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John Hickey of the Oakland Tribune tweets that the Oakland Athletics are listening to the Indians about offers for A's first baseman/outfielder Brandon Moss:
A source close to #Athletics says club is listening to #Indians, who are interested in getting 1B/OF Brandon Moss from the A's.
— John Hickey (@JHickey3) December 3, 2014
Looking at middle infield options, there are not a lot of obvious choices for an even exchange for Moss, who has two seasons of team control remaining and is coming off labrum repair and cartilage cleanup of his right hip, avoiding microfracture surgery.
Middle infield help?
It seems all of the middle infield pieces the A's could go after are either not good enough for Moss alone or will need other pieces to accompany Moss to trade for.
Second baseman Jason Kipnis has had his arbitration years bought out and then some already, with $50 million remaining on a deal that will take him through the next six seasons, his age-33 season in 2020. Kipnis is coming off a down year that included missing 26 games in May from an oblique strain. Middle infielder Jose Ramirez had a 1.8 fWAR rookie campaign in 68 games. Turning 22 next season, Ramirez has six seasons of control left. Both seem to have too many years left to be a match for Moss.
Down the depth chart is Mike Aviles, who becomes a free agent in 2016, will earn $3.5 million in 2015, and will be 34 years old. Fangraphs has not been impressed with his recent campaigns, rating him essentially replacement level in the last two seasons with the Indians, and the Steamer projection expecting more of the same. Also does not seem to be a good fit.
If you go down the list to other middle infielders, there's Zach Walters who came up in the minors as a shortstop but also has six years of control, #1 Baseball America Indians prospect Francisco Lindor, #8 prospect Erik Gonzalez (who only advanced to Double-A in 2014), Joe Wendle, and Ronny Rodriguez.
Keep your ears open as we head into next week's Winter Meetings.
