Oakland Athletics Face an Interesting Decision This Deadline

By Jason Burke |

Jul 19, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics right fielder Josh Reddick (22) center celebrates his walk off 10th inning base hit that scored shortstop Marcus Semien (not pictured) to defeat the Houston Astros 4-3 at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports

Since about the second game of the season teams have been licking their chops while examining the Oakland Athletics roster, just waiting for the August 1 trade deadline. Yet, not everything has gone according to plan.

For weeks (months, years?) Rich Hill has been the prized pitching target on the trade block, sample size be damned. That sample includes a 2.25 ERA this season, a strikeout rate of 10.7 per nine, and the fact that he’s a lefty certainly isn’t hurting his cause. The problem in recent weeks have been questions about his health. On Sunday, Hill was removed after just five pitches after a blister popped. He’s also spent weeks on the disabled list, making (technically) three starts since the end of May. That ERA, if he had the innings to qualify, would rank third in baseball behind fellow left-handers Clayton Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner, while his strikeout rate would rank 6th.

The intrigue comes in with the offers the A’s are getting for Hill. If teams are trying to low-ball Oakland, given his recent string of bad luck, they don’t necessarily have to ship him away if they aren’t seeing the return they are looking for. I mean, they really, really should, but they don’t have to. Instead, they could extend a qualifying offer his way, which would result in a one-year, $16M+ deal for 2017 with Oakland if he took it. Or, he could reject the offer, and the A’s would land a draft pick in June of 2017 from the team that signs him. Hill accepting the offer wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility, however, as the southpaw is 36 could take the deal and retire a happy man in a year’s time.

Other than Hill and outfielder Josh Reddick (whom the A’s could realistically sign), there isn’t a lot being sought after on the 25-man roster outside of a struggling Sonny Gray.

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In five games since the All-Star break, Oakland is 4-1 against the Blue Jays and Astros, who both have playoff aspirations this season. While it’s a small sample size, the A’s are showing they can hang with some of the better teams in the league. Can they challenge an offensive juggernaut like Boston? Well, no. And there is the fun.

The A’s have not committed to a full tear-down of their roster, even though they have shipped off Josh Donaldson and nearly all of the other All-Stars from the 2014 squad, but they also haven’t shown that they’re going for it either. They seem to live in between contenders and sellers each year with luck being the only difference between the two.

The A’s have started to push for a younger roster, promoting Ryon Healy to man third base, pushing Danny Valencia into a platoon role with Yonder Alonso at first. The A’s are reportedly going for a youth movement, with many of their top prospects residing in Triple-A, which will lead to decreased playing time for Valencia and Coco Crisp.

Crisp is batting .238 since the beginning of June, while Valencia, who still sports a .298 average overall, is hitting just .180 in 50 July at-bats. Healy has been hot at the hot corner to start his big league career, going 6-for-19 (.318).

Is it possible that the A’s could roll with a rotation of Hill, who has been among the best in baseball this season, Gray, who has the ability to rebound into his dominant self, Kendall Graveman, who has won each of his last five starts, rookie Sean Manaea, who has shown flashes, and fellow rookie Daniel Mengden who has kept his team in every game that he’s pitched? It’s not the Murderer’s Row of pitching, but it could be enough to go on a pretty decent hot streak.

The A’s are 10.5 back of Toronto for the second wild card spot and have seven teams in between them and Toronto. The odds are likely zero that they even sniff a playoff spot this season, but one thing that Oakland hasn’t been all year is healthy. Sonny Gray missed opening day due to food poisoning, so it has literally been all season.

Yet, the Texas Rangers are floundering in their own flurry of injuries at the moment, giving up ground in the AL West by the day. Texas has lost four of five out of the break to the Cubs (to be expected) and the Angels (what the…?), and the two teams play each other three more times before the deadline next week in Arlington, leaving twelve games with the division leaders in total.

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The Astros are far from unbeatable, and Seattle can seemingly never make a postseason run. The A’s have come back from a large deficit with only a couple of months to go in the recent past, and a few of the players on the roster now were with the team back in 2012. It will take a ton of luck, but if Reddick’s squibber to shortstop that scored Marcus Semien from second on Tuesday night (video above) is any indication, the A’s may finally have some luck on their side.

So in essence, the A’s are in the driver’s seat at the bargaining table. Make Billy Beane and David Forst an offer they can’t refuse, or they may just see if their youth-infused lineup can put together a late-season run. Keeping Hill and Reddick at the deadline would be exactly what a team in the middle-ground would do.

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