Oakland Athletics: Seung-hwan Oh would make an interesting target
The Oakland Athletics could use some help both in the rotation and in the bullpen if they hope to take a step forward in 2018. Former St. Louis Cardinals closer Seung-hwan Oh could be a terrific under-the-radar addition to a bullpen that is lacking.
In the first half of the 2017 season, Oakland Athletics relievers held a 4.97 ERA–and that was with Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson on board. Both players were traded to the Washington Nationals in the middle of July and helped to stabilize one of the only bullpens worse that Oakland’s to that point.
In return the A’s landed some prospects and one of the Nats’ previous ninth inning options, Blake Treinen. While Doolittle and Madson performed better with Washington, Treinen, a former seventh-round pick by the A’s, gave Oakland the production that was expected of him at the beginning of the season, locking down 13 games for the green and gold and holding a 2.13 ERA across 38 innings.
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That’s one staple for the A’s bullpen moving forward. Liam Hendriks, though inconsistent, is another. Chris Hatcher, Santiago Casilla, Ryan Dull and Daniel Coulombe all have good cases to make for their addition to the 25-man roster and Frankie Montas has a big arm but lacks control (and options) so he could be the seventh man in the ‘pen. There are bound to be some moves made with this group before the start of 2018, and one of those moves could be buying low on Korean righty Seung-hwan Oh.
Oh went 1-6 with a 4.10 ERA last season, a lackluster performance following the one that got him some Rookie of the Year votes in 2016. After serving the two seasons of the contract he signed with St. Louis, Oh is now on the free agent market and has stated that “pitching in the major leagues was a childhood dream” and that he is “open to all possibilities.”
If he doesn’t necessarily want to go back to the KBO, and teams with more at stake may be a little wary of taking a chance on him, then that could leave the door wide open for the A’s to make their pitch and potentially land the 35-year-old.
With the A’s playing roughly .500 once the trade dust settled and the young guns took over, Oakland could be one of those teams that everyone picks to be a surprise wild-card contender next season. If they don’t fix their pitching–particularly in the later innings–that’s not going to happen. These kids are going to have their adjustment periods throughout the course of 2018, so locking down as many games as they can with a strong relief corps will be a big key to surprising the American League next year.