Oakland Athletics acquired utility-man Chris Coghlan in trade with Chicago Cubs on February 25, 2016
What was the least surprising part of the Chris Coghlan trade for you? Was it that the A’s acquired a player most fans view as a part-time contributor at best? Was it that the A’s traded for someone exhibiting a career’s worth of extreme platoon splits? Was it the fact that Coghlan played five positions last year?
For me, the least surprising part of this deal was just how unsurprising it actually was. The defensively versatile position player who struggles against like-handed pitching has become the quintessential Athletic. Still, unsurprising and unexciting are far from one in the same. Depth, versatility, and an ability to mash as the long side a platoon? These are very good things.
Chris Coghlan brings a nice mix of patience and power. While walking in over 11% of his plate appearances last year, he left the yard 16 times. While that may not sound like many, he also hit 25 doubles and 6 triples. In fact, his .193 ISO, a more accurate measure of extra-base power than slugging %, ranked in the upper 3rd of all major league hitters last season.
As A’s fans have come to expect these days, he’s not an everyday player. His career line vs lefties is a dilettantish .232/.312/.318, so he’ll undoubtedly sit out against the Dallas Keuchels, C.J. Wilsons, and Cole Hamels of the world. But, against righties, who account for around ¾ of the league’s pitchers, he’s about 25% better than league average. And that’s valuable.
The obvious question is, Where does Chris Coghlan play? The answer is, Against righties, everywhere. Coghlan played first, second, third, and both corner outfield spots last year, and over the course of his career, has spent more than 800 innings in center. He’ll likely spend most of 2016 in the outfield but also spell starters around the infield as well. And while he’s not very good at second or third, that’s ok because well, it can’t get much worse than last year.
Granted defensive metrics have their limitations but Oakland ranked 26th last season in Defensive Runs Above Average. In fact, their infield defense was easily the worst in the league.
No Need to Get Defensive
| 2015 | DRAA (FRAA for C) | MLB Rank |
| C | -9.7* | 52nd out of 59** |
| 1B | -18.4 | 25th |
| 2B | -4.0 | 25th |
| 3B | -9.5 | 29th |
| SS | -3.6 | 30th |
*Framing Runs Above Average for Stephen Vogt per Baseball Prospectus
**Rank out of 59 catchers with at least 2000 framing opportunities
Despite their defensive woes, Oakland jettisoned Brett Lawrie in favor of Danny Valencia, a defensive downgrade at the hot corner. Jed Lowrie, penciled in as the starting second baseman, hasn’t played the keystone since 2013. And Marcus Semien, well let’s just say he showed improvement in the second half.
It’s clear that the A’s chose to focus their efforts and resources in areas other than the infield defense, so it’s not unfathomable that we’ll see Coghlan playing first, second, or third with some regularity. And while he’s not necessarily a downgrade at those positions, the team’s questionable infield defense could be problematic given that Sonny Gray, Jesse Hahn, Chris Bassitt, Henderson Alvarez, and Rich Hill all exhibit far greater ground ball tendencies than recent Oakland rotations have.
While there’s no obvious everyday position for Chris Coghlan, the A’s value versatility and handedness splits, so they will find a way to get his bat in the lineup most days. Oakland boasts one of the most fluid rosters in baseball, so there’s no single player whose ABs Coghlan eats into. Rather, given the injury histories of Josh Reddick and Jed Lowrie, that Billy Burns provided below average production against righties last season, and Yonder Alonso’s well-known limitations, Coghlan will have plenty of opportunity to make the A’s better in 2016.
Next: Will Mark Canha Make the Cut after Chris Coghlan trade?