Doctor Gast

I have not heard the A's FO say they were in a full rebuilding mode. I did hear them say that they were reducing salary (salary dumping) and that is the prime reason for the tear down. So I can see them accepting Arraez as part of the transitional piece until they go thru another salary dumping before they move. If OAK demands Lewis or Martin, I'd walk away. Like I said prior, we are so very thin at our most crucial positions CF, SS and C, to me it doesn't make sense to trade from our weakness. LAD is so very deep at CF with true MLB ready CFs, yet they just signed Kevin Pillar. How many true MLB ready CFs do we have to back up Buxton - ZERO. If Arraez or Larnach isn't exceptable to OAK, I'd be OK with any other prospect combination that does not include Lewis or Martin especially Lewis ( he has the highest upside, most intangibles and lower trade value).

Thanks Otto , that's what I thought. So it makes sense, something to gain nothing to lose

Whenever we need to add further to the 40 man and Romero is dropped. If he passes waivers will he be place on our farm system or National's? He could develop into a very good reliver.

I believe Arraez is worth more because he has proven himself. According to BTV Arraez has a higher trading value than any of these. OAK is going through a salary dump not necessarily a rebuild. So they may consider Arraez if he's offered

I would not be willing to trade 2 from this list unless it includes the last 2. OAK needs a 2B/3B so Arraez will be attractive to them. We have over abundance of good bat and poor glove types and lack depth at key positions so I'd keep both Lewis and Martin (trading either would be a big mistake). So trading Arraez and Larnach would make the most sense if they'd go it. If not maybe Arraez and Balazovik, probably both trades would need a 3rd piece for Montas

Bassit went pretty cheap so if we would've acted sooner w/ OAK and gave them a reasonable offer up front, we should have came up with Montas or Bassit. Now that DET and KC is in the bidding it'd make it that much worse, because I believe they have a better farm system. We lack very much depth at key positions SS, CF and C. Yet we like to hoard good bat and poor glove types (we gained 1 more Sanchez). Although I don't like to depend on young prospects to step up and play regularly (last season is a good example) yet we need Martin, Lewis and Godoy (hope that Celestino could recover from last season) to step up to add depth to this season. Like was said earlier Means could be an option and they need an upgrade at 2B. Yet the price could be steep.

I've expected that Duran will step up and be part of pitching staff one way or another, so far this spring training he hasn't disappointed me. Duran is under rated so I wouldn't trade him but maybe if he continues to show how good he is this ST, that would raise his stock. Still I'd like to keep him.

Best case scenario, Correa earns his $ repeats last year and opts out. Worst case scenario, he misses considerable amount of time due injuries and the same the following year. I hope for the 1st scenario. In any case we need Lewis to step up and be able to back up at SS. We need Lewis more than ever so anyone who thinks Lewis is a trading piece, forget it.

If Godoy really comes around and helps us to forget about losing both Garver and Rortvedt then I'd say we did pretty well. I say the A's are our best bet to trade for a front line pitcher, because they could use a 2B/3B and they are most motivated, MIA really wants Reynolds (PIT) but they are unwilling to give up Meyer. MIA don't need a 2B so IMO MIA won't be motivated to trade with us now.

If this is the best that Sanchez has done under Tanner Swanson, I don't think anyone else can improve much more on it IMO.

It's too bad that we're stuck with Sanchez even at DH, I hope he'll be flipped and find a better back up catcher. Rooker would be a good selection at more full time DH, then he can focus on hitting and not on fielding which he's not that good at. As long Polanco stays at 2B there's no problem w/ his ankles. Everybody wants Arraez to get his ABs so DH makes sense. If we can spare Kiriloff from OF, he could relieve Sano' so he can hit at DH. There is no way we can match Cruz's production DH. But Rooker and Sano' could surprise people and Arraez will get more than his share of getting on base.

I think they could have done much better with about the same price to take up a 40man spot.

I like your idea LA, we really need a 4th OF, a true MLB ready CF used as Buxton insurance. I've changed my stance, I wouldn't put Arraez lead-off because he'll clog the base paths for Buxton, Polanco and Correa. I'd put him ahead of Sano'.

Love this trade, it'd really make our pitching awsome w/ very little pain. We have suffered for many years with depth at the key positions SS & CF so we really need both Lewis and Martin (you can't break up this awsome team). They could fill in anywhere, they'll add great depth through out the field (except Catcher or pitcher). They'd make many players absolete, thus available for trading.

The only positive reason is that Donaldson wanted out and FO obliged. Because letting him go just to save $ is bad or to free up $ while losing Donaldson, Garver and Rortvedt to pursue Story is also bad. There were much better options to fill SS w/o putting us in limbo.

This is the wrong time to play the waiting game with so many holes. We came into the off season again with an impressive core. All we had to do was to trade Arraez in conjunction with other less painful players to obtain a front line pitcher like Montas and focus to quickly fill our holes. I think we could have still pursued Story w/o dumping Donaldson. Even if they didn't want to, I'd rather sign comeback candidate Simmons for $4MM than dump Donaldson and lose Garver and Rortvedt than pursue Story and put the team in limbo. So far this FO has created as many holes than filled while losing precious spring training time. So far we got a good #2 pitcher, downgraded 3B, starting and back up catchers. We still could use a frontline pitcher, glove at SS, back up catcher and CF (those are the premium positions, which is very sad). FO has plans for Arraez to play here, to me that means that he's off the trading block. So if we get Montas, it'll be with valuable prospects. The clock is clicking, why do you paint yourself into a corner which could lead you to make more mistakes than you've already have?

I'm surprised that Cavaco was so high and some of our newer other prospects like Noah Miller and Emmanuel Rodriguez wasn't rated before Cavaco

Well said couldn't agree with you more

Players like to run on both Jeffers and Sanchez so this season might be pretty long. I agree with Dman, catching isn't a position to skimp. I hope they find better depth.

Under the circumstances he's a good pick up

That you Cody for bringing up this subject. In the past pitchers pools were much smaller and simpler. A lot of stress was put on arm strength, if a pither couldn't give you 8 good innings, you were gone and velo wasn't as important. Now we have a lot more teams and it's hard to find those strong arms. Pitching has become much more technical and velo is everything. It's very hard to find a pitcher that can pitch 8 good innings and have high velo and even those will have arm problems. In near past when the Twins gave importance to long relief the Twins and those pitchers did very well. Recently we've put a lot of stress on short relief, pitchers that come in to pitch 1 inning and completely ignore long relief. For this you need a lot pitchers available and on their game. Unfortunately this is impossible to maintain throughout the season. Therefore you over-use those that are on their game and they get burned out. Combined with the fact that nobody in your rotation can give you 5 quality innings on a regular basis, except Berrios. Then you over extend the rotation and they burn out. As you can see this is a recipe for disaster. There is no wonder that when we do get to post season games we lose because all our arms are dead, not able to give their premium effort. Solution that I've long advocated is focus on a large strong rotating long relief corp. Especially now that we don't have Berrios and have young unseasoned arms and Bundy that can't be expected to pitch very many innings. That'll help take the burden off the short relief and rotation and can give much needed experience to young pitching prospects, where we can do better job develping and evaluating. Then if we can even get to the the post season, our arms should be fresh not dead. Then maybe we can win a post season game. I think Thorp and many more can flurish under this concept.

Thanks Thiéres for your personal insight. Signing a front-liner won't be a bargain but at this point we don't have much good options left. Story will be a great and much needed addition. Higher the quality of depth at SS, CF and catcher the better. We need to get out the mindset that we can throw anybody at SS and CF it's OK as long he can kill the ball. I'd want us to be like LAD that put importance on deep quality depth at SS and CF. Keep both Lewis and Martin even if we have Story and Buxton. With both Lewis & Martin we can get rid of a lot excess baggage.

IMO we a very good shot at Story it might take awhile to wait it out but it'd be worth it. A's need a 2B and 3B if they trade Chapman which is very likely. That'd make Arraez very attractive for them and would open a door to get Montas without painfully giving up a lot of valuable prospects.

I heard that someone who should know said that that FO would be trying to flip him but there is nothing definite.

I really hated to see Garver & Rortvedt go, I'd rather see them ship Jeffers. It sounds like we are flipping Sanchez somewhere (good) so we have a need for another catcher, would Castro be available? I agree with you Nick on your assessment, big holes at SS (Story), another SP (Montas) and a viable Buxton back up. Another back end RP would be nice.