Oakland Athletics Potential Trade Targets and Their Trade Value

The Oakland Athletics are way out of playoff contention with the worst record in baseball, 20-59. They will likely try to sell this deadline, but do they have any players who could be of interest to a contender?

If you prefer video breakdowns, check out this video:

Seth Brown, 1B/DH

Seth Brown brings one thing to the table: power. He has above average raw power and historically plus hard-hit rates (51% this season).  His .420 xSLG is significantly higher than his .346 actual SLG, indicating Brown may have gotten unlucky with some balls in play so far. Like many power hitters, Brown struggles with bat to ball skills and has poor strikeout rates and whiff rates throughout this career.

A contending team would likely use Brown as a platoon given his extreme splits. In his career, Brown is much better against right-handed pitchers:

While Brown has played some outfield in the past, he is much better suited for first base or designated hitter.

What is Seth Brown’s trade value?

Brown will reach arbitration for the first time this off-season, meaning he will have about 3.5 more years under team control when we get to the trade deadline. The more time under team control a player has, the more valuable he is. Because Brown is a platoon bat and is not doing well this year (.604 OPS through 138 PA), this will lessen the return.

We can look at a similar trade from 2021 to get a sense for the return: Mets OF Billy McKinney for Dodgers prospect OF Carlos Rincón.

Before McKinney was traded to the Dodgers he was hitting .698 OPS in 202 PA with the Mets and Brewers that season and had a similar amount of service time compared to Brown. Rincón was unranked in a top 51 prospect in the Dodgers system during the 2020-2021 off-season by FanGraphs but was considered a “Toolsy Lottery Ticket”.

It’s important to note that the McKinney trade was following the Met’s designating McKinney for assignment, which is a different circumstance than a trade deadline deal. However, a trade is a trade and I think the return of a low level prospect is still representative of what the A’s can get for Brown.

It might make sense for the A’s to wait another year to see if they can raise Brown’s value and get more back for him than a lottery ticket prospect.

Brent Rooker, OF/DH

The A’s claimed Brent Rooker off waivers from the Royals during the off-season and he is having a breakout season. In the beginning of May I wrote an article about why I was hesitant about his success. At the time, Rooker’s OPS was 1.126. Since that article (published May 9^th), Rooker has an OPS of .606. Some of the reasons I felt regression was imminent are as follows (there is more detail at the link above):

• Rooker has below average bat to ball skills.
• At the time Rooker had an extremely high BABIP (.339).
• Rooker was doing all his damage on pitches down the middle.

While Rooker does have his power upside, there were no noticeable changes that would indicate he was able to maintain his early season success. Because of this, I don’t think the Athletics will be able to get as large a return as hoped based on Rooker’s success thus far.

What is Rooker’s trade value?

I was having a hard time finding a trade to help estimate Rooker’s return value because of how well he is doing this season. The closest two trades I could find are as follows:

• Guardians 1B Jake Bauers to Seattle for a Player to be Named Later (2021)
• Yankees 1B Mike Ford to Tampa for a Player to be Named Later (2021)

However, Bauers and Ford were not doing nearly as well as Rooker is this season when they were traded. So I would expect a slightly larger return for Rooker, but still nothing involving a top prospect because of Rooker’s variance in performance.

Ramón Laureano, OF

Ramón Laureano was placed on the 10-day IL with a fractured hand, retroactive to June 22^nd. He is expected to miss four to six weeks, per manager Mark Kotsay to MLB.com. He also missed some time at the beginning of the season with a strained left groin.

Before fracturing his hand, Laureano had a .635 OPS through 219 PA. His power numbers significantly dropped this season, with a .363 xSLG (vs career .436 xSLG) and a 34% hard-hit rate (vs career 39% hard-hit rate). He also has a career high 31% strikeout rate and is tied for a career low 6% walk rate. Defensively Laureano is average in the corner outfield, but has a plus arm.

What is Laureano’s trade value?

Laureano has 2.5 years remaining under team control and is having a down year. While I could not find a similar 1-to-1 trade, this trade was 2-for-1 and included Jordan Luplow, who was similar to Laureano in terms of performance the year he was traded, his career performance pre-trade, and his service time:

• Guardians OF Jordan Luplow and RP DJ Johnson for Rays prospect SP Peyton Battenfield (2021)

And a quick note: Luplow was not used as a platoon bat until after the trade with Tampa (meaning at the time, it seems like the Guardians did not view Luplow as a platoon player. If they had, I assume this would have lessened his trade value).

FanGraphs ranked Peyton Battenfield 48^th in the Rays’ 2021 pre-season prospect ranking. Therefore, a trade involving only Laureano is likely to involve a prospect of similar status or less, given the deal with Luplow also involved a reliever.

Concluding Thoughts

While Seth Brown, Brent Rooker, and Ramón Laureano seem like they are the best fit players on the Athletics to be traded this deadline, I don’t expect any of the three to get a major return on their own. It will be interesting to see how the Athletics value each, whether they try to package any of them with another player, or if decide to hang on and see if any can raise their value for the off-season.

What do you think of the Athletics trade chances?