The Oakland Athletics’ were built to win in 2014, and they came close. If not for a disastrous ending to their Wild Card game against the Kansas City Royals, the A’s might have been the team that everyone talks about as a “storybook” club, much like the Royals were after their World Series appearance.
Sometime during the off-season, general manager Billy Beane forgot about the A’s near-miss at history, and decided to blow up a perfectly good roster. That led to where the team is today: selling off their best players in the hopes of acquiring prospects to rebuild a struggling organization.
Jane Lee, the Athletics’ MLB.com beat reporter, tweeted out a quote from Beane on Monday that summed up why the general manager has lost his touch:
Beane: "If we’re going to have some sustained success, it’s going to have to really be done organically."
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) July 28, 2015
Beane seems to have missed the fact that he had the aforementioned “organic” team, before selling it off for rentals. There are plenty of examples of home-grown players under team control that were lost during the last two years:
Outfielder esThe A’s traded Cespedes for three months of
Jon Lester. Oakland signed the slugger as an international free agent, and he hit 20 or more home runs in each of his first three major league seasons. Cespedes has already hit 15 homers for the Tigers this year.
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- Third Baseman Josh Donaldson: Donaldson was traded for Brett Lawrie and a handful of prospects, who may become a valuable part of future teams. In the meantime, Donaldson is making a solid case for MVP this season. He was traded to the A’s by the Cubs when he was just a young prospect, but he quickly turned into a stellar third baseman. He’s batting .289/.351/.539 with 24 home runs for the Blue Jays so far this year, and he would have been under team control through 2019.
- Shortstop Addison Russell: The A’s best prospect heading into last season was Russell – at least until he was traded to the Cubs for Jeff Samardzija in July. Russell isn’t tearing it up in Chicago – in fact, he’s batting just .232/.303/.360 – but he’s in just his first major league season. Russell is projected to be a good hitter, his defense is outstanding, and he would have been exactly what the A’s needed at shortstop.
- Pitcher Tommy Milone: Milone was never the A’s best rotation option, and he was sent to the Twins after the acquisition of Samardzija and Lester made it obvious that he wouldn’t get any major league time. But after solid 2014 numbers with the A’s, Milone has a 3.58 ERA for the Twins this season, despite a slightly rocky start to the year. The A’s picked up Sam Fuld in exchange for the left-hander, who would have been under team control until 2019.
- Shortstop Daniel Robertson and outfielder Boog Powell: Both of whom were traded to the Rays in the Yunel Escobar and Ben Zobrist deal. Escobar was later flipped for Tyler Clippard, and the A’s were left with the two players that have been the center of trade deadline rumors, while the Rays got two very decent prospects. In four minor league seasons, Powell has batted .315/.409/.390, with 51 total stolen bases. The former 20th round draft pick was the 12th ranked prospect in the Rays’ system after the trade. Robertson was a first-round draft pick in 2012, and he hit .310/.402/.471 for the Stockton Ports last season, before being traded away for one-year rentals of Zobrist and Clippard.
Beane has no one to criticize but himself if he wants to see more “organic” growth instead of trying to play with the big-market teams. He traded away plenty of young, athletic players with years of team control, in favor of a few big names. To make things worse, he spent the team’s remaining money on free agents like Billy Butler, who do nothing for the team in the short-term or the long-term.
That’s no way to play “moneyball”. It’s time for Beane to make a decision about which way he wants to build a team and stick to it.