2 Athletics players who should be on the trading block, and 1 who shouldn't

We're still two months away from MLB's trade deadline but with the Athletics sucking wind at 23-36, it's time to start considering who might be moving out of Oakland this summer.

The Athletics don't have a ton of tradable talent on the major league roster anymore. The only guys left from their most recent playoff appearance in 2020 are Paul Blackburn and Seth Brown. Everyone else has either been traded away or left in free agency.

It's stunning to think back on how this team made the playoffs three years in a row, from 2018 to 2020, and followed that up by deleting all of the players who made that happen. What an absolute joke of an organization this is.

Anyway, this isn't the right place to gripe about the past. What's done is done, and since the Athletics aren't going to compete for a playoff spot in 2024, it makes sense for David Forst to try to move some of the useful pieces remaining on the roster and try to get some prospect upside in return.

The Oakland Athletics should trade Brent Rooker

The most obvious piece that should be available is Brent Rooker. He's the best hitter the A's have and won't reach free agency until after the 2027 season. However, he's also 29 and likely won't be around for the next good Athletics team.

Rooker is on a tear this year, hitting .280/.366/.549 with 11 home runs and 35 RBI. However, those numbers aren't really helping the A's considering this team doesn't have a realistic chance at a playoff spot.

Rooker would be better off contributing on a team that's seriously contending this year. Both Kansas City and Seattle are struggling to get production out of their DH spots. Rooker would be a great fit in either of those lineups each night.

The Oakland Athletics should trade Abraham Toro

Abraham Toro is having an excellent season, seemingly out of nowhere. The Athletics traded for him this offseason and he's been worth every penny of the $1.275 million he's getting paid.

Toro is hitting .290/.335/.435 with good plate discipline and a sneaky little power speed combo. He's outperforming his career numbers by a significant margin but all of the peripheral data suggest that his performance is real.

The .335 BABIP is a bit higher than league average but his expected batting average and expected slugging percentage are right in line with what he's actually hitting. He currently has a .508 expected slugging percentage against fastballs and he's demolishing breaking balls to the tune of a .306 AVG and a .531 SLG.

Add in competent infield defense and you've got a useful utility infielder for any team struggling to get consistent production out of that role. He'd fit well in Cleveland and Minnesota in particular.

The Oakland Athletics should not trade Mason Miller

This one is a bit more complicated, but the Athletics should not trade Mason Miller this summer. In theory, they should put him on the market because any pitcher who throws as hard as he does is liable to suffer a torn UCL at any time.

The problem is that no team is realistically going to offer the kind of prospect package the Athletics should be looking for. Miller should command a significant return, considering he has 5 years of team control left and is arguably the best reliever in baseball right now.

Unfortunately, most teams aren't going to offer a franchise-altering trade package for a reliever who has already had concerns about his UCL. So it puts the A's in a bit of a bind. The positive part is that because Miller still has so much team control, he won't lose trade value if the A's don't move him this year.

Unless the A's get blown away by an offer, they shouldn't be actively looking to trade Mason Miller this summer. He's too valuable to this organization and he almost certainly won't bring back the kind of return that would make A's fans happy with the decision.