It\u2019s not that the A\u2019s aren\u2019t trying, it\u2019s that they\u2019re not getting to the finish line very often. It\u2019s their version of the Giants\u2019 higher profile failures luring Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge \u2014 names slightly more familiar in the average household than Ha-Seong Kim and Merrill Kelly.<\/p>\n
What is coming out is the offers the A\u2019s have made, or may have made, to free agents who chose to sign elsewhere. We know the A\u2019s offered Kim a 4 year\/$48M deal only to have him return to the Braves on a one year, $20M deal. Another \u201cwest coast team\u201d reportedly offered Kelly 3\/$50M but he re-signed with the Diamondbacks instead.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, starting pitchers and relievers are coming off the board at an increasingly rapid pace leaving precious few free agent options still on the board. Here\u2019s where the A\u2019s are most stuck:<\/p>\n
Their most pressing need, despite the desire to improve at 2B and further fortify the bullpen, is to add starting pitching, but that happens to be the need most teams are expressing. Not only does that create a ton of demand for the available supply, it also means very few clubs are open to trading a good SP. And if they do, they have the leverage to demand back someone of Tyler Soderstrom\u2019s caliber in return.<\/p>\n
So what options remain for the A\u2019s to improve their pitching staff, having added only Mark Leiter Jr. so far, with many good free agent SP\/RP fits gone and free agents predictably hesitant to select Sacramento as their next destination?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Perkins Solution\u201d<\/p>\n
If only they could clone Jack Perkins with a bionic health chaser. Sadly the A\u2019s don\u2019t have 2 Perkinses but they do have one.<\/p>\n
Slot Perkins into the rotation, and with his #2 SP upside you have multiple starters with at least the potential to exceed the upsides found with Luis Severino, Jeffrey Springs, and Jacob Lopez. Then you can focus on trading for a plus reliever, which costs less in capital than trying to wrangle a mid-rotation SP.<\/p>\n
Anoint Perkins as the closer and you have suddenly transformed the bullpen, allowing the likes of Leiter Jr., Hogan Harris, and Elvis Alvarado to serve more appropriately in set up roles.<\/p>\n
Which route the A\u2019s go may depend partly on whom the team can or cannot acquire. Had they signed Kelly, for example, it might have naturally pushed Perkins to the bullpen. If they are able to add a plus reliever they would have more reason to see Perkins through as a SP \u2014 assuming they think his body can handle it.<\/p>\n
Free agency is going to be an uphill battle for a while, but the trade market is always buzzing and much groundwork was undoubtedly laid at the Winter Meetings.<\/p>\n
As noted, a deal for a reliever might be more doable than one for a quality SP, especially if you aren\u2019t trading for an established closer but instead transforming a middle reliever (or failed SP) into a closer\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
One name I recently threw out there is the Padres\u2019 Jeremiah Estrada. My reasoning is that with rumblings of the Padres and Mets discussing deals that included Mason Miller, but with Miller still entrenched in San Diego right now, clearly the Padres are open to trading from their bullpen \u2014 not both Miller and Estrada but one or the other.<\/p>\n
Estrada only has 4 career saves but has \u201ccloser\u2019s stuff and then some\u201d. His K\/9 IP rates each of the last 2 seasons are 13.32 and 13.87 with decent BB rates (3.33, 3.39) and his fastball consistently sits at 97-98 MPH. He is also only 27 and under contract control through 2029.<\/p>\n
Yet because Estrada doesn\u2019t have a \u201ccloser\u2019s resume\u201d he is valued at \u201cplus middle reliever\u201d stock. BTV is far from a \u201cbe all and end all\u201d calculating model, but it would have you believe that Estrada for Mason Barnett and Colby Thomas, or Tommy White and Colby Thomas, is a fair value swap.<\/p>\n
A hitch might be that the Padres\u2019 main motivation right now is to shed salary and a \u201creliever for prospects\/MLB ready talent\u201d trade doesn\u2019t accomplish this goal. A conceivable win-win to address this would be for San Diego to add Jake Cronenworth and shed much of his salary in the process.<\/p>\n
Disclaimer: By my own admission, I am pretty clueless around trade suggestions. But they\u2019re still fun. I don\u2019t know what would fly in the real world, but according to BTV\u2019s model the following would be a fair deal for both sides:<\/p>\n
A\u2019s receive Jeremiah Estrada, Jake Cronenworth and $15M (paying Cronenworth $45M over 5 years from 2026-30)<\/p>\n
Padres receive Colby Thomas, Tommy White, and Mason Barnett, shedding $45M from Cronenworth\u2019s contract<\/p>\n
From the A\u2019s point of view, they solve 2B now and for a while (for as long as Cronenworth\u2019s defense is good enough), they add a reliever who immediately becomes their best reliever and likely closer and who is controlled for 4 years, they open the door for Perkins to start while maintaining a solid bullpen, they get Cronenworth at an acceptable AAV for their budget and his value, and they don\u2019t have to part with any of their top 5 prospects (De Vries, Arnold, Jump, Nett, Bolte).<\/p>\n
From the Padres\u2019 point of view, they shed $45M, get an MLB ready outfielder who was a top 5 A\u2019s prospect when he qualified, get two additional prospects who are ranked #7 and #9 on MLB Pipeline \u2014 one of whom has already reached the big leagues \u2014 and trade from a position of strength (bullpen) while gaining a total of 18 cost controlled seasons.<\/p>\n
Now there are probably exactly eleventeen reasons why this particular trade idea won\u2019t fly, but perhaps it\u2019s unridiculous enough that either there is a version of it that makes sense or at least it demonstrates the capacity for the A\u2019s to find a trade route to address some of their remaining needs. Your thoughts are most welcome.<\/p>\n
One final thought is that the overseas market is not necessarily as hard a free agent sell as the MLB one. While there is more bust risk, contracts tend to be more affordable as a result. With the 4\/$48M to Kim known, it\u2019s clear the A\u2019s are willing to put out that kind of dollar commitment and it might be enough to land a SP with mid-rotation upside from halfway round the globe.<\/p>\n
So options are dwindling by the day but they still exist and without question David Forst and company are pounding the pavement hard right now trying to close some deals. So far without much to show, but perhaps soon a Christmas\/Hanukah\/Kwanzaa\/Human Fund present will be arriving\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not that the A\u2019s aren\u2019t trying, it\u2019s that they\u2019re not getting to the finish line very often.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62936,44003,62937,5,4558,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-482795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-2025-26-as-offseason-plan-project","9":"tag-as-commentary-and-analysis","10":"tag-as-hot-stove-2025-26","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-general","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115739909760477644","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}