Oakland Pulls Off Huge Deal with Bay Area Rival
May 21st, 2016
There's been much chatter in recent weeks from people around baseball about the lack of any significant transactions in the David Forst era of Oakland Athletics baseball. Fans were skeptical that Forst could pull off the same big, exciting move that Executive VP of Baseball Operations Billy Beane used to pull off during his heyday. However Forst's first trade sure is a doozy, as it was announced that 7 players would be moving between Oakland and San Francisco.
The Giants will receive CF Coco Crisp, 2B Chris Coghlan, SP Rich Hill and minor league SP Xavier Altamirano while the A's will receive CF Denard Span and minor league starters Clayton Blackburn and Ty Blach. This trade is seen by many within the league as highway robbery for Oakland. Not only does Oakland clear close to $20 million off the books for this season, but they also receive two top 50 prospects and a serviceable player in Denard Span.
Crisp (.196/.289/.393, 5 HR, 14 RBI) and Coghlan (.219/.270/.375, 3 HR, 9 RBI) will immediately become starters in a weak Giants outfield that's been decimated by injuries to Hunter Pence and Jarret Parker, while Rich Hill (2-4, 5.53 ERA) will be used to bolster a bullpen that ranks 10th in the National League. Hill is much more highly regarded coming out of the bullpen and his numbers should improve from that move. Altamirano will report to the Giants Dominican Rookie League team.
As mentioned earlier, it is believed that the Athletics received the better haul compared to the Giants. Denard Span (.294/.332/.439, 2 HR, 23 RBI, 6 SB) will take over CF duties and bat leadoff for the offensively challenged A's. He is seen as an upgrade over Crisp and is making a very affordable $3 million this season (his salary jumps to $9 million in the 2nd and 3rd years with a $12 million team option for the 4th). But the real prize is SP Clayton Blackburn who will join the Major League team tomorrow and is expected to make his first start in an Athletics uniform sometime in the next few days.
Blackburn made his major league debut earlier this season as an emergency starter with the Giants and pitched 8 innings, allowing 2 hits and 1 run while striking out 9. He had a 2.73 ERA in Triple-A Sacramento over 52.2 innings. His Triple-A teammate Ty Blach will hope to join him soon on the big league level as he was assigned to Triple-A Nashville. Blach is 2-2 with a 3.56 ERA in 9 starts at Triple-A this season. He is seen as a serviceable back end starter who doesn't have excellent stuff, but makes up for that with incredible control and movement on his pitches.
Jed Lowrie (.263/.284/.354) is expected to take back the starting second baseman job. He was originally platooning with Coghlan. In addition, the A's called up IF Josh Rodriguez to take the utility infielder role and OF Andrew Lambo to take over the backup outfielder role from Jake Smolinski.