Oakland Athletics Interested in Trevor Plouffe

Finally, an Oakland Atheltics rumor that makes some sense! According to Ken Rosenthal, the A’s are among the teams that are interested in signing Trevor Plouffe this winter.

After coming in second place in the Edwin Encarnacion sweepstakes, and reportedly showing an interest in the market’s biggest remaining bat in Mark Trumbo, the Oakland Athletics are going back to their tried-and-true formula. While Trevor Plouffe is being pursued by at least a couple of teams–with the A’s and Red Sox being among them–Plouffe is the kind of player that Oakland has built a reputation for going after on the open market.

After an injury marred 2016 season that saw him play in 84 games with the Twins, Minnesota released the 30-year-old. Injuries and stock that is currently down are two things that the A’s love when looking at the free agent market. Plouffe has been slightly above average when healthy, and given that he accumulated a -0.4 fWAR in 2016, should be had at a reasonable cost.

If you prescribe to the theory that a one WAR player is worth roughly $8M, then the 2.4 fWAR that Plouffe managed in his last healthy season would have him due for a pretty nice payday. Obviously, even if he were coming off of a healthy season he wouldn’t be looking at a contract anywhere near $19.2M per year, which makes a potential deal for any club all the more enticing.

In his 84 games with Minnesota last year Plouffe hit .260 with a .303 OBP, 12 homers and 47 driven in. In sabermetric terms, he had a 91 wRC+, which is below average both compared to the league and to his previous performances. In 2014 and 2015 the corner infielder put up wRC+ totals of 111 and 101. Nothing terribly flashy, but for Oakland that would be an upgrade, and for the Red Sox, that would be a nice depth add in case someone like Pablo Sandoval struggles.

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Currently the Oakland Athletics have Ryon Healy slated to man third base and Yonder Alonso at first, although Healy could take over at first and limit Alonso’s role on the club if the A’s were to bring in a third baseman like Plouffe, or say Luis Valbuena.

Let’s say the A’s sign Plouffe and he and Alonso form a platoon at first. Alonso is a left-handed bat, while Plouffe bats from the right side. While the former Twin held a higher batting average (.266) against right-handers last season, both his OBP (.314 compared to .300) and wRC+ (105, 87) were both higher against southpaws.

Alonso on the other hand, as one may expect, had reverse splits. His average was thirty points higher against righties (.257), his OBP was nearly forty points higher (.321 to .284) and his wRC+ was much closer to league average (92 to 68). Adding Plouffe to this mix on the bargain contract he is likely to receive would be a solid move for the A’s to make if they hope to improve their offense for 2017.

To make this situation better, first base is the one defensive position that Plouffe has graded as at least average at. Of course playing in Oakland may change that, as Alonso went from a solid defensive first baseman, saving a combined 18 runs the previous two seasons, to allowing an extra three to score according to FanGraphs‘ DRS scores. Obviously these numbers aren’t going to be exact, but they do give us an idea of the challenge facing corner infielders with all of that foul territory.

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If the Oakland Athletics were to land Trevor Plouffe, he could make an enticing trade deadline target for competitive clubs. It’s likely that by the time the deadline comes around, Oakland will be ready to call up Matt Chapman to man third base and likely move Healy to first, leaving both Alonso and Plouffe without a spot to get regular playing time. Because of this, it may be unlikely that he signs with the A’s this winter, although he is certainly in their wheelhouse.

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