Billy Beane: I just cannot see the A's trading Sonny Gray or Josh Reddick

Oakland Athletics Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Billy Beane told Peter Gammons that both Sonny Gray and Josh Reddick are off of the trade market this offseason. Gammons speculates that Gray is at the peak of his trade value if Beane wanted to move him, but Beane remains adamant that he does not want ot do that. From Gammonsdaily.com:

Beane says "trading Gray is not something I think we could do. We have to put a representative product on the field, and continue to dream we get a ballpark. ... I just cannot see us trading Gray or (Josh) Reddick."

Beane also mentioned that Sean Manaea is a possibility to join the rotation in 2016, as well as adding Jarrod Parker to a list of what appears to be a tentative starting rotation. One notable omission from that list was Jesse Chavez, who is in his final year of club control.

Gammons also asked Beane about Oakland's prospects working their ways through the farm system, and he replied, "We have some very good kids, ... [b]ut it will take a couple of years for them to impact us." As for whether the A's can afford Gray by that point, Beane said, "Good question, but I think so."

Payroll is projected to stay fairly flat over the next three seasons with players like Coco Crisp and Billy Butler falling off the roster in that period. If many of Oakland's position player prospects get to the major leagues by 2018, much of the roster could be made up of pre-arbitration players at the minimum salary stepping into roles vacated by more expensive players allowed to reach free agency or traded.

Teams may begin to sign free agents from other clubs beginning 9PM Pacific Time Friday.