, Fisher told Akers that the A’s have officially submitted their application to MLB. They’ll need approval of 75% of ownership groups to sign off on the move to Vegas. That’s widely expected to be granted. Fisher indicated to Tim Keown of ESPN this evening that the vote has not yet been scheduled.

The A’s lease at the Coliseum runs through the 2024 campaign. The new stadium in Las Vegas isn’t expected to be ready before ’28, leaving the franchise with some uncertainty about their home in the intervening three seasons.

Athletics Select Sean Newcomb

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The A’s have selected the contract of left-hander Sean Newcomb, the team announced. Fellow lefty Hogan Harris was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas in his place, while left-hander Richard Lovelady was moved from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Oakland just acquired Newcomb from the Giants yesterday in a trade sending minor league outfielder Trenton Brooks back to San Francisco.

[Related: How to acquire players after the trade deadline]

As noted at the time of the trade yesterday, it seemed quite likely Newcomb would be in line for a look at the big league level with the A’s sooner than later. He’d be a free agent at season’s end if not added to the 40-man roster, so there was little sense in making a trade to acquire him if the plan wasn’t to see if he could contribute for them. He has 4.073 years of big league service, so he won’t have enough time remaining this season to get to five years. As such, if Newcomb can pitch well enough to hold a 40-man spot, the A’s would control him for an additional two seasons beyond the current year.

The 30-year-old Newcomb has pitched to a 3.16 ERA and fanned 30.5% of his opponents through 31 1/3 Triple-A frames this season, though his longstanding command issues have persisted as well (15.3% walk rate). Traditionally more of a fly-ball pitcher, Newcomb is sporting a huge 59.4% ground-ball rate in Triple-A this season.

In 406 big league innings, Newcomb has a 4.52 ERA, though he’s now nearly five years removed from the majority of his MLB success. The headline prospect acquired by the Braves in the trade that sent Andrelton Simmons to Anaheim, Newcomb posted a combined 3.87 ERA and 23% strikeout rate in his first 332 1/3 Major League innings. He looked to have cemented his status on the Braves’ pitching staff at that point, but Newcomb was blasted for 17 runs in 13 2/3 innings over four starts in the shortened 2020 season and has yet to recover. Dating back to 2020, he has a 7.45 ERA in 73 2/3 frames at the big league level.

The A’s, on the lookout for pitching help they can control beyond the current season, will see whether Newcomb’s new ground-ball approach can lead to better results in the big leagues. He’ll still need to improve his command, but Newcomb’s blend of missed bats and grounders is at least somewhat intriguing.

A’s Acquire Sean Newcomb From Giants

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The Athletics have acquired veteran left-hander Sean Newcomb from the Giants in exchange for minor league outfielder Trenton Brooks, per the teams’ transaction logs at MLB.com. It’s a rare post-deadline trade that sees a player going each way (as opposed to the more common cash trades in August) and an even rarer trade between the two Bay Area clubs. Both Newcomb and Brooks were eligible to be traded by virtue of the fact that they have not appeared on a 40-man roster or Major League injured list in 2023.

[Related: How to Acquire Players After the Trade Deadline]

Newcomb, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Giants over the winter and has primarily worked out of the bullpen in their system, pitching to a 3.16 ERA in 31 1/3 innings with Triple-A Sacramento. The command issues that have long plagued Newcomb persist (15.3% walk rate in Triple-A), but he’s fanned an impressive 30.5% of his opponents and has clearly changed up his repertoire a bit, based on a career-high 59.4% ground-ball rate. The left-hander posted a combined 35.2% grounder rate in 73 2/3 innings from 2020-22 — his most recent MLB work.

Early in his career, Newcomb looked like a budding mainstay on the Braves’ roster. Acquired from the Angels in the trade that sent Andrelton Simmons to Anaheim, Newcomb posted a 3.87 ERA and 23% strikeout rate through his first 332 1/3 big league innings — splitting his appearances roughly evenly between the rotation (2017-18) and bullpen (2019).

The 2020 season was a disaster for the former first-round pick, however, as he was tagged for 17 earned runs in just 13 2/3 innings spread across four starts. Newcomb walked 18% of his opponents the following year while pitching 32 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, and he yielded 27 runs in 27 2/3 innings between the Braves and Cubs last year.

Overall, Newcomb has a 4.52 ERA in 406 big league innings, but the vast majority of that success came upwards of five years ago at this point. He can be a free agent at season’s end if he’s not added to the big league roster, so it stands to reason that the A’s wouldn’t have given up a minor league player if he weren’t going to be selected to the Majors sometime soon. In the event that Newcomb can reestablish himself as a viable big league arm — presumably out of the bullpen, given his ’23 usage — the A’s would be able to control him through the end of the 2025 season via arbitration.

Brooks, 28, is in his first season with Oakland after spending the prior seven season in Cleveland’s system. The former 17th-round pick signed a minor league deal with the A’s after reaching minor league free agency, and he’s turned in a stout .299/.405/.529 output (125 wRC+) in 412 plate appearances in Triple-A this year. He’s turned in career-best marks in home runs (16) doubles (29) and stolen bases (five) — all while walking at a career-high (in a full season) 13.8% mark against just a 14.6% strikeout rate.

Defensively, Brooks has rotated between first base (816 innings), left field (1460 innings) and right field (1469 innings) throughout his professional career. He’s played all three spots in 2023, though this year’s usage skews more toward left field. He’ll give the Giants a left-handed-hitting corner option at a time when outfield options Mike Yastrzemski, AJ Pollock, Mitch Haniger and Mark Mathias are all on the injured list.

A’s Select Spencer Patton, Option Tyler Soderstrom

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The Athletics announced a handful of roster moves before this evening’s matchup with the Royals. Oakland selected reliever Spencer Patton onto the MLB roster. Starter Luis Medina landed on the 15-day injured list with a blister on the index finger of his throwing hand. The A’s also reinstated first baseman Ryan Noda from the 10-day IL while optioning rookie catcher/first baseman Tyler Soderstrom to Triple-A Las Vegas. To create space for Patton on the 40-man roster, righty James Kaprielian was transferred from the 15-day to the 60-day IL after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery.

Patton returns to the big leagues a little over three months since being outrighted off the roster. The 35-year-old hurler signed a minor league pact with Oakland in April. He was called up a few weeks later and pitched four times, allowing four runs in 5 1/3 innings of work. Patton returned to Las Vegas after clearing waivers and has had an alright showing there in an extremely hitter-friendly setting.

Over 40 outings, he owns a 4.68 ERA through 42 1/3 frames. He has struck out an above-average 24.3% of opposing hitters against a slightly elevated 10.1% walk rate. Including his early-season stint in the Bay Area, Patton has appeared in parts of six big league campaigns for a trio of teams. He has a 5.19 ERA in 109 1/3 MLB innings. Patton is out of minor league options, so the A’s will have to keep him in the big league bullpen or again put him on waivers.

Medina, acquired from the Yankees in the Frankie Montas trade, has had a tough debut campaign. The 24-year-old has started 13 of 18 appearances this year, allowing a 5.44 ERA through 86 frames. His 21.5% strikeout rate and 43.8% grounder percentage aren’t far off the big league averages, but he’s walking 11% of opponents. He’s looking to stake a claim to a rotation spot going into next season but will need at least two weeks off because of the blister issue.

Noda, yet another first-year player, has been one of the A’s best players this year. Selected out of the Dodgers’ system with the second pick in last winter’s Rule 5 draft, he’s reaching base at an excellent .375 clip through his first 90 games. Noda has been very prone to strikeouts, but he has collected 11 homers and is walking in nearly 18% of his plate appearances. He missed around a month with a fractured jaw.

His return pushes Soderstrom off the big league roster. The former first-round pick has been regarded as one of the better offensive talents in the minor leagues. He secured his first big league call during the All-Star Break and has gotten into 27 games. Soderstrom didn’t find initial success, however, mustering only a .165/.237/.247 line while striking out 29 times over 93 trips to the dish. He’s still just 21 years old, so it’s hardly surprising he didn’t hit the ground running at the MLB level. He’ll return to Las Vegas, where he’d hit .254/.303/.536 over 304 plate appearances.

The demotion isn’t likely to have an effect on Soderstrom’s time to arbitration or free agency. He wouldn’t have gotten a full service year in 2023 and was unlikely to accrue enough service time to have a path to Super Two eligibility. However, it could have an impact on his rookie status heading into 2024. Position players retain rookie eligibility if they’ve tallied fewer than 130 at-bats and spent 45 or fewer days on an MLB active roster.

Soderstrom has spent 38 days in the big leagues. If he spends the rest of the year in Las Vegas, he’d remain a rookie heading into next offseason. Assuming he’s still regarded by prospect evaluators as a top 100 caliber talent, which seems likely, the Prospect Promotion Incentive could come into play next spring. Teams that carry a top prospect on the MLB roster for a full service year can receive a draft choice if that player wins Rookie of the Year or finishes top three in MVP voting during their pre-arbitration seasons. There’s been a slew of top prospect promotions over the past few days; Masyn Winn, Noelvi Marté and Kyle Harrison have all gotten their first call once things got deep enough into the summer that they couldn’t exhaust their rookie eligibility this year.

Paradoxically, the promotion incentive could work against Soderstrom getting another MLB look later in the season. That’s not to say it’s the sole or even primary motivation for the A’s sending him down — he has unquestionably struggled in his first five weeks at the MLB level, and Noda’s return would cut into the first base/DH reps available — but could be a factor down the stretch.

Dick Tomanek Passes Away

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The Guardians announced that former big league left-hander Dick Tomanek recently passed away. He was 92 years old. They also announced the passing of Alex Cole, who you can read about here.

Tomanek was born in 1931 in Avon Lake, Ohio, a city about 17 miles west of Cleveland. He joined his local club and made his major league debut with the Indians in 1953, tossing a complete game in his only appearance that year, allowing two earned runs. Despite that strong debut, he made just one appearance in the 1954 season and missed the next two campaigns entirely.

He was able to carve out a larger role starting in 1957, working primarily as a reliever. He tossed 69 2/3 innings over 34 games, posting a 5.68 ERA in that time. The year after, he logged 130 innings over 54 outings, registering a 4.50 ERA. Midway through the season, he was traded to the Kansas City Athletics alongside Roger Maris and Preston Ward, with Woodie Held and Vic Power going the other way. Tomanek made another 16 appearances in 1959, which ultimately proved to be his final big league season.

Over parts of five big league seasons, he got into 106 major league games and tossed 231 innings with a 4.95 ERA. He threw four complete games, recorded seven saves and struck out 166 batters.  We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.

Athletics’ JJ Bleday Diagnosed With ACL Sprain

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The A’s placed outfielder JJ Bleday on the 10-day injured list with a left knee sprain last night, and manager Mark Kotsay further specified to reporters that an MRI revealed a sprain in Bleday’s anterior cruciate ligament (Twitter link via Martin Gallegos of MLB.com). A return this season is not certain.

On the one hand, the fact that Bleday isn’t headed straight for surgery, as is common with ACL injuries, is a relative silver lining. Any sprain involves some degree of stretching and/or tearing in the ligament, by definition. In that sense, it’s perhaps fortunate that Bleday escaped a more dire injury. On the other hand, even a lower-grade sprain that can be treated without resorting to surgery is still an injury of note, as evidenced by the team’s uncertainty about a return in the next six-plus weeks.

Bleday, 25, was the fourth overall pick in the 2019 draft, going to the Marlins after a strong college career at Vanderbilt. The A’s acquired him in an offseason swap of former top-10 picks that had yet to fully live up to their draft and prospect pedigree, sending lefty A.J. Puk to Miami in return. Bleday came to Oakland with six full years of team control remaining, whereas Puk already had two years of MLB service and was on the cusp of reaching arbitration.

A consensus top-10 talent in that year’s draft class — ranking within the top five on multiple pre-draft rankings — Bleday demolished NCAA pitching with a .347/.465/.701 batting line and 27 home runs in 347 plate appearances during his final season with the Commodores. Outside of a 2021 stint in the Arizona Fall League, however, he’d never come close to that type of production in the professional ranks. Bleday hit .257/.311/.379 in High-A following the draft, didn’t play in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season, and posted a .212/.323/.373 slash in Double-A back in 2021.

Bleday began drawing walks at a massive 16.3% clip and showing off his plus raw power with Miami’s Triple-A affiliate in 2022, but he did so while hitting .228 with a concerning 27% strikeout rate. Last season’s big league debut saw him post just a .167/.277/.309 slash, and the Marlins flipped him to Oakland in hopes of strengthening their bullpen.

Bleday’s first season with the A’s has been a bit more encouraging than his rocky debut with the Fish. This year’s .316/.429/.643 line in 119 Triple-A plate appearances is easily his best minor league production to date, and he more importantly dropped his Triple-A strikeout rate from 27% all the way down to 12.6%. The improved approach carried over to the Majors, to an extent. Bleday lopped five percentage points off his big league strikeout rate (23.2%) while narrowly improving his walk rate from 12.6% to 13.4%. He also upped his power output, his average exit velocity and his hard-hit rate. That said, his .203/.313/.373 slash still falls well shy of what the A’s had hoped to acquire when trading for him.

Even though he hasn’t exactly established himself as a clear big leaguer yet, Bleday should have ample opportunity to do so in 2024. Oakland already parted ways with Ramon Laureano, designating him for assignment and watching Cleveland claim him on waivers. Tony Kemp has logged the most time of any A’s player in left field this year, but he’ll be a free agent at season’s end. Seth Brown has seen plenty of action between both outfield corners, but he’ll be a trade or non-tender candidate in the offseason after an ugly first half — he’s hitting well since the All-Star break — and with an arbitration raise looming. Brent Rooker has faded since his hot start to the season (.200/.272/349 since mid-May) and has spent more time at DH than in the outfield corners this year anyhow.

Given Bleday’s Triple-A performance this season and the improvements in his approach at the plate and power production, it stands to reason that he’ll be in the mix for a corner outfield job next spring. He’ll also have two minor league option years remaining beyond the current campaign, so the A’s can easily get him more work in Triple-A if he doesn’t grab a starting job out of the gate next year.

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