Coco Crisp has left the Oakland Athletics. David Forst and company have traded him to the Cleveland Indians.
The A’s also are due to send cash while they may get a mid-level prospect in return for Coco Crisp, according to the San Jose Mercury News. But what do the A’s get back?
Well, they can rest easy that they won’t be giving Coco Crisp $13 million to play again next year. As many fans know, he needed to play in 130 games to vest a 2017 option to play. He did speak out against the management, claiming the A’s were keeping his games played to a minimum.
Bob Melvin was strategically playing him more sparsely and not pinch-hitting him into games where he did not start against left-handed pitching.
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Currently, he has played 103 games and likely will not have his option vest as an Indian either.
The Indians can hardly afford to put on $13 million on their roster for next year. Their payroll rivals that of the Athletics’.
On Opening Day, the Indians had $4 million more than the A’s. So, Crisp won’t be getting the $13 million year that he likely deserves based on his performance.
What else did the A’s lose in this trade?
They lost a hitter who this year hit .234/.299/.399 with only seven stolen bases and 45 runs, but surprisingly led the A’s with 24 doubles. More than that, they’ve lost their pride, their golden lion. Coco Crisp has been one of the greatest center fielders in A’s history. Rich Paloma wrote a good piece earlier this year, saying Crisp was one of three top all-time A’s center fielders. Given his stats, it’s hard to disagree.
In 734 games for the A’s, Crisp hit .253/.322/.397. He had 405 runs, 304 RBI, and stole 169 bases, though stopped being a threat to run on the bases last year. Much ado was made of his health, but in the seven years he was an Athletic, Crisp played over 100 games in five of them, and over 120 in four.
More importantly, he was the cornerstone of an A’s team that made the postseason three years in a row.
From 2012-2014 Crisp averaged 126 games played and led the A’s in stolen bases each year except 2014 where Craig Gentry had 20 stolen bases vs. Crisp’s 19.
But most importantly, Crisp represented what fans loved about the A’s. He brought the Bernie Lean to Oakland as his walk-up song. His hair, which varied from year to year, was always awesome. He had his own iPhone game which had him catching baseballs in his hair.
The A’s gave out Coco Crisp Breakfast Bowls in his honor. Crisp had character that oozed out of him, the same way Rickey Henderson oozed character.
If anything will be missed, it’s the way that he represented Oakland’s off-beat nature with his own.
Goodbye, Coco. We hardly knew ye.