Former Rangers cornerstone Michael Young has joined the team’s front office, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (Twitter link), although Heyman does not include specifics on Young’s role with the club. While he was once speculated as a candidate to fill the team’s managerial vacancy, he’s now helping with the search, Heyman adds.
More from the AL West…
- Rival executives don’t expect Athletics GM Billy Beane to stand pat following the team’s late collapse and elimination in last night’s one-game playoff, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. One executive speculated that Jeff Samardzija could be an offseason trade candidate, while a second threw out the possibility of trading Josh Donaldson. While I can personally envision the Samardzija scenario — he’s a free agent after 2015 and could $10MM+ via arbitration — the Donaldson suggestion is tough to picture. As Rosenthal notes, he’s arb-eligible for the first time this offseason and controlled through 2018, so there’s no reason to think Oakland would feel pressure to trade him.
- Among the players whom the A’s could potentially lose to free agency is Jed Lowrie, and Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle spoke with Lowrie about the situation (All Twitter links). Slusser notes that Lowrie is one of the few players who was honest about his free agency by admitting that money will be a driving factor behind his decision. Lowrie adds that he’s looking for a good fit for him and his family, and he says he’s be willing to play second base on a full-time basis. Asked about the possibility of receiving a qualifying offer, Lowrie said he’d have to give consideration to accepting. A qualifying offer to Lowrie seems unlikely, in my view.
- MLB.com’s Richard Justice calls the Astros’ hiring of A.J. Hinch a bold move and revisits former Diamondbacks/Padres GM Josh Byrnes’ decision to give Hinch his first managerial gig back in 2009. The move was controversial, to say the least, as Byrnes had to dismiss the popular Bob Melvin to bring the 34-year-old Hinch into the picture. Hinch had never coached or managed, but as Byrnes explains to Justice, Hinch brings a number of desirable qualities to the table.
- Justice’s colleague, Brian McTaggart, writes that Astros players appear to be on board with the move. Chad Qualls spoke highly of Hinch, who was his manager with the D’Backs in 2010, and Gregorio Petit called him “a real honest guy” after getting to know him a bit while in the Padres organization. Dallas Keuchel is excited after meeting Hinch and hinted that there were communication problems not only between previous manager Bo Porter and the front office, but also between Porter and the players. “I think we need to have better communication than we’ve had in the past couple of years,” said Keuchel.
With Jarrod Parker and AJ Griffin returning from injury and Drew Pomeranz and Jesse Chavez available to go back to the rotation, trading Samardzija is a possibility.
Beane may end up with better prospects than he gave up. He has shown an ability to identify and acquire good young players in the minor leagues. He is better at that than drafting his own.
I don’t think a year of Samardzija is going to net a prospect better than Addison Russell.
Yeah not a chance it will, top 100 probably, maybe even top 50, but not a Russell type prospect
Samardzija has already been traded for a top 50 prospect, Russell. So to say he can’t be traded for a top prospect is logically incorrect.
Also, It is one year plus the qualifying offer(1st round draft pick), if he is moved in the offseason.
The bigger mistake you are making is thinking that only top 50 prospects are valuable. Beane has repeatedly traded veterans for young players, those young players become veterans and he trades them for more young players.
The young players he acquires don’t have to be top prospects. Sometimes they are former top prospects like Drew Pomeranz or players not highly thought of by other teams. He has proven it over and over again.
He didn’t actually say any of the things you accuse him of being “logically incorrect” about.
Uh..what?
Parker and Griffin probably won’t be ready until mid-season or so (12-18 month recovery time and then rehab stints and normal tightness that goes on too that push back the timetable)
I doubt Parker will be able to stay in the rotation after two Tommy Johns though.
The only teams that may have a 3B need this winter and have the prospects to not get their GM laughed off the phone right away are Boston (Betts, Cecchini, Owens, etc) and LA (Seager, Urias, Pederson, etc).
Boston was semi-restructuring and they probably wouldn’t want to have to send out that type of prospect package. LAD have been trying to keep their farm system intact for a while now and probably wouldn’t wanna pay that much in prospects either.
Oakland, meanwhile, still has a chance to compete next year and should hang onto Donaldson and Samardzija
Yeah Dodgers need a shortstop, not a third baseman. They have Uribe who just hit well over .300 and has an excellent glove. Plus they have Alex Guerrero who can probably slot there along with Justin Turner.
The Giants have a need a third, but probably don’t have the chips to get Donaldson. As I noted above, I think Lowrie as a FA to the Giants to play 3B is reasonably likely.
Samardzija seems sure to go.
I think the obvious landing spot for Lowrie is with the Giants as a third baseman.
He has no arm. 3B is scary. I would take him back on Oakland as a 2B.
Yeah, not an ideal solution, but the Giants aren’t likely to pay Sandoval $100 million or whatever huge amount Headley is going to get. I mean, maybe they go with Duval, but I don’t think so. Lowrie is the closest thing to a MLB hitter available at 3B after Sandvoal and Headley.
Jed Lowrie seems like the perfect candidate to completely fall apart when he gets his payday. He’s not very good and loves the DL. One of my least favorite Sox players in recent memory.
The A’s played badly down the stretch but trading Donaldson seems like a drastic move for a team that has made three consecutive postseason appearances
Donaldson is a top 10 WAR player who is cost-controlled for the next 4 seasons. There is no way he is getting traded. He is the type of player Beane would trade for.
I think he was top-3 WAR this year (reg season). Why would anyone consider trading him, even if he were making Ryan Howard-money? Folks, he’s worth it.
I wish he were a Brave, but I love to see him flourish.
Because, if the A’s were paying Donaldson Ryan Howard money, the rest of the roster would have to be guys on minimum contracts.
Good thing you got Beane that can extract value from minimum contracts to make up for an overpay – like we could ever live in a world where Beane would pay Donaldson Ryan Howard-money.
Yeah Lowrie gets a qualifying offer and Epstein contacts me to help him with the Cubs rebuild with a sweet parking spot, and I get to suit up on Sundays.
The truth is the Cespedes/Lester trade hurt the A’s in the short run. They lost their best and most feared hitter. It was a great calculated move in acquiring a quality postseason pitcher but their lineup lost the only player pitchers feared. Getting rid of Donaldson, their best hitter, seems to make no sense.
He wasn’t their best nor their most feared this year or last year, that either went to Brandon Moss or Josh Donaldson (more likely Donaldson)
Biggest name hitter? Sure, the average fan probably knows about Cespedes more than Donaldson or Moss
Actually I was going off of an article where the Athletics players were saying Cespedes was their most feared hitter. Most feared hitter isn’t always the best.
Hinch’s best quality is being a “yes man” for the front office of the Astros, followed closely by being another caretaker manager during a now-extended rebuilding process. In 2-3 years, Hinch will get canned and replaced by a “seasoned” manager.
there is basically no reason to think this hiring is about anything other than maximizing on-field success. and seasoned managers seem to have a pretty tough time landing jobs these days
Will be real interested to see/know who Hinch brings in as his bench coach. That’s usually a pretty good sign of if a manager “gets it or not”? Some of the best managers use their bench coaches A LOT. Torre and Girardi with Zimmer, Maddon with Martinez.
don’t be nice just say a qualifying offer for Lowrie is laughable. Lowrie himself should have been laughing at that one.
So M. Young, now strolling the clubhouse back slap’n instead of J. Daniels. Umm, smart move, but will it last? Mikey is not much of a “yes man”, but may very well be a good “eyes & ears” guy, while he learns some new ropes of field mgr & front office guru, under J.D.- just might work. He’s always been a baseball multi-tasker.