MLB Rumors: A’s Interested In Eric Chavez?

The thought of the Oakland A’s bringing back their former Gold Glove winning 3B Eric Chavez makes some people cringe, especially considering the fact that Chavez spent most of his final years in Oakland on the disabled-list. Despite those A’s-Chavez reunion rumors swirling around baseball, SF Chronicle writer Susan Slusser put those rumors to rest.

In a recent tweet by Slusser, the idea of bringing back Chavez, who played for the Yankees this season, doesn’t exactly make sense. It’d be a highly asymmetrical relationship between the A’s and Chavez if the team decided to bring him back. Where would he play?

He’s not an everyday third baseman anymore, and after battling injuries this year again, the A’s are probably aiming for a relatively healthy 2012 season. The injury-prone Chavez, while a fan and organizational favorite, doesn’t quite fit in Oakland’s current “Go-Young or Go-Home” approach.

That doesn’t mean that other teams are not interested in Chavez, though. There were a few teams last winter that expressed interest in the Gold Glover before he decided to sign a one-year deal with New York.

According to rumors, Chavez is generating an interest with teams located on the west coast. Chavez, 33, appeared in 58 games this season with New York in a utility role. He put together a .263/.320/.356 slash line, but failed to post strong power numbers, hitting just two home runs through 175 at-bats. He also drove in 26 runs this year.

Defensively, Chavez was still pretty golden for New York. As a Chavez fan, I actually watch a few of the games he started in this year, and I was impressed with his defensive abilities. Chavez played three games at first base and 42 games at third this year for New York and committed zero defensive errors.

He did sustain an injury this year, but it was not related to his usual back/should ailments. Instead, Chavez battled through a foot problem that caused him to spend some serious time on the disabled-list.

Still, Chavez wants to play and he’s seemingly drawing an interest from a variety of different clubs. Oakland is not one of the clubs, though. We’ve been there, done that.