Oakland A’s acquire pitcher Chris Hatcher from Dodgers

The A’s announced the acquisition of Chris Hatcher from the Dodgers in exchange for $500k in international bonus money.

Hatcher has appeared in 26 games for the Dodgers this year, posting a 4.66 ERA over 26.2 innings. He’s shown reasonable stuff over his career, consistently striking out batters with enough frequency to spend the vast majority of his time on a big league roster.

He’s nearing his age 32 season, though, so this isn’t an upside buy. Just your run of the mill August move to give the A’s a warm body to run out the clock. Are you stoked? I’m stoked.

Hatcher will slot into the bullpen, likely taking a spot from Josh Smith or Michael Brady. He’s probably an upgrade over either of those two, and he’s got the similar ability to throw multiple innings. A corresponding move has yet to be announced.

If you’re wondering about the A’s trading away their international slot money, don’t be too concerned. The A’s are in the penalty box for going over their limit in the last international signing cycle, meaning the A’s are capped at spending $300k on a single international player in this year’s class. That severely limits what they can do with that money, and trades like these won’t cause them to lose out on any impact players.