MLB Hot Stove rumors: A's ready to deal veterans Gray, Vogt, Doolittle?
A report indicates that the A's will talk about Gray, Vogt and Doolittle
By
Matt Snyder
•
2 min read
This offseason in Major League Baseball is going to be an interesting one on the trade front because 1) the free agency class is pretty bad and 2) far more teams believe they are contenders than non-contenders for 2017. Thus, there are very few teams in sell mode, but there's likely to be huge demand in the trade market for teams to sell.
One of the few teams that appears to be an obvious seller is the Oakland Athletics. On that front, we get the following from Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports regarding the possible availability of catcher Stephen Vogt, starting pitcher Sonny Gray and reliever Sean Doolittle:
The A's are not shopping any of those players, according to major-league sources -- heavens, no, teams never shop players, they only listen!
A's officials, however, recognize that the team is unlikely to compete for the AL West title in 2017, leaving them open-minded to trade proposals for their top players.
The A's intend to build around a core of talented young starting pitchers -- Sean Manaea, Jharel Cotton, et al. The goal of any trade would be to add players at the same level of service or below, increasing the team's depth going forward.
Gray is the toughest name to pin down here. He's coming off a season in which he missed at least 10 starts due to injury and posted easily the worst year of his career with a 5.69 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. Conventional wisdom is that it's stupid to "sell low" and Gray's stock would appear to be very low after that season.
Let's keep a few factors in mind, though. Gray finished third in the AL Cy Young voting in 2015. He's 27 years old and now hitting arbitration -- so his salary will start going way up from the $527,500 he took home last year. And what if he has another bad year? All of a sudden, the A's can't get the haul they could. Combine all this with the fact that the starting pitching market in free agency is awful, and maybe this offseason is a more opportune time to deal Gray than anywhere in the future.
It'll be a tough call for A's boss Billy Beane, that's for sure. But the smart money is he gets some legitimate offers on Gray.
Vogt also made less than $600,000 last season and now hits arbitration after two straight All-Star seasons. So he'll be making a lot more next season as well. There are a few quality catchers on the free-agent market (such as Matt Wieters and a recovering Wilson Ramos), so Beane might wait to deal Vogt until those options are off the market -- unless something huge falls into his lap, of course. Given that Vogt is 32, one wouldn't think he'd net a huge return anyway.
Doolittle was stellar in 2014, but injuries have plagued him since. He worked 39 innings last season, pitching to a 3.23 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 45 strikeouts. He's signed through 2018 for roughly $7 million total with two club options through 2020. There should be a huge market for relief pitchers, too.
If the A's are serious about building around their youngest players, a few more names make sense to be available. Closer Ryan Madson is 35 and signed through 2018. What about Khris Davis? He might seem very young, but he'll be 29 next season. He's hitting arbitration for the first time this offseason and just posted a 42-homer, 102-RBI season.
As always with the A's, though, expect action and don't be surprised by anything.
