A’s trade for Marte
Oakland acquired outfielder Starling Marte (right) and cash from the Miami Marlins for lefthander Jesús Luzardo.
SAN DIEGO — In a winnow move made to spark their offense, the A’s on Wednesday acquired outfielder Starling Marte from Miami for lefthander Jesús Luzardo — their former top pitching prospect.
Marte, 32, can be a free agent after this season, making him likely a shortterm addition. Luzardo, 23, began this season in the A’s rotation but was sent to TripleA Las Vegas in June after struggling as a starter and reliever.
The A’s said they acquired Marte and cash from the Marlins for Luzardo. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the Marlins will cover the rest of Marte’s contract this season, amounting to more than $4 million. A’s general manager David Forst said on a call with media the Marlins were including “a significant amount of cash.”
“We felt like Starling was frankly the best position player that was out there on the market,” Forst said. “It was just a matter of getting to a deal. It’s not easy to trade a player like Jesús; I think that’s kind of the bottom line. But ultimately we’ve always said when the team in this clubhouse performs and puts themselves in a playoff position, it’s on us to do whatever we can to try to help them.”
Marte has played center and left field in the majors. A righthanded hitter, he is batting .306 in 63 games this season with seven home runs, an .859 OPS, a careerbest 11.7% walk rate and a 20.8% strikeout rate. He is a career .288 hitter over 10 majorleague seasons and hit a careerhigh 23 home runs in 2019. He is 22for25 on stolenbase attempts this season.
“Great trade for both,” one American League evaluator said. “Marte upgrades the defense and offense. Apparently a great makeup guy so he’ll be great in the clubhouse. Luzardo has had a hiccup this year but is still a kid with big ceiling. Great acquire for the Marlins. Winwin.”
Forst said Marte will join the A’s and be in uniform Thursday for the opener of a fourgame series in Anaheim. Manager Bob Melvin said it hasn’t been decided where Marte will play defensively but did not rule out using Marte in center field, where he has played primarily since 2018, and moving Ramón Laureano to right field. Marte won Gold Gloves in the 2015 and 2016 seasons as primarily a left fielder with Pittsburgh. He was an NL AllStar in 2016.
“Not only does he give us a bat and solid defense … his run dynamic, he steals bases, he does everything,” Melvin said. “This is a bigtime player. So this adds to our team right now for sure.”
Adding Marte could boost an Oakland offense averaging 3.7 runs in its previous 25 games before Wednesday. The A’s entered the day having lost 19 of their past 31 games and were a seasonhigh six games out of first place in the AL West. Forst said the A’s targeted adding a setup reliever and a starting position player before Friday’s trade deadline; they acquired reliever Andrew Chafin from the Cubs for two minorleague players Monday.
“We’ve lost a number of onerun games. The pitching staff has had an incredibly thin margin for error over the last few days,” Forst said before the A’s beat the Padres 104 on Wednesday afternoon. “The starters have done a great job, relievers have come in to hold it. We do feel like a little jolt for the offense would be helpful and we feel like Starling’s going to provide that.”
Luzardo rose quickly in the A’s system after being acquired in a 2017 trade with the Nationals. The lefthander debuted in late 2019 as a reliever and spent most of the short 2020 season in Oakland’s rotation, going 32 with a 4.12 ERA in 12 games (nine starts). The A’s picked him to start the first game of their openinground playoff series against the White Sox.
Luzardo began this season in a starting role and had a 5.79 ERA in six outings when he landed on the injured list May 2 with a fractured pinkie on his left hand suffered when he accidentally hit his hand against a table while playing a video game. Luzardo termed the injury a “dumb mistake” and “freak accident.” He returned to the A’s on May 30 and made seven relief outings before being optioned to Las Vegas on June 21. He had a 6.87 ERA in 38 innings with the A’s this season.
“Obviously, we sent him down because he wasn’t performing in the big leagues at this time, and when you are in a playoff race, everything we do is about the now,” Forst said. “I still think Jesús has a lot of good baseball ahead of him. He’s only 23 years old. But ultimately we were focused on 2021, on this team, and sometimes you have to give up good players.”
Melvin said it was “a pretty good vibe in our clubhouse” Wednesday “because this is as David said about the now, and that’s what players are all about. … This makes us a better team.”
Forst did not rule out the A’s pursuing other deals before Friday, saying they will “continue to have conversations over the next 48 hours.”