Brandon Moss Traded to Indians
By Tony Frye
Brandon Moss, The Boss, has been traded to the Cleveland Indians after nearly a week of will-they-won’t-they back and forth between the two teams. In exchange for our beloved player, the Oakland Athletics are set to receive minor league infielder, Joe Wendle. Yeah, you read that correctly.
As has been reported here in the past few days, trading Brandon Moss is a tough pill to swallow. With the Indians not having an immediate need for him and a question over the trade value they would see in the slugger, it was worrying to many A’s fans as to what we’d get in return for such a strong arm in our lineup. The trade for Joe Wendle only ignites a worried fanbase who will, undoubtedly, question the logic behind trading an all star slugger, fan favorite for a minor league player who is coming off of an injury.
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In Wendle, the Athletics have acquired a middle infielder with a career .292 batting average through three minor league seasons. In 2013 and 2014 he was good for 16 homeruns each year and posts a .357 OBP. Wendle’s fielding percentage, however, sits at .972 which is far from elite.
It is widely speculated among fans and analysts that Moss wasn’t commanding a lot of attention in the market considering he’s coming off of hip surgery and had a down second half in 2014. If that were the case, wouldn’t it make more sense for Beane to keep Moss around for 2015 than to trade him for subpar parts?
The other question we must ask but will probably never get answered, if this was just a one for one trade, why did it take so long to close the deal? Clearly, Cleveland is taking on a big salary hike compared to what they’re giving up but they were in the market for power and power costs a bit more. If Billy Beane wanted more of a return on his Moss investment and eventually settled on this deal, shouldn’t that be a sign that it’s a poor deal?
The recent trade of Josh Donaldson made a lot of sense to me. I wasn’t always a huge fan of the trade but I never thought Beane had lost his mind by doing it. This trade, however, leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and makes me question why the A’s would sign Billy Butler for three years if only to dismantle the middle of the lineup around him. Obviously, there are smarter minds than mine at work here and there is much more moving and dealing to come but this is a tough trade for me to support. Give me your thoughts on the trade in the comments or leave a voicemail at 925-322-1739 and we’ll use it on this week’s podcast.