FanPost

Trade Possibilities - 2021-2022 Offseason

Hi All,

There’s been a lot of talk about potential trades the A’s might make this offseason to unload some payroll, acquire younger players, or potentially just do a full rebuild. I’m big into looking at potential trades, especially now that we have the help of our friends over at Baseball Trade Values, and wanted to throw together a list of options I have come up with so far. This will also give other people the opportunity to share ideas they’ve had so far if they want.

In terms of our method for trading this offseason, and what we want to accomplish, there are multiple avenues for the team to go down, as I mentioned above. I am in favor of retooling on the fly. I know that didn’t work very well for us after the 2014 season, but I think that if we make a couple trades from our group of expensive players/stars, acquire mostly young MLB players who have control and will be solid contributors for us going forward, and used the money saved to make some savvy Free Agent signings, we can still be a competitive team going forward.

I think there are four main guys we can look at trading, who will give us salary relief and bring back solid returns: Chris Bassitt (SP), Sean Manaea (SP), Matt Chapman (3B), and Matt Olson (1B).

There are a couple others you could consider, who have more control, like Frankie Montas on the pitching side and Ramon Laureano on the position player side, but I want to keep the guys who have more control so they can keep contributing.

Below, I’ve laid out some trade options I’ve come up with for each of the top four. My method for retooling only would mean that I’d like to trade one of the two pitchers and one of the two position players. For example, my preferred route would be to trade Chapman and Manaea (I think Olson is harder to replace right now and Bassitt will have more trade deadline value next year, if it comes to that). All of the trades I’ve included were made and check out on BTV, and tried to focus on realistic trades with teams who could actually use those players.

Let me know what you think and feel free to put your own trade ideas in the comments. The more possibilities, the better!

Matt Chapman:

Traded to Toronto Blue Jays for: Cavan Biggio (2B), Nate Pearson (SP), and Santiago Espinal (3B)

  • This seemed like a bit of an overpay to me, but it checks out on BTV. I think Biggio and Pearson’s values are way down because of injuries. Along with Espinal though, they give us young, exciting talent at multiple positions who will contribute right away and are under control for years to come. Biggio is a leadoff option, Pearson is a high-ceiling pitcher, and Espinal could be a steal.

Traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for: Josh Lowe (OF) and Brent Honeywell (SP)

…OR to the Tampa Bay Rays with Sean Manaea for: Vidal Brujan (2B), Honeywell, and Tommy Romero (SP)

  • The first trade really depends on if the Rays would give up Lowe, as some on BTV commented that he is their CF of the future. If we could get him, he gives us a high level OF prospect who can contribute right away, along with a former top prospect who has rebuilt his value in Honeywell, who can also likely contribute right away.
  • The combined trade with Manaea gives us a higher ranked prospect, plus an extra pitcher in Romero who dominated in AAA this year, and would likely compete for a rotation spot. Tampa is a team who you could maybe buck the values on BTV with a little, since they seem to trade based on need. You could maybe get Brujan in the trade for Chapman alone, since he is seriously blocked at the moment.

You could do a trade of Chapman to the New York Mets, as he’d be a fit there, but you can take the trade for Manaea to the Mets below and just add an extra piece.

Matt Olson:

Traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for: Vidal Brujan, Brent Honeywell, and Tommy Romero

  • This is the same as the trade for Chapman and Manaea, as his value is about the same as the two of them combined. You could combine him with Manaea and include Josh Lowe in the trade also for a really exciting return package that works on BTV, but I doubt Tampa would give up both of those guys. Honestly, I don’t know if either Chapman or Olson is a very good fit for Tampa, but people have talked about it on AN, so I threw a trade together. At first base, you could at least see them wanting to upgrade, but they could probably use a right handed hitter more.

Traded to the New York Yankees for: Luis Gil (SP), Oswaldo Peraza (SS), Luke Voit (1B, DH), and Andrew Velazquez (SS)

  • The Yankees may be looking at first baseman, and while they may prefer to pursue Rizzo or Freeman in free agency, Olson would be attractive to them for his lower price tag. We get a big package from them that includes a young starter in Gil with great upside, a potential 1B replacement or solid DH in Voit, a potential shortstop (for now) in Velazquez, and a high ranked shortstop prospect in Peraza who is likely to make his debut in 2022.

Traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for: Garret Mitchell (OF), Tyrone Taylor (OF), Eric Lauer (SP), and Rowdy Tellez (1B, DH)

  • I’m not super excited about this one, as Milwaukee was hard to make a good package with, unless you went solely with prospects, but we still get some good pieces. Taylor can go straight into our 2022 OF, and seems to be a solid overall player at a corner spot. Lauer goes into the back half of our rotation, and replaces the pitcher we trade. Tellez fills a similar role as Voit from the last trade, and I think will really hit if he gets to play.

I tried to do a trade of Olson to the Red Sox, but it didn’t really work out. They’d have to give us Tristan Casas+, and I don’t think they’ll do that.

Sean Manaea/Chris Bassitt:

I lump them together because they’re in the same boat, and have similar trade value. It’s basically whoever the other team prefers. There are definitely a lot more options you could create for these two, as a lot of teams can always use pitching.

Traded to the New Yor Mets for: JD Davis (DH, Util), Luis Guillorme (SS), Trevor Williams (SP), and Jaylen Palmer (SS, OF)

  • This is one where I’ve played around with it for a couple different options, particularly for the fourth piece. You get three contributors right away though. Williams is only under control for one year, but he gives you a cheap option to potentially replace Manaea, and he’s had success in the past and could rebound pitching for the A’s (he was good again after leaving Wrigley for Citi Field). Davis gives us a solid DH and would likely hit in the middle of our lineup. His main issue has been injuries, but I think DH’ing will help with that, and even though he belongs in that spot, he can back up at 1B, 3B and LF if needed (he has 3 years of control, surprisingly). Guillorme becomes our SS and is under control for 5 years. He doesn’t offer huge upside, but he’s definitely better than Andrus and does some things on both sides of the ball (if it isn’t clear, Andrus would be out or at least benched in my plan).

Traded to the New York Yankees for: Luis Gil (SP), Luke Voit (DH, 1B), and Lucas Luetge (RP)

  • Similar concept as the trade above. This time the bigger get is the replacement starter in Gil, a top prospect who made a solid MLB debut this year and would step right into our rotation. We also get a DH with several years of control, who can back up 1B as well. Lastly, we get a reliever who made a triumphant return to MLB this year after several seasons away and was really good. He’s a good lefty reliever that we could sorely use, and is under control for 3 more seasons. The only wrinkle with these Yankee trades is that I don’t know if they’ll give up Gil (IMO, I think his trade value is higher than what I saw on BTV). If that’s the case, you could maybe substitute for Clarke Schmidt plus another small piece.

That’s all I have as of now. I’ll post more in the comments if I come up with them. Like I said, feel free to post any ideas you have, or alterations to the ones I shared here.