Oakland Athletics: 30 Worst Players in Franchise History

Matt Holliday

Matt Holliday was an established three-time All-Star who helped the Colorado Rockies get to the World Series in 2007. Now, he’s a superstar for the St. Louis Cardinals, with four more All-Star selections under his belt.

Unfortunately, in his short time with the Oakland Athletics, he was not as successful – at least, not compared to his usual standards. Added to the fact that the trade the A’s made to acquire Holliday has gone down as one of the worst transactions Billy Beane has ever made, a major disappointment.

Holliday came to Oakland in a blockbuster deal prior to the 2009 season. In exchange for the Rockies’ outstanding outfielder, the A’s gave Colorado pitchers Huston Street and Greg Smith – and outfield prospect Carlos Gonzalez. Gonzalez was suppose to be the Athletics’ future outfielder, but they shipped him off to Colorado. While with the Rockies, he became their staple outfielder, was nominated to two All-Star teams, and finished third in the 2010 MVP vote. So the A’s traded away one of their more promising players for a power hitter who did not even want to be playing in Oakland. Right off the bat, it was implied that Holliday was not excited about going to the Athletics, and it’s probably that his batting statistics were affected by his negative attitude.

After batting over .300 for the past five seasons, Holliday hit only .286/.378/.454 in 400 plate appearances. Those numbers would be good for most players, but not for Holliday. He was also brought down by minor injuries while with the A’s. Even though the team as a whole was performing poorly, Holliday’s bat started to get hot. This made him a great trading piece for the A’s during the trade deadline that season. They decided to send Holliday to the St. Louis Cardinals on July 24, 2009.

Next: The Worst A's Players in History: Arthur Rhodes