A's fans aren't particularly happy with Billy Butler. This is fairly obvious. Oakland signed him to a 3 year, $10 million deal in mid to late November, right around the same time Oakland traded away stud and MVP Josh Donaldson. No one really understood why the A's gave Butler this money instead of Donaldson. Nobody quite understood why the front office would give Butler this large amount of money in the first place, regardless. Billy Beane worked hard to justify the signing, with claims that Butler would serve to destroy left-handed pitching.
He didn't. Butler had a pretty mediocre year with the A's, during a pretty bad year - which made everyone hate Billy even more.
If you look at Butler's stats on their own, they look ... decent. He hit 15 homers. He drove in 65 runs. He posted a .323 OBP. And he played 151 games. This would be a pretty solid stat line for a player who played decent defense in a position like 2B or LF. However, Billy Butler is a DH. Not even a 1B/DH... He's a DH. He's supposed to hit the ball often and hard. He's supposed to hit like 2012 Billy Butler, who had 29 HR, 107 RBI, and a 138 OPS+. This is what the A's were hoping for when they signed him.
It appears that Butler peaked early, at the age of 26. And now, the A's are stuck with a highly-paid DH entering his age 30 season, praying for a comeback year... praying for a comeback year for the fourth year in a row. Butler was good very young and it seems he has dropped off.
Now, the point of all of this is to wonder: what to do with him?
Trade him? Would the A's be able to find a suitor who would take on Butler's contract?
Would the A's release Billy? Maybe they could fill that roster spot with an inexpensive, solid hitter.
I argue that the A's should hold on to Billy Butler. I do think that they should at least explore trade options. However, Butler puts up solid enough numbers for the A's to be at least kind of comfortable keeping him around...
You know what ... I tried... I tried putting up an argument that could prove Butler is due for a good season. It is not easy, let me tell you. I've looked at the numbers. It's almost a perfect bell curve of mediocre to good to very good to good to mediocre. It's actually kind of remarkable. All we A's fans can do is just hope that he trends upward again. Hopefully he can hit into fewer double plays? That would help...
Honestly, they just need to get rid of him. Butler kind of reminds me of the Golden State Warriors and their former player David Lee...
They payed Lee a large sum while he was an All Star. Then he sat on the bench constantly to let better players play. I would not be sad to see Butler sitting on the bench, just like David Lee. And hopefully, just the Warriors, the A's can trade him away to a crappy Boston team.
