Oakland Athletics Look to Be Busy Again This Offseason
By Jason Burke
The Oakland Athletics have completed their worst season since the Billy Beane era began back in 1997, when the GM took over the spot that was previously held by Sandy Alderson, now GM of the Mets. Except Beane isn’t the GM if the A’s any more. No, he wasn’t fired as many Twitter GMs have suggested. Instead, he got a promotion to Executive VP of Baseball Operations with former Assistant GM David Forst taking over for Beane as GM.
With Farhan Zaidi leaving Oakland for the greener pastures in Los Angeles, the move allows the A’s to keep Forst before another one of their top minds is poached by the opposition. So first order on the docket for Forst? It could be to make some trades, of course!
As Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Sunday, the A’s may be facing some chemistry issues in their clubhouse. As one unnamed player put it to Slusser, “it’s awful.” With the team losing closer and clubhouse leader Sean Doolittle for much of the season, that certainly had to have an affect on the club’s morale. Losing veteran Ben Zobrist for a month couldn’t have helped matters much either.
So it looks like the Athletics may be busy this offseason, but not for the typical reasons. The first player that would jump into the minds of A’s fans would be Josh Reddick, who not only was vocal on social media about his displeasure over the rash of trades last offseason, but is also coming off of a good season with Oakland and is a free agent after the 2016 season. Instead, there is talk that the A’s would like to extend Reddick, so he is seemingly out of the “bad egg” category. See, there are already glaring differences between Beane and Forst.
That leaves us with players that were brought in over the offseason, and they would likely have to be a veteran player. That list includes Billy Butler, who signed a rich (by A’s standards) contract as a free agent, Ike Davis, who missed the final month and a half of the season, Jesse Hahn, who also missed time at the end of the season due to injury, Brett Lawrie, and Danny Valencia who was claimed off waivers mid-season.
Valencia has played for six different teams in his six-year career and was batting .296 with seven homers for a playoff contender in Toronto before he was designated for assignment. Something about that doesn’t add up, and it could be that he’s a clubhouse virus. With Oakland, Valencia hit .284 with a .356 on-base percentage, belting 11 long-balls and driving in 37 over 47 games. He was a stud for the A’s, but coming from a team that has now reached the playoffs to the sinking ship of a season that the Oakland Athletics were having probably didn’t sit well. Also, playing at O.Co Coliseum, widely regarded as one of the worst ballparks in baseball couldn’t have helped matters much.
That brings us to another candidate in Billy Butler. Having spent the entirety of his career with the Kansas City Royals, Butler was likely used to losing quite a bit, so nothing new there. Yet, after last season, and with the season that his former teammates were having without him, it had to sting a bit. Especially after the Royals just let him walk. Butler is owed $11.667 million each of the next two seasons while Valencia will be arbitration eligible.
Lawrie is another candidate, but where others see an aggravator, I see an intense competitor. He hustles, which is hard to look down upon, and when Oakland acquired Valencia to play third base, Lawrie slid over to man second, showing that he is in it for the team. I have a hard time believing that he’s one of the main culprits if he’s even in the discussion.
Let’s say it’s just Butler and Valencia. What does this have to do with the minor leagues? Well, with Butler’s contract and declining skill set, and Valencia possibly the source of many frustrations, if both players are moved it will likely be for a small return with Oakland not receiving full value (read: major league talent) in order to try and establish a better clubhouse.
Butler could only be traded to an American League club with the DH role suiting him best, which really limits the number of options the A’s have. The White Sox could be a possibility with Adam LaRoche taking the bulk of the playing time at DH this past season, batting a sub-Medoza .186 with 4 home runs and 21 RBI while DHing. Butler hit .251 with 15 homers and 65 RBI in 2015. The White Sox are also familiar with Butler after seeing him in the dugout of a divisional foe for so many seasons, and Butler is familiar with the rest of the division, where he has had a lot of success over his career. This potential deal could be a win-win.
Valencia on the other hand could be shipped anywhere, and while his defense isn’t outstanding, it is adequate, with his bat being his major asset. With the run of bad luck that Oakland has had in facing former players (which has to be most of the league by this point with all of the turnaround the club has), it’s likely that new GM Forst will try to ship Valencia to the National League.
Again, names have not been named, but this is my best guess as to whom in the A’s clubhouse was causing such a commotion. If Oakland does decide to trade whomever the culprits are, then their farm system, which has gotten a bit deeper after some mid-season swaps, could be adding some extra components.