- Seth Brown began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Las Vegas today, Athletics manager Mark Kotsay told reporters (including Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle). Brown was sidelined with a left oblique strain on April 9 and was given a rough recovery timeline of four to six weeks. Since Kotsay said Brown will need at least 15-20 plate appearances in Vegas, it’ll still be at least a few days before Brown might rejoin Oakland’s lineup, though it looks like he’ll avoid the higher end of his initial rehab projection. Brown was off to a pretty slow start in 2023, but he hit 45 home runs with a .224/.294/.457 slash line over 862 plate appearances in 2021-22.
Athletics Rumors
Athletics Designate Spencer Patton For Assignment
The Athletics have recalled James Kaprielian from Triple-A, the team announced. To make room, they designated relief pitcher Spencer Patton for assignment.
Patton, 35, pitched just 5 1/3 innings for Oakland this year, working to a 6.75 ERA and striking out just a single batter. He’s gone slightly better in Triple-A, where he owns a 4.32 ERA over 8 1/3 innings with 10 strikeouts.
A 24th round pick all the way back in 2011, Patton debuted in 2014 for the Rangers and showed a bit of promise, giving up just a single earned run in 9 1/3 relief innings. It wasn’t to last though, and over the next couple of seasons Patton would struggle to a 7.35 ERA with the Rangers and Cubs.
Patton went to Japan in 2017, and spent the next four years with Yokohama, working to a 3.68 ERA over 205 2/3 innings of relief in Nippon baseball. That was enough for the Rangers to bring him back to the US for another crack at the majors, and Patton delivered in his first year back, providing 42 1/3 innings of solid 3.83 ERA relief in 2021. Once again though, it didn’t last and Patton’s 2022 season would bring about a decline in velocity and a drop in strikeouts, and the Rangers released him in August 2022.
Red Sox Acquire Pablo Reyes
The Red Sox have acquired infielder Pablo Reyes from Oakland in exchange for cash considerations, the A’s have announced. Reyes had signed with Oakland on a minor league deal this past offseason.
The 29-year-old Reyes has appeared in parts of four seasons since making his MLB debut with the Pirates in 2018. That year, he hit well in 18 games for the Pirates, slashing .293/.349/.483 with a wRC+ of 126. That showing earned him an expanded role with the club in 2019, though he ultimately struggled over 157 plate appearances with the club to a slash line of just .203/.274/.322 that led the club to designate him for assignment in January of 2020. The following month, Reyes was served an 80-game suspension for PEDs, causing him to miss the entire pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Reyes latched on with the Brewers on a minor league deal ahead of the 2021 season, ultimately sticking with the club for two seasons. During that time, he slashed .258/.330/.344 with a wRC+ of 85 in 103 plate appearances before electing free agency after the 2022 season and signing with the A’s, for whom he did not appear in a major league game.
In addition to his time in the majors, Reyes has spent parts of 11 seasons in the minor leagues, including 1,265 plate appearances at Triple-A, which have resulted in a slash line of .274/.350/.419 at the highest minor league level. Much of Reyes’s value comes from his versatility, as the journeyman has appeared at every position on the diamond except for catcher.
Reyes figures to serve as infield depth in the upper minors for a Red Sox club that has struggled to keep players healthy in the middle infield this season. Infielders Trevor Story, Adalberto Mondesi, Yu Chang, Christian Arroyo, and center fielder Adam Duvall are all currently on the injured list after being penciled in for regular playing time up the middle for the Red Sox at one point or another.
Athletics Select Zach Neal, Place Mason Miller On IL With Forearm Tightness
4:10pm: The A’s announced Neal’s selection, along with the recall of right-hander Luis Medina. In corresponding moves, righty Rico Garcia was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas while righty Mason Miller was placed on the 15-day injured list. Catcher Manny Piña was transferred to the 60-day injured list to make room on the 40-man for Neal. Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle relays that Miller’s IL placement is due to right forearm tightness. Pina has been on the IL all year due to a lingering wrist issue and was recently pulled off his rehab after suffering a setback. He won’t be eligible to return until 60 days from the initial IL placement, which would be late May.
10:04am: The A’s are set to select the contract of righty Zach Neal prior to tonight’s game, reports Martin Gallegos of MLB.com (Twitter link). He’s expected to make a spot start tonight against Nathan Eovaldi and the Rangers. Neal inked a minor league deal with the Athletics last month.
It’ll be the second stint with Oakland for Neal, who also pitched there in 2016-17, logging a combined 4.89 ERA in 30 appearances (six starts). That accounts for the vast majority of Neal’s big league experience, though he also tossed one inning for the Dodgers in 2018. Overall, he carries a 4.94 ERA, 10.5% strikeout rate and 2% walk rate in 85 2/3 innings at the MLB level.
Now 34 years old, Neal hasn’t pitched in the Majors since that one-off appearance with the ’18 Dodgers. He spent the 2019-21 seasons with the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, working to a combined 4.49 ERA with a 12.4% strikeout rate against a 5.6% walk rate. Neal logged a 2.87 ERA in 100 1/3 innings in his first year with the Lions but was north of 5.00 in his second and third seasons in Japan.
Neal spent the 2022 season with the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate but was tagged for a 6.87 ERA in that hitter-friendly setting. He’s opened the 2023 campaign with similarly shaky results in another hitter-friendly setting, Las Vegas, allowing seven runs on eight hits and five walks with 11 punchouts in 11 1/3 innings (5.56 ERA).
The A’s have a full 40-man roster, so they’ll need to make a corresponding transaction to get Neal onto the roster. They’ve already turned over nearly their entire bullpen since the season began and could make yet another move there to accommodate Neal’s addition. Righty Zach Jackson and lefty Sam Moll are the only two members of Oakland’s Opening Day relief corps who are still currently in the bullpen.
A’s Change Target Site For Stadium In Las Vegas
The A’s plans for a stadium proposal in Las Vegas have changed. According to reports from both Mick Akers of the Review-Journal and Howard Stutz of the Nevada Independent, the A’s have entered into a new land agreement for the construction of a stadium at the current site of the Tropicana hotel on the Vegas Strip.
Initially, the organization had been focused on a site just west of the Strip. They even announced a land deal last month, but the Nevada Independent reported yesterday the franchise was looking into alternatives due to concerns about the extent of the public funding for their previous plan. They’ve quickly settled on a new location and are moving on from the land they’d planned to build on a few weeks ago.
The A’s had been set to propose a plan that called for $500MM in public funding via county-issued bonds to be paid by tax dollars related to the stadium project. Both the Nevada Independent and Review-Journal report that the team’s public funding ask for the new site will be $395MM. The hope is that by reducing their ask on public funding by $105MM, their proposal will be more palatable whenever it’s formally put in front of the Nevada legislature.
Whether that’ll prove to be the case remains to be seen. The A’s are seeking approval from county and state officials for the construction of a park that’d be ready by the start of the 2027 season. If they receive government approval and sign a binding stadium agreement, they could then petition MLB for relocation out of Oakland.
The A’s lease at Oakland’s RingCentral Coliseum runs through the end of next season. The organization has until January 15 to formally sign a contract for the construction of a new facility if they’re to retain their status as revenue sharing recipients in the collective bargaining agreement.
A’s Considering Multiple Potential Stadium Sites In Las Vegas
The A’s have reengaged with various landowners as they look into potential stadium sites in the Las Vegas area, report Howard Stutz and Tabitha Mueller of the Nevada Independent. According to the report, A’s officials have recently been in contact with land holders at multiple Vegas-area locations that had previously been under consideration.
It’s a bit of a surprise considering the A’s already announced a land purchase agreement for 49 acres west of the Vegas strip three weeks ago. The Nevada Independent report suggests the A’s are scoping alternatives as backup plans. While the agreed-upon site still seems to be the organization’s top priority, it’s somewhat notable they’re also exploring other options.
It seems there’s at least some concern the A’s won’t get legislative approval for their stadium plan at the site they’re already buying. To date, the club’s only agreement has been the land purchase. They have not finalized a stadium deal that’d set the stage for formal relocation. Indeed, they’ve still yet to even put an official proposal up for consideration in the Nevada legislature. They’ve expressed plans for a 35,000-seat ballpark that’d involve a $1 billion investment from the franchise in addition to $500MM in county-issued bonds to be paid by tax dollars related to the stadium project.
Without a formal proposal on the legislative docket, though, there remains some uncertainty whether the plan will be greenlit. “We haven’t gotten anything concrete yet of exactly what it is that they’re looking for, or what they would like us to take a look at,” a state senator told Stutz and Mueller last week. “So it’s tough to have conversations about what exactly we may or may not do, and time here is finite. … We only have a few more weeks left, so if there’s going to be a deal, it’s got to come very soon.”
While there’s no indication the A’s are seriously alarmed about the prospect of negotiations falling through, it’s clear they’ll have to accelerate talks in the relatively near future. The Nevada legislature remains in session through June 5, though they could call a special session to continue negotiations into the summer.
Oakland mayor Sheng Thao announced at the time the A’s entered into the Nevada land purchase she was ceasing discussions about a possible stadium project in Oakland’s Jack London Square. She later left open the possibility for reopening negotiations, though it’s clear the A’s efforts for a Vegas site would have to be in peril for that to happen at this point. There’s still nothing to suggest the A’s are considering sites outside Nevada.
In any event, there’s a clear target date for the A’s to have a binding stadium agreement in place. A provision in the collective bargaining agreement mandates that the organization have a formal stadium deal by next January 15 if they’re to retain their status as revenue sharing recipients. The A’s lease at RingCentral Coliseum runs through 2024.
Mason Miller Headed For Evaluation With Elbow Soreness
The Rangers look as if they’ll soon welcome back their star shortstop. Corey Seager is tentatively scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment on Thursday, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). That’d be a month to the day from when Seager strained his left hamstring while running the bases on April 11. The injury came with an initial four-week timeline and it seems that estimate will more or less be borne out.
Seager had been off to a fantastic start to the season. He was hitting .359/.469/.538 with more walks than strikeouts through his first 11 games. While it’s certainly unfortunate to lose a player of that caliber, the Rangers’ lineup has picked up the slack in his absence. Texas leads the majors in runs since Seager went down. That’s in part thanks to Ezequiel Durán, who seized the interim shortstop job with a .343/.378/.521 line in that time. While Seager is sure to return to shortstop after his minor league tune-up, Durán is likely to get plenty of run at designated hitter and in left field given that offensive outburst.
Elsewhere in the AL West:
- A’s rookie starter Mason Miller is headed for evaluation after experiencing some tightness in his throwing elbow, manager Mark Kotsay told the team’s beat (relayed by Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). According to Kotsay, initial indications are the discomfort is tied to the flexor muscle rather than a ligament issue, although further testing will provide more clarity. Miller has been one of the lone bright spots for the A’s in a dreary season. Through his first four major league starts, he’s worked to a 3.38 ERA while punching out just under 26% of batters faced. One of the sport’s hardest throwers, Miller has a strong prospect reputation but he’s thrown only 50 professional innings dating back to the 2021 draft because of various injuries.
- Astros outfielder Chas McCormick returns to the lineup after being reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Houston optioned infielder Rylan Bannon to Triple-A Sugar Land in a corresponding move. McCormick missed just under a month with a back issue. Before the injury, the right-handed hitter had been off to a quality .275/.383/.500 showing in 11 games. He’ll get the nod in center field for tonight’s game in Anaheim, hitting seventh against Angels starter Patrick Sandoval. Houston has yet to activate Michael Brantley for his season debut, though manager Dusty Baker reiterated tonight that the veteran left fielder isn’t far off (via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com).
- The Angels lost starter José Suarez to the injured list this afternoon. That leaves a vacancy in their six-man rotation, one which seems likely to be filled by Chase Silseth. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets that Silseth is expected to step into the starting staff when the club first needs a sixth starter next week in Baltimore. (A Thursday off day this week delays that decision.) Silseth has pitched out of the bullpen thus far but started seven games as a rookie last season. He threw 72 pitches in relief of Suarez yesterday and has worked two-plus innings in three of his four outings. Lefty Tucker Davidson, who’d been in consideration for a rotation spot at the start of the season, has worked in somewhat shorter relief stints in recent weeks. According to Fletcher, the organization views it as less of an adjustment for Silseth to stretch into rotation work given his comparatively higher pitch counts out of the bullpen.
Vida Blue Passes Away
Former MVP left-hander Vida Blue passed away at the age of 73, per an announcement by the Athletics.
“There are few players with a more decorated career than Vida Blue.” the A’s said in a statement, “Vida will always be a franchise legend and a friend. We send our deepest condolences to his family and friends during this arduous time.”
A six-time All Star and three-time World Series champion, Blue played seventeen seasons in the major leagues, with fifteen of them being played in the Bay Area. Blue debuted as a 19-year-old for the Athletics in 1969, their second season in Oakland after moving there from Kansas City after the 1967 season. Blue pitched just 80 2/3 innings over his first two seasons in the majors, but upon shifting into a full time role as a 21-year-old during the 1971 season, Blue would turn in an incredible performance.
Blue pitched 312 innings for the A’s over 39 starts in 1971, posting a microscopic 1.82 ERA that was 83% better than league average by measure of ERA+ and a 2.20 FIP that largely backed up Blue’s dazzling run prevention numbers. Blue’s phenomenal season saw him lead the league with eight shutouts while also posting league-best marks in ERA, FIP, strikeout rate, WHIP. Naturally, Blue’s performance earned him not only the first All Star appearance of his career, but a Cy Young award and the AL MVP award as well.
Blue would go on to pitch six more seasons in Oakland, posting a 3.10 ERA and 3.25 FIP while averaging over 250 innings of work per season. He would make two more All Star appearances, finish top 7 in AL Cy Young award voting three times, and receive MVP votes twice during that time before moving on to San Francisco in 1978 at the age of 28. Most notably, Blue was integral to the A’s three consecutive World Series championships from 1972-1974.
Blue’s first season in San Francisco was another remarkable one, as he posted a 2.79 ERA and 2.68 FIP en route to a fourth All Star appearance, a top three finish in Cy Young award voting, and a 12th place finish in NL MVP voting. He would pitch in San Francisco for three more seasons, picking up another two All Star appearances along the way, before pitching for the Kansas City Royals for two seasons. Blue returned to San Francisco in 1985, posting a 3.82 ERA in 287 2/3 innings between the 1985 and 1986 seasons before retiring at the end of the 1986 campaign.
Overall, Blue finished his playing career with a 209 wins, a 3.27 ERA, and 2,175 strikeouts in 3,343 1/3 innings. Following his playing career, Blue remained a fixture of Bay Area baseball thanks to his charitable efforts and dedication to promoting the sport, both in the US and abroad. We at MLB Trade Rumors offer our condolences to Blue’s family, friends, and all those mourning him today.
The A’s May Have Found A Hidden Gem On The Waiver Wire
2022 was a year of change for Brent Rooker, who was a member of four different organizations within the span of seven months. After five years with the Twins, Rooker was dealt along with Taylor Rogers to the Padres for Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagan in April 2022. From there, Rooker found himself on the move again at the trade deadline when San Diego sent him to the Royals for catcher Cam Gallagher. Rooker finished out the season in K.C. but was designated for assignment in November, paving the way for the Athletics to claim him off waivers.
As Rooker noted in a chat with MLBTR readers back in February, the specific timing of the trades made things particularly difficult since “one came on Opening Day of the Major League season and one was the very last deal of the deadline. I knew it was definitely possible that I was going to get moved at the deadline but once we reached 4:00 [PM EST], I thought I was safe, only to get called about 15 minutes later.”
“The moving around is tough and its hard to get settled or into a routine with so much constant change. That being said, its just part of the job and something you have to learn to work through. I’m incredibly excited to be with Oakland and hope to play well and earn some major league opportunities!”
Stability isn’t usually a word associated with an A’s franchise that has made a habit of roster overhauls, including the latest fire sale that has seen the Athletics part ways with several prominent veterans as part of the latest rebuild. The result hasn’t been pretty, as the A’s entered play today with a league-worst 7-26 record, and the increasing possibility of a move to Las Vegas has led to a lot of public discord amongst Oakland fans.
Though it all, however, Rooker has become a major bright spot in the early portion of the 2023 season. Entering the year with a career .200/.289/.379 slash line over 270 plate appearances in the majors, Rooker has exploded to hit .333/.442/.726 with 10 home runs over his first 104 PA in an Athletics uniform. Rooker’s slugging percentage and 218 wRC+ lead all qualifies hitters, and his on-base percentage also leads the American League.
This kind of huge breakout caught even Rooker himself a little off-guard. “In a vacuum, the numbers themselves are more than I ever thought I could do,” Rooker told MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos and other reporters last week. “That’s not taking away the confidence I have in myself. That kind of production for a month’s worth of games is probably past even my expectations of myself, so that’s been a pleasant surprise for me.”
Such high-level production isn’t totally alien to Rooker, who has pretty consistently mashed minor league pitching over five seasons on the farm. This includes a career .274/.387/.590 slash line over 906 PA at the Triple-A level, which is a standout performance even with the caveat of 273 of those plate appearances coming in the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League (with the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate). Rooker also carried some prospect pedigree as the 35th overall pick of the 2017 draft, and he was ranked 92nd on Baseball America’s top-100 prospects list prior to the 2018 season.
Despite this resume, Rooker couldn’t really break though on a Minnesota team that already had multiple up-and-coming outfielders on the active roster or in the farm system all vying for playing time. Rooker’s cause wasn’t helped when he suffered a fractured forearm in just his seventh big league game in 2020, and his only other extended taste of MLB playing time came in 2021, when he batted .201/.291/.397 over 213 PA for the Twins.
Still, that rough season had just enough glimmers of hope for Rooker that he told Gallegos and company that it has contributed to his big 2023 numbers. “The last two years, I’ve just been trying to figure out how to extend those good times that I had,” Rooker said. “I knew I could do it because I’d have weeks in Minnesota where I’d hit really well with a lot of success. That put it in my head and heart that I was good enough to do it. I just had to figure out how to do it for longer periods of time.”
It is probably safe to assume that some regression is inevitable, due to both Rookier’s .340 BABIP and the lack of track record to back up his early standing as an elite hitter. That said, there hasn’t been much luck in what Rooker has been doing, as his .479 wOBA is above his xwOBA….but not by much, as Rooker’s .447 xwOBA is still in the 99th percentile of all hitters. His barrel rate and walk rate are also both outstanding, and his overall hard-hit ball rate is well above league average. Strikeouts have been a persistent issue for Rooker throughout his career, but cutting his strikeout rate down to even a modest 22.1% (within the 49th percentile of hitters) has helped greatly, given what Rooker is doing with all that extra contact.
Landing a possible late bloomer on the waiver wire is a dream for any team, particularly a rebuilding Oakland club in sore need of some good news. Rooker entered the season with only one year and 59 days (1.059) of MLB service time, so he wouldn’t even gain arbitration eligibility until after the 2024 season, and free agency until after the 2017 season. Naturally, five great weeks doesn’t automatically turn a 28-year-old player into a building block, but if nothing else, Rooker’s presence gives the Athletics something to think about as they approach the trade deadline.
To be clear, all of that team control might make it unlikely that Rooker himself is traded, as the A’s might be intrigued enough to see what they really have in the outfielder beyond 2023. The idea can’t be entirely ruled out given the Athletics’ scored-earth approach to their rebuild process, but dealing Rooker after a big first half might backfire if Rooker does continue to be a quality regular going forward — “selling high” would perhaps become selling too soon.
Rooker has seen a lot of time at DH, and has seen some time in both corner outfield positions with borderline passable glovework. Not that Rooker is in any danger of losing at-bats at this point, but if any of Ramon Laureano, Tony Kemp, or Jesus Aguilar are moved at the deadline, that just opens up more playing time for Conner Capel or JJ Bleday, with Rooker picking up any extra at-bats in the corner outfield or at DH. Kemp and Aguilar are the likeliest to be moved since they aren’t under contract beyond 2023, and while Laureano is arbitration-controlled through 2025, he has received some trade interest in the past.
Athletics Release Kevin Cron
The Athletics have released first baseman Kevin Cron, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
Cron, 30, signed a minor league deal with the A’s in the offseason but hit just .133/.152/.156 through 46 plate appearances with the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators. He walked in just 2.2% of those trips to the plate and was struck out in 39.1% of them. Given that rough showing, the club has moved on and freed him up to pursue his next opportunity.
He’s generally been considered a bat-first type of player throughout his career, so the offensive struggles really limit his value. He mashed all through the minor leagues with the Diamondbacks, including a .331/.449/.777 showing at Triple-A in 2019, and eventually got up to the majors. Unfortunately, he hit just .170/.245/.420 in 98 plate appearances over 2019 and 2020 and was released after the latter season.
He tried to take his skills overseas, signing with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp for 2021, eventually hitting a decent .231/.270/.431. He then joined the SSG Landers of the KBO League for 2022 but hit a meager .222/.255/.420 there before returning to North America this year.
