A’s Part Ways With Kevin Kouzmanoff

As reported by multiple sources including the team’s official site, the Oakland Athletics have parted ways with 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff. Kouzmanoff, who had been stuck in Triple-A Sacramento since June, will head to a Colorado team that might use Kouzmanoff as their everyday third baseman.

Kouzmanoff, 30, entered this season as Oakland’s opening day starter at third base, but an extremely slow start on both offense and defense resulted in Kouzmanoff’s demotion to the River Cats.

His first year in Oakland wasn’t exactly a good first impression, as his .247/.283/.396 slash line was lower across the board compared to his 2009 season in San Diego.

He still led Oakland in home runs (16) and RBIs (71), but Kouzmanoff’s first year in green-and-gold was somewhat forgettable, especially with the way he played this season.

In 46 games this year, Kouzmanoff managed just a .221/.262/.353 line in 136 at-bats with four home runs and 17 RBIs. He also had a terrible time defensively this year for the Athletics, as he committed 9 errors in just 46 games. Last year in 2010, he made 12 errors in 142 games.

While he did perform well down in Triple-A Sacramento, Kouzmanoff was simply out of Oakland’s long term plans by the time of his turnaround in the minors. Oakland has since went with Scott Sizemore, who has played decent baseball since arriving, but it’s still unclear who will be Oakland’s long-term plan at third-base.

Since Eric Chavez fell off the rails due to various injuries, the A’s have failed to find a worthy replacement at the hot-corner. Kouzmanoff had tough shoes to fill and he was supposed to be a solution for Oakland’s paper thin foundation over at third. While Sizemore has proved to be a decent player for the A’s, I doubt the organization views him as a long-term solution for their third base situation.