Should Jason Hammel Be on the Athletics Free Agent Radar?

Jason Hammel had a rough start to his Oakland career, earning a 9.53 ERA with the A’s in the month of July. Down the stretch however, Hammel was solid, earning an ERA of 2.86 in August, and a 2.20 in the final month of the season.

Why the huge difference? Hammel said that it took him some time to get adjusted after uprooting his family in the middle of the season. Hammel had an ERA of 2.98 with Chicago before the trade, and with similar, if not better showings the final couple of months for Oakland, he should be on the A’s radar.

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In 2014, the righty earned $6M. Hammel has been on five teams since 2009, so it is possible that he is looking to settle somewhere for a few years, opposed to taking a one year deal. FanGraphs is projecting Hammel to get a contract of 3 years/$27M. That is well within the A’s budget, and also makes either Scott Kazmir or Jeff Samardzija trade bait.

Of the two, Kazmir is due $11M (plus a $2M luxury tax hit for his signing bonus) in 2015, while Samardzija is projected to make $9.5M through arbitration, according to MLBTradeRumors. Signing Hammel, then trading Kazmir could save the A’s a few million in 2014, and bring a decent return for the southpaw.

Does signing Jason Hammel make sense? Very much so. Will it happen? Jon Heyman is reporting that the Yankees are looking in to Hammel to fill a hole in their rotation. Obviously you never want to get into a bidding war with the pinstripes, but it’s not completely unrealistic that Hammel could pick the A’s over the Yanks. As stated above, Hammel had a hard time moving mid-season. Perhaps he would have a hard time with the bright lights of the Big Apple as well.

To be competitive again in 2015, Billy Beane and company are going to have to be creative. Going after Hammel, and subsequently trading an expensive starter could be the right move to set the Athletics up not just for 2015, but beyond.