Free Agents

Hey what’s up A’s fans, it’s Charles here again. After another lackluster year, the A’s now turn their attention to improving an anemic offense, that has plagued the team for the past 2 seasons. The first move made by the A’s this offseason was to resign Mark Ellis to a two year, 10 million dollar contract with an option year after that. While this move settles the infield it does little to nothing to improve the offense. With that in mind, we will discuss possible free agent options for the A’s this offseason. On our next blog we will address trading options, but for now lets take a look at 3 potential free agents the A’s could sign.

The A’s first offseason target should be former A’s star, and AL MVP Jason Giambi. It is highly unlikely the Yankees will resign Giambi, and at this stage in Giambi’s career it is likely that he would want to wind down his career somewhere he was comfortable. Luckily for the A’s, despite his controversial exit he still has two close friends on the team(Mark Ellis and Eric Chavez) who each want the A’s to pursue Giambi. Giambi would also have the opportunity to regain his past greatness in Oakland which made him an MVP. Last season Giambi had another “down year” for his standards, but for the A’s standards it was a great year. Jason batted .247, with a .373 on base percentage and 32 home runs. Having Giambi play 1st base/DH it would instantly give the A’s a bonafide star. Giambi is the type of guy that strikes fear in opposing pitchers eyes, and forces pitchers to change their gameplan. If Giambi slides into the 3 or 4 hole in the lineup, he could have protection from Eric Chavez(if healthy), Jack Cust(if he is still around) or a potential new comer via trade or free agency. It would also allow the A’s to have Daric barton learn from one of the best left handed hitters this decade. This move would obviously require the A’s forking up real money, the next option would be substantially cheaper. 

Billy Beane has an opportunity to land a man whom he has wanted for years, Rual Ibanez. While Ibanez doesn’t have a ton of name recognition he is exactly the type of hitter the A’s need. He batted .293 last year, with a .358 on base percentage and 23 home runs. Ibanez is a good contact hitter which the A’s currently lack, and he has hit very well against AL West foes. Ibanez would be a great 3 hitter who actually wants to swing the bat in key at bats, instead of letting the umpire control his fate a la Jack Cust. Ibanez can play corner outfield and would be an upgrade for the A’s offensively. The likelihood of signing Ibanez is actually pretty good, but except the Toronto Blue Jays to be the team most after him.

The final player the A’s could target is the home run and strike out prone Adam Dunn. Dunn is a superior version of Jack Cust, but having both in the lineup would be rather odd. Last year Dunn hit .236 with a 386 on base percentage and 40 home runs. He would be most effective if the A’s could put together a team on guys who could hit and get on base in front of him. Otherwise a combo of Dunn and Cust, with a weak top of the order would probably result in about 300 combined strikeouts and a significant amount of meaningless solo home runs. Dunn should only be signed if the A’s could acquire a good leadoff hitter, and have Suzuki bat second. Even with that the move still might not gel very well. Keep in mind, Dunn has never been on a contender and has never been mistaken for a team leader. With the A’s roster as is, the A’s would need someone to be a real leader, and Dunn isn’t that guy. 

Well for now here are three possible free agent targets the A’s might pursue. In our next blog we will focus on potential trade options that could help the A’s. Until then, go out and vote and live smooth.