Elephant Rumblings: A’s make first trade of offseason

Happy Thursday, AN!

The A’s made their first trade of the off-season late last night, bringing in switch-hitting infielder Abraham Toro in from the Milwaukee Brewers for a minor league pitcher.

Toro now joins Miguel Andujar as two new faces that have joined the mix for next season. Both have a history of hitting well in the top levels of the minor leagues so these two early additions tell you where the focus is going to be this offseason: bats, bats, bats. Now, adding these two certainly helps boost depth and are nice little rolls of the dice but they’re no sure upgrade right now.

We already know Zack Gelof is entrenched as the second baseman while Ryan Noda is likely to get plenty of regular at-bats at first base. The other two infield spots are sort of up for grabs. Jordan Diaz didn’t hit too much this past season so it stands to reason that he’ll need to perform better than these two. Andujar can’t really play third base anymore but Toro can, and it seems like the A’s are happy for these two to duke it out for playing time. Expect to see more buy-low moves to add hitting

MLB News & Interest:

• Gerrit Cole, Blake Snell win Cy Young awards
• Orioles’ Hyde, Marlins’ Schumaker win Manager of the Year awards
• MLB considering shorter pitch clock with runners on base
• Giants, Padres, Dodgers interested in Snell
• Stanton’s agent responds to Cashman, warns FA’s against signing with Yankees
• Guardians designate Cal Quantrill for assignment
• Former pitcher Adam Plutko eyeing MLB return
• Today in Baseball History

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