Oakland Athletics’ Arbitration Agreement With Josh Reddick Bad For Team

Does a one-year deal with Josh Reddick point to a midseason sell-off for the Oakland Athletics?

Last Friday, Oakland Athletics outfielder Josh Reddick signed a one-year, $6.575 million deal to avoid arbitration. In many ways, this is good news for A’s fans. Arbitration is a nasty business that can cause friction between players and teams. The organization criticizes every aspect of a player’s game in an effort to save money, then expects them to return to Spring Training and play well, as if nothing had happened. In the past, Reddick has not taken criticism from the team’s front office lightly, so arbitration could have been a very volatile situation. It’s not as though Reddick would be the first player to get frustrated with his team after a brutal hearing.

Despite avoiding that potential drama, Reddick’s one-year deal is also bad news for those who hoped to see him reach a long-term deal. Although there is still time to reach a multi-year deal, it is running out. If he gets off to another hot start, like he did in 2015, he’s more likely to gamble on himself and go for free agency. Reddick’s career-best season came last year, in 2015. He hit .272/.333/.449, including 20 homers and 10 stolen bases, in addition to playing solid defense in right field. He could be a valuable asset to just about any organization, and it’s foolish to think other teams wouldn’t be willing to pay him enough to lure him away from the notoriously cheap Athletics.

The Oakland Athletics have said that they want Reddick to stay, and it seems as though most fans do, too. However, the fact that they settled for a one-year deal with significant time left until his arbitration hearing would have taken place likely means that the A’s and Reddick are not even close to an agreement for a long-term deal. If they were somewhat close, there would be no reason to quickly settle on a one-year pact. Arbitration agreements can be reached at any point before the player’s hearing, so it’s not as though the two sides came to this conclusion because they were meeting an urgent deadline. The conclusion that can be drawn from this is that Reddick and his agent are seeking far more than the A’s are willing to pay, both sides are aware of this, and neither side saw any hope for reaching an agreement before the beginning of the season.

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If that continues to be true, don’t expect to see Reddick in an Oakland uniform in August. At that point, Beane and the rest of the front office are all but guaranteed to deal him away by the deadline. While it’s a bit early to declare the A’s sellers for 2016, all signs point to a non-contending team that will be ready to place Reddick on the market by July. The exception to this, of course, is if he has a rough start to the year and is concerned about his free agent value declining. If that happens, his agent will likely be much more willing to listen to the A’s offer.

Right field bleachers and passionate fans aside, it seems as though Reddick has more incentive to want leave at the end of 2016 than to agree to stay long-term. He has publicly critiqued the front office – a move some thought would get him dealt before the deadline last season. He doesn’t like being platooned, but the Athletics love using platoons – a dilemma that isn’t likely to change anytime soon. It’s also well known that the A’s have ever-growing stadium issues, as well as a small payroll, which can often be disincentives for a player to sign a long-term deal with Oakland. There’s also the matter of the Athletics’ current struggles, which could make him leery of spending his prime years with a losing ballclub, if he doesn’t believe in the turnaround that Beane has promised.

By signing Reddick to a one-year deal, the A’s leave themselves open to dealing him at the deadline. He’s no Ben Zobrist in terms of the haul he could bring in, but Reddick is a solid defender with a power bat, and those are typically in short supply by midseason. Unless things change drastically during the first part of the season, it seems improbable that the A’s and Reddick will reach a deal that would keep him in an A’s uniform beyond 2016.

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What do you think? Will Reddick make it through the season, or is this a sign that the two sides are just too far apart to reach an agreement for 2017 and beyond?