Oakland Athletics Should Move on From Gentry and Fuld
Ben Zobrist will return before the end of May, giving the Oakland Athletics a big piece of their roster back.
He is beginning a rehab assignment today and will play second base. Could that be Zorilla’s primary position when the returns to the A’s lineup?
I hope not. At the start of the season I was saying Zobrist needs to be the everyday second baseman, but the A’s rank second to last in the league in production from left field. The Athletics have gotten a 48 wRC+ from their left fielders, and a MLB-worst -1.8 WAR. Left field is where Zobrist should play.
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When Zobrist returns that will give the A’s six outfielders: Sam Fuld, Craig Gentry, Zobrist, Coco Crisp, Billy Burns, Josh Reddick.
Zobrist and Reddick aren’t going anywhere. Crisp is probably best suited for platoon duty at this point, but also isn’t going anywhere. Burns is an obvious candidate to be sent down because of his service time, even though he has had a positive effect on the lineup. Unfortunately it seems as though Gentry still hasn’t fully recovered from the concussion that ended his season in 2014 and Fuld — despite yesterday’s sensational catch — does not bring anything special to the table.
The Oakland Athletics should move on from Gentry and Fuld. If not both, then at least one.
Why Fuld still manages to find his name in the lineup is beyond me and Gentry still has a lot of good baseball in him, he just needs to find it at triple-A Nashville.
My hope is that when the team does get Zobrist back we don’t have to see Burns shipped out. Offensively he’s been much better than Gentry and Fuld and defensively he’s been as good, if not better. What is there to lose?