Trade speculation has followed Bart for well over a year, though since Bart is now out of minor league options, teams might have been waiting to force the Giants’ hand with a DFA rather than work out a trade. It doesn’t seem likely that Bart will pass through waivers without a claim, and it’s possible he might not even end up far outside San Francisco — NBC Sports Bay Area’s Taylor Wirth reports that the Athletics are among the many teams who have scouted Bart.
Athletics Rumors
Athletics Select Kyle McCann
The Athletics announced a series of Opening Day roster moves today. They selected the contract of catcher Kyle McCann and placed left-hander Sean Newcomb and infielder Aledmys Diaz on the 60-day injured list. Those two IL placements open spots for McCann and for lefty T.J. McFarland, who was acquired from the Dodgers earlier this week. Pitchers Scott Alexander, Luis Medina and Freddy Tarnok were placed on the 15-day IL while outfielder Miguel Andújar was placed on the 10-day IL.
McCann, 26, cracks a big league roster for the first time. A fourth-round pick from the 2019 draft, he was considered one of the club’s top 30 prospects in 2020 and 2021 but fell off after he struggled mightily in first taste of Double-A. He played 93 games there in 2021 but hit just .166/.283/.275, striking out in 37.1% of his plate appearances.
Since then, the strikeout problems have lingered but things have gone a bit better when he does put the bat on the ball. He split 2022 between Double-A and Triple-A, hitting 20 home runs that year while slashing .234/.338/.444. He struck out at 33.4% clip but also drew walks 12.2% of the time and his overall performance translated to a 100 wRC+, exactly average.
Last year, he struck out in 32.2% of his appearances, all at Triple-A, but hit 17 homers and slashed .270/.351/.474 for a wRC+ of 97. In this year’s Spring Training, he was punched out in 40.6% of his 32 plate appearances but also drew walks 15.6% of the time and hit two dingers for a .231/.375/.500 batting line.
Prior to this move, the A’s only had two catchers on their 40-man roster in Shea Langeliers and Tyler Soderstrom. The latter was optioned to Triple-A a couple of weeks ago, with the club seemingly preferring for him to have regular playing time as opposed to sitting on the bench as the backup to Langeliers. McCann will get to join the big league club and will be making his debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Newcomb has been battling soreness in his surgically-repaired left knee and it seemed the A’s don’t expect him to be able to return between now and late May. The same goes for Díaz, who has dealt with both a groin strain and a calf strain this spring.
Joe Boyle To Begin Season In A's Rotation
A’s right-hander Joe Boyle is set to open the season in the Oakland rotation, manager Mark Kotsay told reporters (including John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle) this evening. He’ll be the club’s fifth starter behind veterans Alex Wood, Ross Stripling, and Paul Blackburn as well as southpaw JP Sears.
Boyle, 24, was a fifth-round pick by the Reds in the 2020 draft and made his big league debut with the A’s back in September. The hulking 6’7”, 240-pound hurler made the most of a three-start cup of coffee down the stretch in 2023 as he pitched to a sterling 1.69 ERA with a 3.13 FIP across 16 innings of work. In that time, Boyle struck out 25% of batters faced while walking 8.3%. Both of those rates were noticeably lower than his minor league numbers. The right-hander’s powerful arsenal, headlined by a triple-digit fastball, allowed him to breeze through the minor leagues with a career 35.4% strikeout rate at the time of his call-up. That being said, he also struggled badly with his control throughout his time in the minors; his MLB debut was the first time he had walked less than 10% of the batters he faced at any level since his seven-inning stint in rookie ball back in 2021.
Given the excellent start to his big league career back in September, it’s perhaps not a shock to see the A’s offer him a chance to claim a more permanent spot in the rotation to open the season. With that being said, Boyle’s work this spring did little to inspire confidence in his ability to maintain his command as a starting pitcher. Boyle posted a worrisome 5.89 ERA across six starts and 18 1/3 innings of work this spring. While spring training stats typically aren’t particularly indicative of regular season performance, the fact that Boyle walked a whopping 15 batters during camp is sure to raise some eyebrows in conjunction with the control issues he demonstrated during his time in the minor leagues.
It’s not the first time in recent years the A’s have offered a high-octane arm with concerns regarding his command a spot in their Opening Day rotation; right-hander Shintaro Fujinami signed with the club out of Japan last winter and four disastrous starts with the club before being moved to the bullpen. Fujinami walked 12 batters while posting a 14.40 ERA in 15 innings of work across those four turns through the rotation, but after his pronounced struggles to begin the season managed to settle into a bullpen role with a 3.94 ERA and 3.71 FIP in his final 48 frames last year. Should Boyle falter during his time in the rotation, the A’s could take a similar route and see how he performs in relief if they don’t decide to simply option the youngster to the minors and allow him to continue working on his command as a starter.
On the other hand, if Boyle is able to maintain anything close to his big league debut over a full season in 2024, the deadline deal the A’s swung to acquire him from the Reds in exchange for lefty reliever Sam Moll would be nothing short of a coup. Gordon Wittnmyer of the Cincinnati Inquirer discussed this evening the circumstances surrounding the deal, adding that the Reds initially rebuffed Oakland’s proposal of Boyle as the return in a Moll trade with A’s GM David Forst acknowledging that Cincinnati declined to include Boyle “a couple of times” before eventually agreeing to the swap.
Had the Reds not come back to the negotiating table, Wittenmyer notes, it’s possible that Moll could have wound up pitching for the Cubs down the stretch last year. Wittenmyer reports that the club believed they were close to finalizing their own deal for Moll before Oakland landed Boyle. Moll, 32, enjoyed a dominant stretch run of his own with Cincinnati last fall as he pitched to a microscopic 0.73 ERA in 25 appearances with the Reds following the deal. Moll was slowed by shoulder soreness throughout camp this spring and stands to open the season on the injured list but figures to play a key role in the Cincinnati bullpen this season once healthy alongside the likes of Alexis Diaz and Emilio Pagan.
A’s Acquire T.J. McFarland From Dodgers, Select Him To Roster
The Athletics announced that they have acquired left-hander T.J. McFarland from the Dodgers for cash considerations and selected him to the 40-man roster.
McFarland, 35 in June, is a veteran ground ball guy who has bounced around the league, including pitching for the A’s in 2020. He has also suited up for the Orioles, Diamondbacks, Cardinals and Mets in a career that dates back to 2013 and includes 354 major league appearances.
Last year, he was only in the majors for about two weeks with the Mets, making three appearances. He spent the majority of the year in Triple-A for the Mets and Orioles, pitching very well at that level. He posted a 2.30 earned run average in 62 2/3 innings, walking 10.2% of opponents but also striking out 25.2% of batters faced. His ground ball rate was over 62% for both Triple-A clubs he pitched for.
Those grounders have been his M.O. throughout his career, with 62.2% of the balls in play during his major league career having been pounded into the dirt. That has made him particularly vulnerable to the baseball gods, as shown in time with the Cardinals. In 2021, he had a batting average on balls in play of .261 and a strand rate of 81.5%, leading to a 2.56 ERA. The year after, he had a .333 BABIP and 60.4% strand rate, which bumped his ERA all the way to 6.61.
He signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers this winter and posted a 1.35 ERA over seven spring appearances, but that club has a fairly stacked bullpen without a clear opening for McFarland. The A’s, on the other hand, are much more able to employ him.
Oakland is deep into a rebuild and came into camp with a group of relievers fairly light on experience. That issue was compounded when three of the most veteran guys went down with injuries. Trevor Gott required Tommy John surgery, putting him out of action for the whole year. Sean Newcomb is going to start the season on the injured list due to irritation in his surgically-repaired left knee while Scott Alexander has a stress reaction in his left ribs.
The A’s have been trying to quickly to make up for those losses, recently acquiring Austin Adams from the Mets and now McFarland. He’ll provide the A’s with a veteran southpaw arm to hopefully stabilize a pitching staff in flux while also perhaps serving as a guiding force for the many young arms on the team.
Darell Hernaiz Makes Athletics’ Opening Day Roster
Infielder Darell Hernaiz will open the season in the majors, Oakland manager Mark Kotsay told reporters (including Jason Burke of Inside The A’s) this evening. Hernaiz was selected to the club’s 40-man roster back in November ahead of last year’s Rule 5 Draft, and his first appearance with the club this year will be his major league debut.
Hernaiz, 22, was a fifth-round pick by the Orioles in the 2019 draft and was swapped to the A’s in the deal that sent left-hander Cole Irvin to Baltimore last January. The youngster enjoyed something of a breakout campaign during his first season in Oakland last year as he slashed .321/.386/.456 in 131 games split between the Double- and Triple-A levels. Hernaiz offered little in the way of power as he hit just nine home runs last year, but the youngster showed impressive on-base skills with a fantastic 13.4% strikeout rate against a solid 8.9% walk rate. Hernaiz also has plus speed, as shown by his 54-for-64 record on the basepaths with the Orioles during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, though he swiped just 13 bags in 18 attempts with the A’s last year.
After splitting time between shortstop as well as second and third base during his time with the Orioles, Hernaiz has played shortstop almost exclusively with the A’s. In 2023, he made 13 appearances at the keystone and just one at the hot corner compared to a whopping 112 at shortstop. That changed this spring, however, as Hernaiz split time between his native shortstop and third base in hopes of improving his odds of making the big league roster due to the club’s vacancy out the hot corner. While the acquisition of veteran infielder J.D. Davis has plugged the gap at third in Oakland for the time being, the mid-spring addition didn’t stop the A’s from offering Hernaiz a spot on the big league roster to open the season after he hit a decent .313/.340/.333 during camp while striking out just 16.9% of the time across 53 spring at-bats.
Looking ahead to the regular season, Hernaiz figures to provide the A’s with a quality glove all around the infield off the bench, providing insurance behind Davis, shortstop Nick Allen, and second baseman Zack Gelof. The youngster’s high contract rates, solid plate discipline, and plus speed also figure to make him a useful bench piece who can be deployed as a pinch hitter and runner. Should injuries or ineffectiveness force a change in the club’s infield mix at some point in the season, Hernaiz figures to compete with fellow reserve infielder Abraham Toro for those reps, though it’s always possible a mid-season promotion for a prospect such as Jordan Diaz could change that calculus.
A’s Acquire Austin Adams
The A’s announced this morning that they’ve acquired right-hander Austin Adams from the Mets in exchange for cash considerations. Adams, who had been in camp with the Mets as a non-roster invitee, has been selected to Oakland’s 40-man roster. In a corresponding move, right-hander Trevor Gott was placed on the 60-day injured list. Gott’s placement on the shelf is hardly a surprise, as it was announced last week that the righty is set to undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the 2024 season.
Adams, 32, was an eighth-round pick in the 2012 draft by the Angels but didn’t make his MLB debut until the 2017 season when he was a member of the Nationals. He entered the 2023 season with 108 big league games under his belt between his time in Washington, Seattle, and San Diego, having pitched to a 3.90 ERA with a 3.81 FIP and a 34.2% strikeout rate during that time. Despite those solid numbers, forearm and shoulder issues had limited his ability to stay on the field and capture a regular role with any of the clubs he had pitched for, leading him to sign a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks prior to the 2023 season.
His performance in Arizona was something of a mixed bag. While the right-hander yielded an unsightly 5.71 ERA in 17 1/3 innings of work with the club prior to a season-ending ankle injury last August, Adams’s peripheral numbers suggest he may have pitched better than those results would indicate. After all, the 32-year-old hurler struck out a solid 27.2% of batters faced while walking 9.9%. That left Adams with a 3.55 xERA and a 3.72 FIP, both far more palatable numbers that are more in line with his career marks. The discrepancy can be explained by both an unusually low 61.6% strand rate and an elevated .333 BABIP, leaving Adams with both far more traffic on the basepaths than expected and those runners scoring more often than usual.
Those positive peripheral signs may have played a role in the Mets decided to sign Adams to a major league deal back in November, after he elected free agency in response to being removed from Arizona’s 40-man roster. That seemingly left Adams in position to be a key piece of the bullpen mix in Queens this season, but the club scuttled those plans by signing more proven relievers such as Adam Ottavino and Jorge Lopez later that winter. That left Adams to be outrighted off the club’s roster just before Spring Training began, though he remained in camp with the club as a non-roster invitee.
Now, Adams once again appears poised to get an Opening Day job after being dealt to Oakland. With the A’s, he figures to slot into the middle of a bullpen that heavily features young arms such as Mason Miller, Kyle Muller, and Mitch Spence. If Adams pitches well early in the season, it wouldn’t be a shock to see him take on late inning duties alongside the likes of Miller and Lucas Erceg in the Oakland bullpen.
Miguel Andujar To Undergo Meniscus Surgery; Sean Newcomb To Begin Season On A’s Injured List
Miguel Andujar will undergo surgery to repair a torn right meniscus and will miss least 4-6 weeks in recovery, A’s manager Mark Kotsay told MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos and other reporters. The Athletics will also lose another player to the season-opening injured list, as Sean Newcomb will miss time due to irritation in his surgically-repaired left knee.
Andujar’s surgery is set for Wednesday, and Kotsay said a further timeline will be established once doctors actually “get in there [to see] what the repair has to be….We could be looking at a longer timeframe.” This will mark the second major surgery for Andujar, following a shoulder procedure in 2019 that cost him most of that season and serves as a turning point in his career.
A spectacular 2018 season with the Yankees saw Andujar finish second in AL Rookie of the Year voting, though he has since played in only 144 Major League games. The Yankees seemed to move on from Andujar after his lost 2019 campaign, and gave him only sporadic looks on the big league roster amidst several call-ups and demotions back and forth from Triple-A. The Pirates claimed Andujar off waivers from New York in September 2022, but this fresh start didn’t result in much more MLB playing time, as Andujar appeared in only 30 games for Pittsburgh in 2023.
Oakland acquired Andujar on another waiver claim back in November, and avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.7MM salary for 2024. Andujar has been on fire at the plate during Spring Training, yet he’ll now face yet another frustrating setback with this knee injury. More will be known once the surgery takes place, yet the hope is obviously for a best-case scenario that would see Andujar make his official A’s debut some time in May.
Newcomb had a lateral meniscus repair of his own on his left knee in September, and then an arthroscopic procedure on his right knee in December. It certainly isn’t promising that Newcomb’s knee is still giving him problems, though the characterization of the issue as just “irritation” is perhaps a hint that there isn’t any further structural damage. The Athletics will give Newcomb an extra 15 days on the IL at the start of the year to hopefully work through his soreness, and then complete any ramp-up work necessary to get him ready for his season debut.
Newcomb has seen action in each of the last seven Major League seasons, pitching mostly with the Braves before a trade to the Cubs in April 2022. He spent most of the 2023 season in the Giants’ minor league system before being traded to the A’s and given a look on the active roster, and Newcomb then delivered a 3.00 ERA over 15 innings. Small sample size notwithstanding, it was still a big improvement over the 7.45 ERA that the southpaw posted in 73 2/3 MLB innings over the 2020-22 seasons. Those struggles were tied to rather extreme difficulties in limiting walks and home runs, and Newcomb still issued nine free passes in his 15 innings with Oakland.
Between Trevor Gott’s Tommy John surgery, Scott Alexander’s stress reaction in his left ribs, and now Newcomb’s knee issue, the Athletics have suddenly lost the three most experienced members of their bullpen to the IL (and, in Gott’s case, for the whole season). Kyle Muller is now also the only left-hander remaining in the relief corps with Alexander and Newcomb sidelined, so the A’s might be on the lookout for southpaws in particular if they turn to the open market for any veteran relievers who might be available after the last rounds of Spring Training cuts.
As for Andujar, he was seemingly penciled into the regular outfield mix, but the A’s will now have to adjust to his IL stint. Utilityman Hoy Park might now have a better chance of breaking camp, and Park has helped his case with some very impressive numbers in Cactus League play. Park and Lawrence Butler could be backup outfield options behind the provisional starting trio of Seth Brown, JJ Bleday, and Esteury Ruiz.
Trevor Gott To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
Athletics right-hander Trevor Gott has a fully torn ulnar collateral ligament and will undergo Tommy John next week, per Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. He will miss the entire 2024 season and part of 2025 as well.
Gott, 31, signed with the A’s in the offseason, a one-year deal with a $1.5MM guarantee and performance bonuses based on appearances. Unfortunately, he won’t be unlocking any of those bonuses now and it will go down as a wasted investment for the A’s. Gott will be placed on the 60-day injured list when the club needs a roster spot and spend the year there. He’ll cross six years of service time in the process and return to free agency in the fall.
He has 243 2/3 innings under his belt with a 4.65 ERA. He split last season between the Mariners and Mets, tossing 58 innings with a 4.19 ERA, 23.8% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. The Mets could have retained him via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a modest $2MM salary. But they non-tendered him instead and he landed in Oakland.
He’ll turn 32 this August while rehabbing and then will hit the open market in advance of the 2025 season. For the A’s, it opens up another spot in their bullpen for them to cycle their various young guys through and see who sticks.
A’s Release Angel Felipe
The Athletics released reliever Angel Felipe, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. He’d been designated for assignment over the weekend.
Once the A’s took Felipe off the 40-man roster, a release was all but inevitable. The 26-year-old righty underwent Tommy John surgery last week. Injured players cannot go on outright waivers. After the DFA, the only options were to trade Felipe or release him. They weren’t going to find a trade partner due to the injury.
Felipe lost his roster spot when Oakland announced the J.D. Davis signing. The A’s could have placed him on the 60-day injured list, but that would’ve required paying him a $740K salary for the upcoming season. They’d very likely have run him through waivers at the start of next winter anyhow — players can’t stay on the injured list during the offseason — so releasing him instead made sense.
Of course, that’s a tough blow for Felipe. Assuming he clears release waivers, he’ll become a free agent. The A’s could try to bring him back on a two-year minor league deal at that point, but he’d have the freedom to evaluate other opportunities. Oakland grabbed him off waivers from the Padres last June. Felipe debuted with 14 big league outings late last season, allowing seven runs with 19 strikeouts and 13 walks over 15 frames. He has a mid-90s fastball but hasn’t consistently thrown strikes in the minors. Felipe has a walk rate north of 15% over parts of eight minor league seasons, in which he owns a 4.65 ERA.
A’s Sign J.D. Davis
March 18: Davis would earn $750K for reaching 500 plate appearances and another $250K if he reaches 550 plate appearances, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
March 16: The Athletics have now officially announced Davis’ one-year deal for the 2024 season.
March 15: The A’s have reportedly agreed to terms with third baseman J.D. Davis on a one-year, $2.5MM free agent contract. The deal, which is pending a physical and has not yet been announced by the team, contains an additional $1MM in performance bonuses. The infielder is represented by ALIGND Sports Management.
Davis stays in the Bay Area after being released by the Giants on Monday. His time in San Francisco ended on an acrimonious note. Pushed out of the starting lineup by the signings of Jorge Soler and Matt Chapman, he was arguably a redundant fit on the San Francisco roster. The Giants also carry Wilmer Flores as a righty-hitting corner infield/DH option.
That prompted San Francisco to shop Davis on the trade market. When no deal presented itself, the Giants placed him on outright waivers. The hope was that another team would claim him and assume the $6.9MM salary which his camp had won in an arbitration hearing in February. None of the other 29 teams took that on, leading the Giants to put Davis on release waivers.
While he was no longer a great roster fit in San Francisco, the release was clearly motivated in large part by finances. Under the collective bargaining agreement, arbitration-eligible players who settle on a contract without going to a hearing are entitled to their full salary even if they’re released. Arbitration salaries determined in a hearing — whether in favor of the player or team — are not fully guaranteed until Opening Day. By releasing Davis more than 15 days before the start of the regular season, the Giants were only responsible for 30 days termination pay. That checked in a little above $1.1MM.
Davis’ deal with the A’s brings his guaranteed money for the upcoming season around $3.6MM. If he hits all of his incentives, he could get to around $4.6MM in earnings. The end of his Giants tenure will cost Davis a few million dollars, although he’ll at least have a clear path to everyday reps.
Oakland was likely to go into the year with either Abraham Toro or Darell Hernaiz logging the majority of their third base work. Toro is a career .211/.282/.354 hitter who spent most of last season in Triple-A with the Brewers. Hernaiz is a talented prospect, but he has yet to make his big league debut. Even if Hernaiz hits his way to the majors this year, he could push defensive specialist Nick Allen for playing time at shortstop. The A’s grabbed Miguel Andújar off waivers from the Pirates early in the offseason. He’s still on the roster but has played mostly in the corner outfield over the past few seasons.
Davis should be a clear upgrade over that group. The 30-year-old (31 in April) has been an above-average hitter in each of the last five seasons. Last year’s .248/.325/.413 batting line was his worst rate production since he emerged in 2019. Still, he played in a career-high 144 games and connected on 18 home runs. Davis has above-average power and draws a fair number of walks. He strikes out at a higher than average rate, yet his .268/.352/.443 slash of the last five years could earn him a spot in the middle third of Mark Kotsay’s lineup.
With between five and six years of major league service, Davis will head back to free agency next offseason. The opportunity to play on an everyday basis is surely appealing as he tries to establish himself as the #3 third base option in a free agent class that’ll include Alex Bregman and, if he opts out, Chapman. Improving his defensive grades would be a big boost to his market value. Davis has typically rated as a fringy defender. Public metrics were split on his value last season. Defensive Runs Saved had him among the least effective third basemen at 11 runs below average in 915 2/3 innings. Statcast was a lot more impressed, rating him four runs better than par.
Davis also drew interest from the Mets this week. Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that he chose the A’s in part because of the guarantee that he’ll play on a regular basis. He reunites with former Giants teammates Ross Stripling, Alex Wood and Scott Alexander as veteran additions to the A’s clubhouse. As with any veteran joining a rebuilding team on a one-year deal, he’d be a clear trade candidate this summer if he’s playing at his typical level.
Oakland’s player payroll now sits around $61MM, as calculated by RosterResource. That is a little above last season’s approximate $57MM Opening Day mark but still sits last in MLB by a country mile. The A’s have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move once the contract is finalized.
Robert Murray of FanSided first reported the A’s and Davis were in agreement. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo had previously suggested the A’s were showing interest in Davis. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported it was a one-year, $2.5MM guarantee with $1MM in performance bonuses.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
