Huge Atlanta/Oakland Trade May Be Imminent

Billy Beane is not afraid to make the big deal.  After last week, you’d have to think the same of Atlanta’s John Hart.

Getting these two on the phone with one another could endanger the baseball universe.

Uh-oh… they ARE on the phone together!

Both of Them???

8 Points, 9 Seconds

I normally hate to engage in this kind of speculation, but this is way too big to ignore.  Yes:  the rumor is that the Oakland Athletics are talking to the Atlanta Braves about a deal involving both Evan Gattis and Justin Upton at the same time.

[Update Note:  as suggested in today’s Morning Chop, there are multiple ways to interpret the Hickey tweet above… for the rest of this discussion, I will assume that both Gattis/Upton are involved- for that leads to much more interesting thoughts.  It is indeed more likely that a smaller deal would be in play… that simply due to both history and logistics.  Nonetheless, I would expect similar names to be discussed.]

Let’s review just a bit, as there are several relevant events from the past 10 days:

• Oakland signed DH Billy Butler to a 3 year, $30 million contract.  Seen as an overpay by some, not all.
• Atlanta trades Jason Heyward to St. Louis.  Gets back two former top-shelf prospects from the Cardinals, including middle-of-the-rotation pitcher Shelby Miller.  Heyward has 1 year of control left; Miller has four.
• John Hart openly comments that any return for Justin Upton should be bigger than that from the Heyward trade.
• Justin still has 1 year of control left; Gattis has four.
• Oakland was “fielding calls” for its Lefty hitters… and the Braves just traded one.
• Oh, Russell Martin got a 5-year, $82 million contract from the Blue Jays, suggesting the value of hitting catchers.

Last night, Oakland did pull off a deal that clearly had nothing to do with Jeff Samardzija (hereafter known as “Shark”).  That brought one of the best third basemen in baseball to Toronto (there’s another GM who has never seen a deal he didn’t like):

"The Blue Jays have officially struck a deal to acquire third baseman Josh Donaldson from the Athletics. Heading back to Oakland are infielder Brett Lawrie, righty Kendall Graveman, shortstop Franklin Barreto, and lefty Sean Nolin. (from MLBTR)"

That’s the Toronto 3B (or 2B), two major-league-ready (starting) pitchers, and a big-time SS prospect for Donaldson – who has 4 years of control remaining… and was Oakland’s best hitter.

Many were thinking that the A’s aren’t done.  I think that’s correct… and if the rumors from above are true, it could be that both teams are simply waiting for business to open back up today so that all players involved in this next deal can be notified that they’re moving.

The Atlanta Angle

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

There are a ton of ways I could go with this – and I will invite your opinions below as well.  But here’s my first thought (and there will be a second thought):

TO OAKLAND:  Gattis and Justin Upton

TO ATLANTA:  RHP Shark, LHH Josh Reddick, and RHP Sonny Gray.

This by itself would be big, though I could see a few other players added here and there to balance it out – not concerned with that right now.  Gray would be the big ‘get’ for Atlanta – having five years of control.  Reddick has two.  Shark projects to a $9.5 million salary for 2015; Reddick $3.7 million.

It’s also a swap of two players getting ready for their free agent years; Oakland’s prize here would be Gattis.

But I do have a second thought… let’s speculate more wildly by adding to the above:

TO OAKLAND:  B.J. Upton, Mike Minor, cash.

TO ATLANTA:  C Derek Norris or C/LHH John Jaso, plus CF Coco Crisp

There are several reasons leading me to this thought:

• As big as that first idea is, it doesn’t get nearly enough back from Oakland, given those hitters being both involved.
• It doesn’t account for the fact that Gattis would have no position:  Billy Butler is their new DH and they have two catchers already.  Moving a catcher from Oakland makes more sense, plus establishes a platoon for the Braves.
• This balances the loss of the A’s pitching (irrespective of last night’s trade)
• If significant cash would be involved, then the Commissioner’s Office has to approve such transactions, and that would not be doable until this morning.
• Crisp is 35 already, and his contract runs through 2015-16 (with a vesting option for 2017).  Still a little cheaper than Melvin’s, though given his age, Crisp’s inevitable regression and Upton’s ceiling are probably similar.  Therefore, there is actually not a lot of downside for Beane to take B.J.

At this point, I’ll stop:  no point in going further anyway.  But buckle up… this could be an interesting day.