Next few weeks may determine Beane's trading plans for A's roster
Oakland Athletics fans had a scare on Tuesday morning when ace Sonny Gray was scratched from his scheduled start against the Colorado Rockies. Within the roughly 15-minute span between news trickling out on Twitter of the scratch and the eventual explanation (he has the flu), fans feared the worst: had Billy Beane traded Gray to a contender for a package of prospects?
To most fan bases, such a thought might seem ludicrous, but in A's land, you just never know. July 4 will be the one-year anniversary of Beane shipping then-No. 1 prospect Addison Russell to the Chicago Cubs for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel, so he has a precedent for jump-starting trade season.
With the 35-44 A's still mired in last place in the AL West (though they're nipping at the heels of the under-performing Seattle Mariners), CSN Bay Area's Joe Stiglich spoke with Beane on Monday regarding the chances of unloading veteran assets with expiring contracts.
Beane's always full of coy answers, but he did indicate to Stiglich that how the A's play in the near future will determine the front office's game plan: "Time will tell, it’s an important time period. Despite having played better in the last couple weeks, we’re still in quite a hole. Any definitive direction would be decided by how we do moving forward.”
After winning five games in a row last week, the A's dropped three straight before winning on Monday night. Beane's quotes imply that a prolonged hot streak would do wonders for his confidence level in labeling the club a 'contender' - or at least a club that wouldn't completely shed itself of veterans: “It’s really depending on how you’re playing and where you’re headed. Just about any deficit can be overtaken if you’re clicking as a club. Case in point, 2012.”
That 2012 club overcame a huge AL West deficit to steal the division away from the Texas Rangers on the final day of the regular season, and while that can't be expected in 2015, it also wasn't expected in 2012. The rest of the West is uneven at best, as only the Houston Astros have managed to have a long hold on top of the division.
How the A's play over the next week and a half - against the Rockies, Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, and Cleveland Indians - could be a huge factor in determining what Beane opts to do after the All-Star Break. If he does decide to deal, look for the A's to replenish their depleted farm system. As he told Stiglich to that effect, “At some point, if we consider going another direction (and selling), we’re probably best served to take a (look at) depth and rebuild our farm system. That’s the currency for us. We fully expected (the farm system) not to be at its peak because we’ve traded a lot of players.”
