Oakland Athletics: A Reunion With Scott Kazmir Could Be On The Horizon

The Oakland Athletics are expected to be active during this year’s Winter Meetings, which started Monday. The A’s are especially interested in boosting their pitching depth. This not only applies to their bullpen, but also to their rotation. After a 2015 season where the A’s starting pitchers were plagued with injuries, it makes sense as to why Oakland wants to have a lot of depth at this position. Interestingly enough, free agent starter and former Athletic Scott Kazmir confirmed to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday that he is currently talking to the A’s.

Oakland has only been separated from Kazmir for about five months. The A’s traded him to the Houston Astros for two prospects – right-handed pitcher Daniel Mengden and catcher Jacob Nottingham – back in late July. Kazmir was a staple part of the Athletics’ rotation for two years and now they want him back.

Despite having a good first half of the 2015 season with Oakland, Kazmir struggled once arriving in Houston. In 13 starts with the Astros, Kazmir had a 4.17 ERA with 1.39 WHIP. This was drastically different from his 2.38 ERA he maintained the A’s this year. Because of his lack of success during the second half, it was initially expected that his value decreased slightly.

However, some monstrous deals involving starting pitchers have been signed this offseason. So, Kazmir could still make quite a bit of money despite his poor performance during the second half of the year. Based on some of the contracts that have already been signed, Joe Stiglich of CSN Bay Area believes that Kazmir will likely be offered a four year deal between $60 – $80 million. It will be interesting to see if Oakland will want to shell out another large sum of money for their former starter since they just signed Ryan Madson to a three-year, $22MM contract. The A’s are going up against the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates who have also been linked to Kazmir this offseason.

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Perhaps the Athletics can try to keep the price tag low by persuading Kazmir that Oakland is the place for him. He experienced success at the O.co Coliseum and has many good friends that are still on the team such as Sonny Gray. There is definitely a soft spot in Kazmir’s heart for the Oakland Athletics since they were the team that gave Kazmir his second chance.