TUESDAY, 8:32pm: Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle reports (on Twitter) that the deal is worth $1MM with another $200K in incentives.
FRIDAY, 4:07pm: The deal is for approximately $1.1MM, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports tweets.
11:41am: The Athletics have agreed to sign Jonny Gomes, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweets. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday that the A's were nearing a deal with the Petaluma, California native.
Gomes, 31, posted a .209/.325/.389 line with 14 homers in 372 plate appearances for the Reds and Nationals in 2011. The ACES client has a career .311/.407/.456 line against left-handed pitching, so his skillset should complement left-handed hitting outfielders such as Seth Smith and Josh Reddick.
Conor Jackson and Johnny Damon were also considerations for the A's, who were looking for an outfielder capable of hitting left-handers, according to Slusser. GM Billy Beane has traded for Smith and Reddick and re-signed Coco Crisp this offseason to build his 2012 outfield.
The latest in a series of moves by Beane to keep the team at least competative in the next few years as they rebuild for the move to San Jose. Pending further acquisitions, Gomes will likely replace Matsui as the primary DH and see some spot duty in the OF. Cowgill, Reddick, Smith and Crisp form a decent, if unspectacular, outfield.
The infield is set except at 1B and Suzuki will catch. I look for McCarthy, Colon, Milone, Parker and maybe Godfrey as the starters, pending the return of the oft-injured Anderson and Braden. Tyson Ross is a wild card in the mix.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Beane signs another starter and/or 1B’man to complete the roster.
Here is a crazy idea… Oakland signs Prince Fielder to a 10 year deal.
1) Solves 1st base
2) They actually have the salary room
3) Puts fans in the seats until the move
4) The length of the contract would have him around for SJ, which Beane is building toward.
(A guy’s gotta dream)
If I were an A’s fan I would think that would sound more like a nightmare. There is no way Prince stays productive for the next 10 years.
If I were an A’s fan I would think that would sound more like a nightmare. There is no way Prince stays productive for the next 10 years.
Make it eight years Titus and you have a deal! To have a player at first who can actually hit and anchor the lineup (not to mention be a leader) would be more happiness than than I could bear.
I truly believe this wouldn’t be so far-fetched if fielder wasn’t a boras client. We don’t have a great track record with his firm and I don’t think him and BB mesh well ie. the man who now plays third for the rangers
didn’t his son get drafted by the A’s?
Prince Fielder for 10 years? Go sign the free agents once you get to San Jose, so they’ll be in their primes when its competition time.
Prince Fielder for 10 years? Go sign the free agents once you get to San Jose, so they’ll be in their primes when its competition time.
basically same lineup like last yr except new corner OF’s and maybe carter/kila at DH
lets be honest matsui/dejesus were busts in 2011, shouldnt take much to replace them.
josh willingham outside of a power surge in hr/rbi, his defense, obp, avg were below career norms. he also was able to stay fairly healthy by dh’ing. probably a smith/gomes combo in lf can outproduce willingham’s production at 1/2 the price
i think A’s consider bringing in another vet pitcher to buy some time for peacock, parker, etc
I’d think they’d be in on Oswalt. He’d benefit from pitching in the Coliseum, and he seems like just the kind of low-risk high-reward signing that Beane covets.
Only downside is he’d have to face Texas and LAA eighteen times each.
that would be cool
This deal seals the “sorta, kinda rebuild” patch
why try to make this team better when 2012 and 2013 are washes where we have no chance of winning or competing?
stop signing guys like this unless he gets all the playing time at his spot so he can at least develop a little value to trade away.
the bartolo signing was perfect, as would another veteran starter on a 1 year deal be.
let smith platoon with a young rookie who bats right, doesn’t matter whether he’s ready or not, he’ll be benched or optioned down once green and choice are ready.
beane also needs to cut at least one of jeff fiorentino, brandon moss, cedric hunter (although he’s young enough to keep around) and jason pridie
jeff fiorentino, brandon moss,
cedric hunter jason
pridie
none are on 40 man roster, likely for AAA depth, though hunter is still young and could be interesting.
Add in mitchell, green, taylor/cowgill (one wont make the mlb team), looks like AAA OF will be crowded
AAA will be very crowded, also considering Jeremy Barfield is due for a promotion there, outfield and catcher are far and away the most backlogged positions in the a’s system, and the a’s have players at the upper levels they could cut that wouldn’t have any effect on the parent club and give younger guys more at bats
hence why i want at least 1 or 2 of those guys cut
i explained in the blogs post how it affects the a’s system going down through the lower levels, signing those guys didn’t do any good for the system
Youre right if they are not considered a long term answer whats the point?
i don’t think that’s quite the case, i don’t mind the crisp signing even though he isn’t in our long term plans because he could net us a good prospect (who would hopefully be in our long term plans) or seth smith, who i don’t think is either.
but jonny gomes? not only is he not in our long term plans, he doesn’t figure to net us a decent prospect, the most he’d be traded away for is a ptbnl. 2012 is a wash year, and he’s signed to make us better
I agree on Crisp because he can be flipped for prospects later on. I was talking about Gomes.
I think part of what’s happened is Beane committed to rebuilding, before he knew what his returns were going to be in the trades.
But, especially with the Washington deal, we actually got a lot of near-MLB pitching back (Milone, Peacock, Parker). Pitching could end up with just as many quality innings as the staff last year, despite losing Cahill and Gio. Just spread out a little more.
Colon, Braden, McCarthy, Milone, Parker, Peacock, Anderson…they can average, especially with smaller samples (say, the latter three each in for two months and putting up a sub-4), solid production.
So if the pitching has ended up only taking a slight ding, despite trading two starters…are the A’s even really rebuilding that much? At this point, Beane could be readjusting for A) the revenue sharing $ and B) being closer to a last-wild-card-spot team than expected. and C) Beane’s impatience
Beane’s an excellent GM, but i’ll take C on that
Let’s face it. Do we really have the pieces to compete with the likes of the Angels and Rangers? The A’s just don’t have as good of an offense to the one the Rangers or Angels have and both teams have more proven pitchers that we know can pitch very well on any given day. I just think that at this point, the A’s are just trying to fill their roster and try to stop the arby clocks for a lot of those prospects that you mentioned.
A and C. Certainly not “B”. But, that doesn’t means wants a 50-win team this year. Can Damon play first?
I remember Gomes with the Rays coming to play at the Coliseum. The crowd gave him a nice hand of applause since he is from the area.
I hope he has a good year.
Even if the results never played out on the field for the Nationals he seems like a good guy and a good clubhouse presence
Best of luck in Oakland, Jonny