Yes, this sounds farfetched. The small market, small budget A’s going after a premier shortstop in Troy Tulowitzki? That’s crazy! Or is it?
All offseason, Billy Beane has been making moves and acquiring younger talent. While he could be hoarding all of the young pitching in baseball, and hoping for five to pan out, there is a stronger likelihood that he has been acquiring all of this talent to share with another team. One team that could use pitching, desperately, is the Colorado Rockies, Tulowitzki’s current employer.
Currently the A’s have Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir, and Drew Pomeranz penciled into the rotation with Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin eyeing a return during the season. They also have Sean Nolin, Chris Bassitt, Kendall Graveman, Jesse Chavez and the newly acquired Jesse Hahn from the Padres in the Derek Norris deal. That’s ten pitchers. Even if they were to trade three of them, and some positional talent, the A’s would be looking good next season in terms of the rotation.
Depth not enough of a selling point? How about a conspiracy theory! The A’s just acquired two pitchers from San Diego, the aforementioned Hahn, and a minor league reliever R.J. Alvarez. One occurrence that doesn’t happen very often is a trade within the division. The Padres and Rockies are in the same division. The A’s could be acting as the middle man to get one or both of these players to Colorado.
Too much speculation? How about a tweet from Jane Lee!
Can't imagine the A's will keep all this pitching. Have to think they're prepping for a bigger move, like an Upton or Tulowitzki.
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) December 19, 2014
The next question would be how could the A’s afford Troy Tulowitzki? Tulo just turned 30, and is due $114M through 2020, at $20M each of the next five years, and $14M in 2020, with a $15M team option in 2021. Funny, the A’s have been stated as having roughly $20M left (projected payroll after arbitration is currently $70M, should end up close to $90-$95M) in their pockets after trading away most of their all-stars.
If the A’s didn’t want to spend all of their remaining money on one player, there is also a way around that. Scott Kazmir is due to make $13M in 2015, and could be included in the deal to help the A’s out in the first year.
Yes, this is all speculation at this point, but it does make sense, to a degree. An infield of Brett Lawrie, Troy Tulowitzki and Marcus Semien sounds a whole lot better than the Josh Donaldson, Jed Lowrie (2014 version) and Eric Sogard of last year, right? This would be one move that could bring the A’s into contention next season, and also bring the fans back to the park in 2015.