Sports: A’s look toward future, deal ace Sonny Gray to the Yankees.
With an eye on rebuilding for near future, Oakland parts with current cornerstone
OAKLAND » Executive vice president Billy Beane made it clear a couple of weeks ago. The A’s are rebuilding.
He fortified those statements on Monday when the club traded star pitcher Sonny Gray to the New York Yankees on Monday in exchange for prospects Jorge Mateo, Dustin Fowler and James Kaprielian.
Beane wants to transform the club into a team that will be ready to compete for a championship when it moves into a new stadium that he believes is only a few years away. In order to make that happen Beane said trading a player of Gray’s caliber is a necessity.
“This is part of our process. We’re in last place and we need to do something,” Beane said. “Sonny was a great player for us, but at this point we need a lot of great players. I think there’s a talent deficit that exists right now and the way to acquire multiple good players is to trade some of the ones you have right now.”
Although Gray was well aware
of the trade rumors that had been floating around over the past month linking him to multiple teams, making it seem like no longer a matter of if but when, manager Bob Melvin said the righthander still seemed a little shocked when he actually heard the news that he had been dealt.
“Even though he probably expected it I think he was a little bit stunned, but once he gets there and gets with the group of guys and sees what it’s like playing in the postseason in New York, he’s gonna be excited,” Melvin said. “I think when he was leaving he got excited but you can’t help but think about your years here. Basically it’s like your university. This is the only place you’ve been. It’s just a new dynamic for him.”
Mateo, 22, is a shortstop and the Yankees’ No. 8 prospect. He is batting a combined .258 with eight home runs, 37 RBIs and 39 stolen bases at High-A and Double-A this season. He will join Double-A Midland immediately and continue to play shortstop.
Fowler, 22, is an outfielder who was batting .293 with 13 home runs, 43 RBIs and 13 stolen bases in Triple-A before suffering a ruptured right patella tendon. Kaprielian, 23, is a right-hander who has not pitched this season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. The UCLA product was drafted 16th overall by the Yankees in 2015. As a professional, he is 2-2 with a 2.45 ERA in eight games, six of which he started. Both are out for the rest of this season.
Beane said he and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman had agreed on a couple of players in the trade for a while, but that the deal came down to the final hour of the deadline due to one player in particular that he was pushing for. Beane did not reveal who the final player was.
While taking a chance on two injured prospects seems like a risky proposition, Beane said he is confident in a full recovery and a return to form from both players.
“We did a pretty exhaustive medical review and we feel very comfortable with where they’re at in the rehab and when they’ll return,” Beane said.
Fowler is expected to be ready for spring training, while Kaprielian, who Beane said the A’s planned to select had he still been available in the draft, is expected to make a full recovery by next May.
“We view it as an opportunity,” Beane said. “I can certainly tell you that it would have been very hard to acquire all three players had they not been injured.”
Although the club continues to deal away young stars like Gray (27), Beane maintained his position that getting rid of young players will no longer be an issue once the full rebuild is complete.
“We need to get younger and hopefully in the next cycle we maintain these players,” Beane said. “The acquisitions here were meant for the long term.”
As for Gray’s future in New York, Beane sees him as perfect fit for the Big Apple.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for Sonny,” Beane said. “The Yankees are a first-class operation. They’ve got a good, young team so I think Sonny fits in well age-wise. People don’t associate one of the best young teams in baseball with the Yankees, but that’s what they’ve become. I think the Yankees are gonna be happy to have him, not just this year, but going forward as well.”
The A’s were the only organization Gray ever knew. From being drafted 18th overall in the 2011 draft to debuting with Oakland in 2013 to help the A’s make a postseason run later. He leaves the club having gone 44-36 with a 3.42 ERA over parts of five seasons. He was an All-Star selection in 2015, the same year he finished third in the Cy Young Award voting.
“We were close and we wish him the best. We’ll be watching,” Melvin said. “I think he landed in a great spot and from what I understand, we had a nice take back with some athleticism and some younger guys that we think will be impactful. But again, you reflect a little bit on the time we had with Sonny and what he meant for this organization.”
• The A’s also traded veteran infielder Adam Rosales, who went to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for minor league pitcher Jefferson Mejia.
The imminent return of super-utility man Chad Pinder made Rosales an expendable piece for the A’s. Mejia is 1-1 with a 5.90 ERA in 21 relief appearances for Single-A Hillsboro and Kane County this season.