MLB Offseason Preview - Oakland A's

Oakland A's

American League	West Division
69-93	20 GB of Division Lead
Manager Bob Melvin	GM David Forst
AAA affiliate Nashville Sounds	AA affiliate Midland Rockhounds

2016 Rankings

Hitting	AVG – 25th	OPS – 28th	Runs – 29th	HR – 21st	SB – 26th
Starting Pitching	ERA – 27th	K/9 – 29th	H/9 – 27th
Relief Pitching	ERA – 20th	K/9 – 16th	H/9 – 15th

Top Hitters

POS.	Name	AVG	OBP	Slug	HR	RBIs	WAR	SB
SS	Marcus Semien	.238	.300	.435	27	75	3.0	10
LF	Khris Davis	.247	.307	.524	42	102	2.8	1
RF	Josh Reddick	.296	.368	.449	8	28	2.4	5

Top Pitchers

POS.	Name	Record	ERA	IP/Saves	K	BB	ERA+	WAR
SP	Kendall Graveman	10-11	4.11	186.0 IP	108	47	96	3.3
SP	Rich Hill	9-3	2.25	76.0 IP	90	28	177	2.8
SP	Sean Manaea	7-9	3.86	144.2 IP	124	37	103	2.7

Trades that Occurred During Season

• Traded RP Marc Rzepcynski to Washington for Max Schrock
• Traded SP Rich Hill and OF Josh Reddick to the Los Angeles Dodgers for RHPs Jharel Cotton, Grant Holmes, and Frankie Montas

Impending Free Agents

• SP Felix Doubrant
• CF Sam Fuld
• SP Ross Detwiler

Top Prospects

POS.	Name	Level
SS	Franklin Barreto	AAA
SP	Grant Holmes	High A
SP	Sean Manaea	MLB
SP	Frankie Montas	AAA
1B	Matt Olson	MLB

Team MVP

• If there is any MVP for the 2016 Oakland A's it would be Rich Hill, who was traded to the Dodgers at the trade deadline, so that should convey how bad of a season the team had.  Hill was amazing this season and, at age 36, had the best season of his career by far.  He posted just a 2.25 ERA in 14 starts, and held batters to a .201 batting average.  Prior to him getting traded, Hill was even considered a serious candidate to win the AL Cy Young award.  Hill became the A's best starter and was the only member of the rotation that had an ERA close to below 3.00.

Success/Failure

• Failure - I pick Oakland as a failure because I don't see the franchise as having any real direction currently.  They were a bad team this season with a terrible pitching staff and an unproductive lineup.  Of the team that made it to the 2014 AL Wild Card game, there is very little left.  The front office did make a good trade at the deadline, sending Rich Hill and Josh Reddick to the Dodgers and getting three talented right-handed pitching prospects in return, but they would have received a bigger return had they traded Hill prior to him missing time with blisters on his throwing hand.  Behind Hill, Oakland's rotation was just plain bad and expected ace, Sonny Gray, pitched more like a four or five instead of a one, and one has to question what he will actually be going forward.  I think that the A's are just a boring team with little chance at success with their current roster and, for that, I mark them as a failure.

Offseason Outlook

• The A's front office needs, first and foremost, to determine a path by which they will navigate their immediate future.  I'm certain that team president Billy Beane has an internal plan in place that will work in a way that only he and Theo Epstein could implement.  Right now, as evidenced by their record, Oakland does not have a lot of talent at the major league level. Before the season began they also didn't have an overly strong farm system, ranking just 18th in the majors.  But after the trade deadline when they received three pitching prospects in return for Josh Reddick and Rich Hill, their system should be closer to the top ten.  Over the offseason they should consider trading Sonny Gray, who has a lot of talent and potential but had a poor season.  Perhaps a change of scenery could help Gray regain his pitching confidence and see him return to success.  It's up in the air, however, how large of a return the A's would get for Gray at this point in his career, and it would certainly be less that what is would have been had they traded him last offseason.  Even still, I think a team like Boston would offer a couple of prospects (maybe a package starting with Rafael Devers) in return for the raw talent that Gray offers.  I want to say that a true rebuild is the way to go for Oakland, but I'm not sure how many players they have left that are even tradeable.  They also haven't had a lot of success in recent seasons so the fan base may be too impatient to live through at least four years of really bad baseball.  The only other real option is to attempt to re-tool their MLB team while their prospects continue to develop.  If they were to trade Gray for a package including an upper-tier prospect and then worked to sign free agents during the offseason, the A's could be competitive next season.  While there aren't really any big name free agents that will be on the market this offseason, the A's could still field a fairly talented team next season, but it will cost them. Players including Mike Napoli, Brandon Moss, several mid-rotation starters, and numerous relievers will all be available for a team like Oakland to sign that probably wouldn't bankrupt them.  One positive note for the A's is that the division they play in is able to be overtaken. While Houston and Texas have the potential to be good for the foreseeable future, the Angels are a bad team with the worst farm system in baseball, and the Mariners are an older team whose window to win is closing fast.  Because of this, Oakland could be competitive within the division immediately.

*All stats and information come from baseball-reference.com, fangraphs.com, espn.com, rosterresource.com, baseballamerica.com, and spotrac.com