Oakland Athletics’ Outfielder Josh Reddick’s Trade Value Has Already Peaked

Oakland Athletics’ Missed Chance to Sell High on Reddick

At the trade deadline, Josh Reddick was one of the Oakland Athletics’ most valuable players. He batted .287/.343/.455 through the first half of the season, walking over eight percent of the time and striking out in fewer than 11 percent of his plate appearances. He hit 11 home runs, and seemed to be on pace to have a career-year.

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All of that came in the midst of controversy, as he publicly fought with the front office and Billy Beane through reporters and Twitter. He took issue with the theory that he might possibly need to sit against left-handers, whom he is batting just .230/.287/.370 against. Reddick claimed that the organization could manipulate numbers into saying anything that they wanted, and he made it known that he believed Bob Melvin had nothing to do with his removal from the lineup against lefties.

Those two factors, combined with the fact he is under control through 2016, made him a strong trade candidate. But Beane decided to hang on to all of his players with years remaining before free agency, and now it may be too late to ever get that much value from Reddick again.

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Since the deadline, Reddick is batting .235/.278/.397 – nearly as bad as his splits against left-handed pitching. He’s hit only two home runs and walked just 4 times in 75 at-bats. All of his numbers have steadily declined over the last month, and it’s probable that the Oakland Athletics should have sold high when they had the chance.

Reddick is a career .251/.309/.436 hitter, and with as much research as teams put into trades, it’s not as though someone would have looked at a half-season of overperforming and dealt away their top prospect for him. But his numbers have steadily risen over the past three seasons, making it probable that whatever changes he’s made are long-term.

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Selling him at the peak of a three-year improvement would have netted the A’s maximum value for their right fielder, while his value next season is unknown.

Sure, Oakland will get another season of Reddick by holding on to him this winter, but wouldn’t a decent prospect have been better? The A’s season was long over at the deadline, and they aren’t exactly poised to contend next year, despite having a very good rotation.

Selling Reddick would have been the best way to go, and Beane missed a golden opportunity to pull that trade off in July.