Oakland Athletics Rumors: A’s should swing a deal with Cubs, again
Shortstop is typically the position on a baseball diamond where the most balls are hit and thus attempts made to be fielded. So it would make sense that between fielding and throwing chances, shortstops typically lead the league in errors. Marcus Semien of the Oakland Athletics currently leads Major League Baseball with 28. Since 1940, the most errors by a shortstop in a single season was by Al Brancato in 1941 with the Philadelphia Athletics.
It would appear that some seven and a half decades later, the same A’s franchise has an eerily similar problem at shortstop.
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Brancato’s career did not last long, for a multitude of reasons. As a shortstop, he had a career fielding percentage of only .927. While his defense was lousy, he couldn’t really hit, either. Brancato was a career .214/.290/.290 hitter from the dish with four home runs and 80 RBI. He played in only 282 career games, but that was mostly because he traded in three years of MLB service time for military service during World War II. He played one additional year in his age 26 season before retiring from baseball after 1945.
Semien is no Brancato at the dish, but he’s not a big league shortstop. That is fairly evident. The Athletics picked Semien up in the Jeff Samardzija deal with the Chicago White Sox. It’s unfortunate, because the year before, the A’s traded away their top prospect, shortstop Addison Russell, to acquire Samardzija for half a season rental that amounted to nothing. Russell might be one of the best up and coming defensive shortstops in the game, but ironically, he is stuck playing second base for the Chicago Cubs right now.
Oakland was sure to acquire another shortstop during another offseason pact with the Blue Jays because Semien is not a shortstop by trade. In 85 games scattered with the White Sox from 2013-14, he played 50 at third base and 29 at second base. In four minor league campaigns, Semien had a .948 FPCT at shortstop across 250 games, a .957 FPCT in 77 games at second and a .984 FPCT in 40 games at third base.
The A’s grabbed SS Franklin Barreto from the Blue Jays when they traded away their best player, Josh Donaldson. Semien can’t play third because Oakland gained Brett Lawrie in that same Donaldson trade. It’s not so much a matter of finding a new home for Semien, it’s more of a task to find an MLB ready shortstop within the organization or elsewhere.
Eric Sogard and Ben Zobrist have held down second base for the Athletics in 2015. Zobrist could be gone by the trade deadline. If that happens, then the A’s should look to shifting Semien to second base and thus keep his bat in the lineup. He’s hitting .260 with eight home runs and 22 RBI moving towards the All-Star break. Sogard is hitting .250 with zero home runs. Should Zobrist get dealt, it means the A’s will not be contending for the remainder of the season.
Barreto is ranked the No. 2 prospect in Oakland’s organization. He’s only 19 and playing Single-A ball this year. Probably not ready for MLB service, Barreto needs more time to develop. So what’s the fix for the rest of 2015 and 2016 with Semien on pace to contend with Brancato for 61 errors at shortstop this season?
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The Athletics will likely be sellers, so acquiring a veteran shortstop in the final year of his contract as a stop gap could work if Billy Beane can swing a package deal. Free agency or waivers is another option. The Orioles released Everth Cabrera in the middle of June. He’s not the same hitter he was before his PED suspension, but he would probably help balance out the A’s middle infield. Cabrera is a career .967 fielder at shortstop and had a UZR of -5.0 in 2012 before being suspended. That, compared to Semien’s -6.4 UZR in 2015, is a reasonable upgrade.
Or, Oakland could acquire a shortstop with more than one year of club control left on his contract. It’s a shame Addison Russell is playing second base in Chicago. Perhaps the A’s could package Scott Kazmir and Zobrist to the Cubs for Starlin Castro or Javier Baez and additional prospects. Cubs rumors have them wanting to acquire a starting pitcher and left-handed outfield bat. Kazmir and Zobrist (a switch hitter) would fulfill both of those needs.
Whatever the remainder of 2015 brings for the Oakland Athletics, the club needs to set themselves up to have a quality shortstop in their lineup for 2016. Marcus Semien should simply be a stop gap. If he’s logging innings at the No. 6 position on the field in 2016, the the A’s will not be playing Moneyball.