Oakland Athletics: The Time to Sell Is Now
By Dan Fappiano
The Oakland Athletics have been a very successful team of late, making the playoffs every year since 2012. This season has been a totally different monster though, with the A’s playing some of their worst baseball in recent memory.
More from Oakland Athletics
- Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
- Oakland Athletics end perfect game, still lose Game 1 of Wild Card round
- Oakland Athletics: Jesus Luzardo will start Game 1 of Wild Card round
- Oakland Athletics clinch first AL West title since 2013
- Oakland Athletics: Can Jamb Lamb save the restructured infield?
The Athletics have been painfully bad in 2015. Through 39 games, the team is 13-26, sitting in last in the AL West, and has the worst record in Major League Baseball.
Athletic’s upper management will either need to find a way to salvage the season, or they must start trading away the veterans on the team in an effort to improve for the future.
General Manger Billy Beane is known to be one of the best GM’s in the league when it comes to turning nothing into a championship roster. But recently, his strange offseason transactions seem to be hurting the team more than helping it.
Beane traded away the team’s three best home run hitters in Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Donaldson, and Brandon Moss, bringing in Brett Lawrie, Ben Zobrist and Ike Davis to replace them. As well as trading Oakland’s power in the lineup, he also traded their power arms, trading Jeff Samardzija for a package revolving around Marcus Semien.
Live Feed
Nolan Writin'
Beane’s additions and subtractions have taken a toll on the team in 2015. Through 36 games in 2014, the A’s were 21-15 and sitting towards the top of the AL West. This season has been much different though, with the team already 9.5 games out of first place in the division.
This is the perfect time for Billy Beane to work his magic and sell the team’s blue chip players. The A’s have dug themselves a deep hole and unless a team wide resurgence is coming, Oakland will continue to rank toward the bottom of the league in most significant categories.
The team doesn’t have too many “untouchable” players, with only Sonny Gray and possibly Stephen Vogt, due to his recent breakout performances. That leaves the team with players like Coco Crisp, Josh Reddick and Scott Kazmir available for trade. None of these players would bring back a king’s ransom, but they are all feasible trade chips whose return would pay dividends for the future of the club.
The club must retool their farm system and get younger in preparation for the future.
The team sold most of its prospects last year at the deadline in an effort to make a run at the World Series. The A’s packaged top prospect Addison Russell and second overall prospect Billy McKinney for a package involving the aforementioned Samardzija. He went on to make sixteen starts for the A’s, compiling a 5-6 record and a 3.14 ERA. The A’s obviously did not win the World Series, and managed to squander the talent in their farm system in the process.
The A’s have only two prospects in MLB.com’s top 100, in first baseman Matt Olson and shortstop Franklin Barreto. Olson and Barreto rank 70th and 80th respectively on the list of 100.
While having two top 100 prospects is a feat on its own, neither of them are toward the top of the list. With as bad as the A’s have been playing, they need some frontline prospects who can turn the franchise around in a couple of years.
To put it in perspective, all four other teams in the AL West have at least one prospect in the top 30. The Astros own Carlos Correa(3) and Mark Appel(29), the Rangers have Joey Gallo(10), the Angels possess Andrew Heaney(24), and the Mariners own Alex Jackson(27).
These players will have an immediate impact for their team upon their respective call ups. The A’s do not have the type of prospect who will change the fortunes of the A’s upon his arrival to the MLB. This lack of young superstars shows Oakland’s need to retool a dry farm system.
More from Golden Gate Sports
- Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
- 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
- Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
- 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
- 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve
Looking at Beane’s career trades, he has been able to swap big name players for young budding stars.
Three examples of Beane’s magic would be:
1) Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney for Josh Reddick, Miles Head, Raul Alcantara.
2) Mark Mulder for Dan Haren, Kiko Calero, Daric Barton
3) Dan Haren and Connor Robertson for Carlos Gonzalez, Chris Carter, Aaron Cunningham, Dana Eveland, Greg Smith, Brett Anderson
The similarities with all of these deals is that Beane has been able to trade away his aging stars for young, blossoming prospects. Beane should be able to work that same magic to help obtain young, future stars again.
Looking at some players Beane could trade, three that come to mind would be Kazmir, Crisp, and Josh Reddick. Kazmir and Crisp fit the mold of the aging stars Beane likes to deal as they are 31 and 25 years old respectively. Kazmir made three All Star teams, and Crisp finishing 15th in the MVP voting in 2013. Both players have played with Oakland for an extended period of time, but their value could be maximized by moving them and acquiring valuable chips for the future.
As for Reddick, he doesn’t fit the mold of the aging star Beane is partial to dealing. Reddick is only 28 years old, and is still working towards his prime. He does fit the “star” mold, as he won a Gold Glove in 2012 as well as finished 16th in the MVP race.
While Reddick may still be young, he has suffered far too many injuries for him to be a vital piece for the A’s going forward. Reddick has been good when healthy, but he’s been injured far too often for that to make much of a difference. Beane could play up the fact that he is still young and has yet to reach his prime in an attempt to get quality prospects. It might be the only card he has to play.
The Oakland Athletics have two options for 2015. They must either turn their season around and start winning, or face the severe reality that it is time to sell the team and begin a rebuild.