Change is afoot behind the dish for the Athletics. The club announced today that it has designated Dustin Garneau for assignment, clearing the way for the return of Josh Phegley from the injured list.
Garneau, who recently turned 32, had a nice run in seven games with the A’s. But he was obviously seen mostly as a roster patch for the Oakland org, which is now going back to its preexisting arrangement. In parts of five seasons in the majors, Garneau carries a .207/.290/.343 batting line over 381 plate appearances.
I think we shoulda DFA’d Hermann instead tbh but hopefully we can keep Garneau in minors for depth.
No way he gets through waivers…
The A’s are so dumb they literally DFA’d a guy with a .959 OPS and 0.9 WAR so they could instead play a guy with a .710 OPS and 0.5 WAR.
He has a .959 OPS with the A’s. In 17 at bats. His OPS over the season is .757. So really, who is the dumb one here?
The A’s, for dumping 2 clearly-superior catchers.
Please don’t stoop to homerism here, there’s no defending why they’re doing this other than they spent money on crap FAs and they refuse they picked the wrong ones.
Small sample size…..
Yeah I liked Garneau and even Beau Taylor more than Herrmann. Wasn’t sad to see Nick Hundley go though. Musical chairs at catcher continues until Murphy is ready to take the everyday role. Probably not this season though.
Heim probably gets the first shot. I think they’ll let Murphy rest for the remainder of the season because of his reoccurring knee problem from that freak play.
Murphy’s already playing in rehab games…I think they both come up this year
At this point we’re just playing musical catchers until Murphy and Heim are proven to be fully healthy. Phegley started off great, but he’s fallen off hard since.
Don’t agree with this at all, herrmann has been terrible against everyone but the Twins. Having a righty and a lefty doesn’t matter when they’re both bad hitters. Garneau was producing a lot more than Herrmann.
I doubt this dude goes unclaimed. Granted I only saw a few ABs, but when I did he was raking, and he looked pretty good behind the dish. With back-up catcher’s at a premium, hard to see how he makes it through waivers.
If the A’s FO was even halfway decent they would have given Taylor the everyday job to split with Garneau, DFA’d Hermann AND Phegley until Murphy is ready then DFA Garneau.
Phegley is absolute trash, do the A’s front office seriously think that the fact that he hit decent for ONE month means he’s earnt the everyday role? I’m betting Murphy is up before September though, but still, these games are important and once again the A’s are making head scratching player personnel moves.
Blue Jays got a sleeper today. Would love to see what a couple months of everyday Taylor looks like, I’m thinking something like .260/.350/.500 is his ceiling. No idea why the a’s didnt believe in him when he’s done nothing but produce. Taylors my pick to be the A’s next Muncy. Just like the handling of Taylor, the A’s whiffed bigtime by not bringing Joseph up a month ago. Dude’s been hitting .400 at AAA all year long pretty much and last night showed them he’s not going to stop hitting anytime soon.
Taylor isn’t hitting .260/.350/.500 in the majors. The OBP is about right, he’ll always take his walks, but he was hitting .260 and not even slugging .500 in the very hitter friendly PCL. What he has going for him is he’s a good defender and guys like pitching to him, but that alone wasn’t going to guarantee him a starting job on a major league roster with playoff aspirations, they’re going to stick with familiarity and veteran presence. Phegley has caught these guys, Herrmann has been a good defender even if his bat hasn’t been good since coming back after missing half the season. Taylor hasn’t done much keep a spot and we know Garneau isn’t about to keep up the pace he was on with us over all of 17 at bats.
As much as I sometimes wish they did, and they’re validating my opinion on Corban Joseph right now, I’m glad they don’t make stupid knee jerk reactions like the Mariners do.
“Would love to see what a couple months of everyday Taylor looks like, I’m thinking something like .260/.350/.500 is his ceiling.”
“Taylor isn’t hitting .260/.350/.500 in the majors.”
I said ceiling, as in best possible scenario aka what Muncy did. Taylor is talented and literally better than any A’s current MLB crops, on walk rate alone. He’s a fine defender too. Much better than Phegley and Hermann. The A’s should be in first place if their FO had any idea how to get a real-deal contender, not just a wild card race team.
Better than the Astros? I won’t disagree that if they were a more “normal” market they’d be firmly in the playoffs. But I don’t know if that would lead to an 8.5 game improvement on one of the better teams in recent history.
you had 4 guys on the roster and of the 3 healthy ones you chose to dfa the best two. can’t believe how Hermann keeps a job. honestly would rather have Hundley then him.
A’s front office has no idea how to build a contender, even when they have all the tools to available to them. They really love building wild card level teams for some reason.
Gutted over Taylor, he really deserved a shot and everything about his game has shown he’s better than Phegley. Garneau was mashing. Watch the Rays get him and that dumb move will be the lone reason why they beat out the A’s for the last WC.
Yay! more passed balls and bad framing for all!
Imagine looking at Phegley and going “thats the guy”.
A .710 OPS and terrible framing. Beane is insultingly bad now.
Actually, Josh Phegley was the one getting the A’s going early on this season so I think this is more a retribution more than anything else. Murphy is the future…
Yeah garneau and taylor looks more promising thanvphegley hermann. Of course , its murphy who wouldve been up by now but he has constant injuries every season. Cant really trust the health record. I bet heim ends up way more dueable