As we get closer and closer to the July 31st trade deadline it seems like it’s been clear for some time which teams would probably be looking to buy and which teams would be interested in selling. Now there is one team that everyone seems to have in their sellers list that I can’t figure out why they’re there.
Most if not all of the people I’ve seen talk about the trade deadline have the Oakland A’s as sellers. Now Oakland is 8 games over .500 at 48-40, but are in 3rd place in what looks like a tough AL West. Oakland is currently 10 games behind the 1st place Houston Astros and they also find themselves 7 1/2 games behind the 2nd place Seattle Mariners who are currently holding down the final America League wild card spot.
While this is a big deficit for the A’s to make up they do have 74 games left to play this season. Plus the Astros and Mariners have been two of the hottest teams in baseball.
If Oakland does decided to make some deals they have some interesting players they could move.
Jed Lowrie name has been quite popular and with the way he’s played this season that’s understandable. Lowrie is hitting .290 and has shown some power with 14 home runs this season. Lowrie is 34 and is in his 14th season and while he’s played mostly 2nd base this season he recently filled in at 3rd base for the injured Matt Chapman. Lowrie is in the final year of his contract which pays him a total of $6 million dollars. With the numbers Lowrie is putting up and what would be a very affordable contract in today’s game; add in that he can play multiple positions it’s easy to see why they think Lowrie the A’s could trade him.
The other name that seems to come up every time the A’s and trades are mentioned is Blake Treinen. He just turned 30 and it looks as though he might’ve finally figured things out. Treinen has picked up 22 saves this season and has an ERA of 0.84. Treinen has appeared in 35 games covering 42 2/3rd innings. He’s struck out 52 while walking 12 nd has given up just 1 home run this season.
Treinen spent the first three plus years of his career with the Washington Nationals and while he put up solid numbers he never develop into the bullpen piece they thought he would. Any team that would acquire him would have to figure out if he’s actually figured things out or not.
Treinen is making $2.15 million dollars this season and won’t reach free agency until the 2021 season; so any team that deals for him would have him under control for two more seasons.
Oakland has some other veteran players in the final years of their contracts, but I’m not sure how much interest they’d draw on the trade market.
The A’s have veteran pitchers Yusmeiro Petit and Santiago Castilla as well as outfielder Matt Joyce and catcher Jonathan LuCroy in the last year if their contracts. None of them are putting up great stats this season, but maybe since LuCroy is a catcher he might get some interest.
No, I didn’t forget Khris Davis who still has one more year of arbitration left before he’d hit the free agent market in 2020. Oakland has just never shown any interest in trading Davis and there’s been no mention of his name in any trade rumors.
If the A’s decide to make Davis available he could bring a good return from a team looking to add a proven power hitter to their line up. Davis has hit over 40 home runs and driven in over 100 RBI’s the last two seasons and even though he missed some time with an injury he’ll have a chance to get to those numbers again.
Like a lot of the players that could draw some interest from teams Davis has a vey friendly contract as he’s making $10.5 million dollars this season.
Do you have the A’s as buyers or sellers?
When the Chicago Bulls traded their best player Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Justin Patton at the 2017 draft they received guards Kris Dunn and Zach LaVine along with Lauri Markkanen. LaVine was injured at the time of this deal, but the Bulls saw him as a young player they could rebuild around. Well if the Bulls still see LaVine as that guy it’s going to cost them.
LaVine is a restricted free agent this off season meaning he can get offers from teams and the Bulls would have 48 hours to either match that offer or allow LaVine to go to the team that gave him that offer.
Due to his injury LaVine played in just 24 games last season and maybe the Bulls thought that would keep teams from offering him a large deal. If that’s what they where thinking they where very wrong.
The Bulls had some contract talks with LaVine this off season, but couldn’t agree on a new deal. With the window still open the Sacramento Kings stepped in and gave LaVine an offer sheet for 4 years and somewhere between $78 or $80 million dollars. The Kings offer is fully guaranteed with no option years.
The Bulls have already said that they will match the Kings offer sheet to LaVine keeping him with the Bulls. With this new contract LaVine’s salary will count about $19.5 million dollars against the Bulls salary cap.
Do you think it was the right move for the Bulls to match the Kings offer sheet to LaVine? He is just 23 years old, but has had some injury issue. I mentioned that he played just 24 games last season. He was also injured in the 2016-17 season playing in just 48 games. LaVine averaged 16.7 points in his 24 games last season. He also handed out 3 assists per game and grabbed an average of 3.9 rebounds per game. I understand when the NBA signed their new television contract before last season that salaries went through the roof; so this seems like an acceptable contract in today’s game. I guess will have to wait and see if LaVine turns into the player the Bulls think he’ll be or if the should’ve let Sacramento have him.
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