Oakland Athletics: Breaking down the trade for Homer Bailey
By Justin Fried
The Oakland Athletics have acquired veteran starting pitcher Homer Bailey from the Kansas City Royals. Here is a brief analysis of the trade and what it means for the team.
The Oakland Athletics have decided to get in on the trade party a little early this year with their acquisition of Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Homer Bailey.
As first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the A’s will be sending minor-league infielder Kevin Merrell to the Royals in exchange for the veteran Bailey effective today. So far this season, Bailey is 7-6 with a 4.80 ERA through 18 starts with Kansas City.
After 12 seasons spent with the Cincinnati Reds, Bailey was shipped to the Los Angeles Dodgers in December of last year after four seasons of arm trouble and inconsistency. But at one point, Bailey was one of the better pitchers in the National League.
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Tommy John surgery, elbow surgery, and knee issues have all but wiped out the last few years of his career especially given his poor play. In fact, Bailey hasn’t posted an ERA of under 5.00 since the 2014 season.
But this year has been somewhat of a resurgence for the veteran Bailey.
While his 4.80 ERA may not look great on paper, he’s been surprisingly effective as of late. The 33-year-old has a much-improved 3.49 ERA over his last seven starts and has been playing his best baseball in years.
For the price it took to get him, it’s hard to argue with the logic.
Bailey is still in the final year of a massive six-year, $105 million contract that he signed with the Reds back in 2014. But after the Dodgers released him, Los Angeles has been on the hook for that money ever since.
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Passan reported that the A’s will be paying him just $250,000 for the remainder of the season which is quite the bargain given the state of the team’s rotation.
Following the suspension of Frankie Montas, the A’s starting rotation depth has looked rather bleak. Going into the season, the rotation was considered a major weakness but strong first halves from Montas on top of Mike Fiers, Brett Anderson, and Chris Bassitt kept the team competitive.
Still, following a setback to top prospect Jesus Luzardo and the uncertain return of Sean Manaea, the A’s needed to make an addition or two at the deadline. While Bailey isn’t the star-studded pickup that many are hoping for, it makes sense to give the team depth.
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And given the team’s inability to spend loads of money, this is a classic Oakland A’s move.
The A’s will need to make room on the 40-man roster once Bailey joins the team but it’s expected that he could slot right into the rotation for the time being. This could mean a full-time demotion for Paul Blackburn or Tanner Anderson who hasn’t exactly been lights out in his five starts this year.
As for the prospect that the A’s gave up, the aforementioned Merrell was ranked as the No. 17 prospect in the A’s farm system. A former first-round pick back in 2017, Merrell has plus speed but has failed to develop much at the plate during his time in the minors.
In 82 games with Double-A Midland this year, the 23-year-old was slashing .246/.292/.339 with two home runs and 34 RBI. However, his 3.7 K/BB ratio is concerning as has been his inability to get on base.
The Royals will certainly hope that Merrell could develop at the plate and parlay that into a successful career as a utility player, but that remains to be seen.
But for the A’s, the acquisition of Bailey gives the team some much-needed depth in their rotation while their young pitchers recover from injury.
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The festivities began early this year — let’s just hope that this is only a glimpse of what’s to come.