Athletics/Orioles Trade Analysis: Jake Fox for Ross Wolf

The Oakland A’s made their second trade of June earlier this week, sending previously DFA’d utilityman Jake Fox to the Baltimore Orioles for minor league righty reliever Ross Wolf.

The move, in some ways, is the opposite of what the A’s did before, acquiring major league outfielder Conor Jackson for minor league reliever Sam Demel (who’s since been promoted to the majors). Jackson’s acquisition made Fox expendable, particularly with Coco Crisp returning from the DL and Landon Powell performing well offensively and defensively as Kurt Suzuki‘s backup at catcher. On the other hand, a recent string of injuries in the minor league pitching staff, along with the Demel trade, meant the A’s were a bit short-handed in the minor league relief corps.

(more after the jump)

The well-known player in the trade is obviously Fox, who was a decently-touted catcher in the Cubs system a few years back. He hit .313/.383/.574 in High-A in 2006, and hit 21 homers that year between that level and some time in Double-A.

The next year, however, Fox was moved to a first base/outfield corner role when the Cubs deemed him too poor at catching and too uncommitted to the position. Still, he hit 24 homers between Double-A and Triple-A, slugging over .500 at both stops, making him still somewhat relevant. Fox went 2-for-14 with two doubles in a September callup with the Cubs.

Fox returned to Triple-A Iowa to open 2008, but posted a 31/2 K/BB there in 29 games, a performance so horrid I wrote him off completely, although he hit .307/.397/.580 with 25 homers in Double-A the rest of the way after being demoted.

What Fox is probably best known for is putting up one of the most astonishing decent-sample lines you’ll ever see when he played for Iowa in 2009. In 45 games, he hit .409/.495/.841 with a whopping 17 homers.

Well, at that point, even I had to say he was worth a look. The Cubs moved Fox to third base in the minors and called him up when Aramis Ramirez was injured. Playing sporadically for Chicago, he hit .259/.311/.468 in 82 games, which isn’t too bad. He was then traded to Oakland for a decent package of minor leaguers after the 2009 season.

Fast-forward to today, and obviously, Fox’s stint with the A’s didn’t work as well as hoped. He hit just .214/.264/.327.

The A’s moved Fox back to catcher, and he broke camp with the team as Kurt Suzuki‘s backup, but it quickly became clear that Powell, who saw time with Oakland when Suzuki got hurt, was far better suited to handle catching than Fox, and he was a better hitter as well. The A’s then gave Fox a look as a left fielder against left-handed pitching, but he continued to be very poor defensively, and didn’t fit the role well as his career OPS against lefties is actually 73 points worse than how he’s fared versus righties (small samples aside).

So what is Jake Fox? He’s a guy who may or may not be able to hit in the majors, and may or may not be able to play the field in the majors.

Enter the Orioles, who have had such a black hole at first base that Fox’s question marks are better than guaranteed poor play. If you stick Fox out there at first every day, there’s a chance he’ll hit for enough power to be serviceable.

The huge issue in Fox’s offensive game is discipline. He’s chased a whopping 41 percent of pitches outside the zone against him in his career, and that’s simply not going to cut it unless you have Vladimir Guerrero contact skills, or, apparently, your name is Brennan Boesch. Fox combines Boesch’s lack of discipline with Mark Reynolds‘ propensity to swing and miss. One of those problems is workable, since Boesch and Reynolds are both solid players. Both issues? Nope. Especially not in the AL East, where great pitching is everywhere.

Still, Fox provides roster flexibility, at least superficially, and he’s hit before, so it makes sense for the Orioles to take a shot at him. It’s not like Ross Wolf is a huge price, and Fox’s .591 OPS with the A’s is actually higher than that of either Garrett Atkins (.574) or Rhyne Hughes (.530). Like Atkins this offseason, Fox has an outside chance of reverting to past form and providing an upgrade, but most likely won’t. The Orioles are really the only team desperate enough for Fox to be worthwhile on their roster, but there you go.

From Oakland’s perspective, it’s always good to get something (Wolf) for a guy who could’ve simply been claimed for no price, so in that sense, it’s victory.

And hey, Ross Wolf has some value. He had a 2.11 ERA in AAA Norfolk, which makes me wonder what the hell he wasn’t doing in Baltimore. Wolf’s a short righty with more velocity than his stature would suggest–he’s at 90-93 mph with good sink. He actually saw some time in the bigs with Florida in 2007, but allowed an uncharacteristic four homers in 12 1/3 innings. Small sample. His xFIP was 5.34, for what little it’s worth.

Wolf has a mediocre slider/change combo to go with the fastball.

I could see Wolf being a decent enough mop-up guy in the majors, or even a groundball specialist. He certainly is nice to have around as depth, although if he’s a major bullpen arm in the majors, your bullpen’s probably not turned out as hoped. Still, relief help can come from weird places sometimes.

Who “won” this deal? I think both teams do, because Baltimore picked up a player with some degree of upside at a position they need anyone with a pulse, and the A’s got more than nothing for a guy they just DFA’d.