Let's Make a Deal: Who Do the Athletics Have to Offer in Trades this Summer?

Ah yes, trade deadline speculation is well underway as we delve into the heart of the summer. There is many a team in Major League Baseball that will be out of contention by late July, ready to send out their best players for a plunder of prospects. 

One of the least-surprising members of this group: the Oakland Athletics. The A’s entered play on Friday riding a six-game losing streak, with a 26-45 record that plants them dead last in the AL West. They are 14 games out of first place with little hope of a turnaround.

There’s nonstop chatter around the A’s shopping their flame-throwing starter turned reliever Mason Miller, who has topped out on radar guns at 103.7 MPH. Every front office running teams in contention is ready to give what it takes to get the young buck out of Pittsburgh. But the A’s have more than just Miller to offer. 

In the case of the Minnesota Twins, what they require most is, you guessed it, more pitching. The depth in the starting rotation is beginning to look depleted. Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober both hold ERA’s north of 5 and Louie Varland has looked uneven in Triple-A, although he returned to the Twins on Tuesday night and looked more or less like his old self. One significant injury to a starter would test the team's iffy rotation depth.

The Twins may need extra arms in both the rotation and their bullpen to catch up and put some ground between the Royals and Guardians if they hope to defend the American League Central Division title. Here are five names that are suitable candidates for the Twins to page Oakland about. 

JP Sears
Behind Miller, Sears will likely be the second-most desired player Oakland can offer up via trade. Sears has been the anchor of the Athletics rotation, leading the team in starts (14), innings pitched (78.1), WHIP (1.15), and opponents batting average (.232). 

His 4.02 ERA isn’t the most glamorous in the league, but it’s something the Twins can work with given their reluctance for employing left-handed starters over the last three seasons. The Twins haven’t had a full-time lefty starter in their rotation since J.A. Happ in 2021, but Happ was in his age 38 season while Sears is only in his age 28 season. 

Sears also has a lot to offer with his pitching arsenal: sweeper, fastball, changeup, sinker, and slider. His go-to pitch is not a fastball but his sweeper which he has thrown 347 times this season and opposing hitters are a dismal 14-for-86 (.163 batting average) against it. 

The Twins may not need to do much tinkering around with his sweeper with how dominant it already is, but the rest of his pitching arsenal could use some work. The biggest challenge that could come with acquiring Sears is the return package, as the lefty still has five seasons of team control until 2029. The friendly team control would drive the price up, but it may be one the Twins are willing to bite if Sears isn’t alone in a deal. 

Lucas Erceg 
If you haven’t looked into Erceg’s Baseball Savant page before, here’s a quick glimpse of it. 

The second-year right-hander has been a bit of a hidden gem in the A’s bullpen this season, posting a 3.57 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, .188 opponents average, and a 31% K-rate. One of the more noticeable red dots from Erceg’s percentile rankings is his hard-hit rate, which sits in the 96th percentile of MLB pitchers at 28 percent. Erceg has the 14th-best rate in all of MLB and sits ahead of any Twins reliever on these rankings.

The one weakness for Erceg this season has been his go-to secondary pitch, his changeup. He’s thrown it 88 times this season and hitters have tallied a .471 batting average and .882 slugging percentage against the pitch.  

Erceg returned to the A’s bullpen Wednesday night after a stint on the 15-day IL with a forearm strain. He’d been experiencing tightness in his throwing arm since the end of May, and the A’s did their part to be precocious to keep him healthy following the suspension of Michael Kelly for the rest of the year for violating MLB’s gambling policies.

If Erceg can keep up being the pitcher he was before the IL stint and improve the movement of his changeup, he’d be a formidable asset to any team seeking him this trade deadline. Understandably, Twins fans might be a little timid about targeting a pitcher with recent arm concerns.

T.J. McFarland 
McFarland has been the workhorse out of the A’s bullpen this season appearing in a team-leading 34 games, tied with three other relievers for the second most in baseball. 

The newly minted 35-year-old journeyman reliever has held a solid 3.67 ERA and 1.26 WHIP, but his fastball velocity is one of the lowest in all of baseball averaging out at 87.7 MPH. The low fastball velocity could make McFarland less of an attractive trade target, but he’s getting outs, even if it’s more of a pitch-to-contact method. 

The benefit of acquiring McFarland is how cheap his contract is, as he’s only earning $850,000 this season and will be a free agent this upcoming off-season. The cost of acquiring McFarland will not be high and if he doesn’t turn out as well, there isn’t as much salary for the money-conscious Twins or any team to eat if things don’t pan out well. 

Hogan Harris
Another lefty in the A’s rotation, Harris began his season at Triple-A Las Vegas with dismal results on the mound. But since the Athletics called him back up full-time on May 30, he’s been one of their most consistent pitchers. 

Harris has a 2.49 ERA, 1.11 WHIP. .211 opponents batting average, in 25.1 innings across five games and three starts. The sample size is still small for Harris but he’s held up very well against opponents averaging five innings and only one earned run over his last three starts.

The biggest area Harris needs improvement with is his command of off-speed pitches. His curveball, slider, and changeup have not seen nearly as great command in the strike zone as his fastball and are a major factor in his issuing 33 walks in 55 innings between the minors and majors.

The Twins could tweak Harris’s command to his advantage if they pursue him in a trade deal. And while Oakland is currently using Harris as a starter, he could pan out greatly as a long-relief option if push comes to shove. 

Brent Rooker
This one is more for fun speculation of a reunion rather than the Twins' need for him. Rooker has become the full-time designated hitter for the A’s over the last year. He has played in 14 of his 66 games in the outfield this season, but defensive limitation is what keeps Rooker from being viable for a reunion.

Rooker is continuing his hot hitting that put him on the national baseball map last season and earned him his first-ever All-Star nod. He leads Oakland in home runs (13), RBI (40), slugging percentage (.522) and OPS (.868). 

If the Twins were to pursue a reunion with Rooker, he’d be best utilized in the lineup as a replacement for Manuel Margot. But Margot is doing the job he needs to as a platoon outfielder and hitting off left-handed pitching holding a .784 OPS on the season against lefties 

Rooker will likely be moved this July to a contending team, but it won’t be Minnesota as the reunion will provide more of a roster crunch than versatility with the ever-revolving door of platoon options Twins manager Rocco Baldelli loves to have. 

Oakland still has plenty to offer the Twins in the month to come. As long as these five players maintain the success they’ve had this season, it’s very possible at least one of them could very well be a part of the Twins' push to repeat as AL Central Champions. 

And Twins fans will have plenty of opportunities to get familiar with these Oakland A's, as they're currently in town for a series at Target Field and the two teams will face off at the Coliseum next weekend. Which players on their roster pique your interest as fits for the Twins?