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December 8, 2014Pedro Cerrano in the Twitter age
December 8, 2014The Indians have made their first big move of the offseason today in acquiring Brandon Moss from the Oakland Athletics. In exchange for Moss, the Tribe sent minor league infielder Joey Wendle to Oakland. Last season in Oakland, Moss hit .234 with 25 home runs and 81 RBI in 147 games. He was selected to the 2014 MLB All-Star game after hitting .268 with 21 homeruns and 66 RBI in the first half of the season (89 games). Moss struggled in the second half of the season due to injuries, which eventually forced him to have hip surgery after the Athletics were eliminated from the playoffs. He is expected to be ready for the 2015 season.
Brandon Moss gives the Indians much needed power to the middle of the lineup. The Indians have been in search of a power bat to place behind Michael Brantley, Jason Kipnis, and Carlos Santana for a quite awhile. If healthy, Moss’s switch to the AL Central could give his numbers a boost. In 2014, Moss batted .265 with 13 home runs and 47 RBI on the road, while hitting just .197 with 12 home runs and 34 RBI at home in the pitcher-friendly Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Moss can play both first base and outfield.
This acquisition seems to open up another trade for the Indians. The Tribe has quite a few outfielders and first baseman now after this trade including Nick Swisher, David Murphy, and Michael Bourn. These three players especially have a lot of money left on their contracts, so a trade would make a ton of sense for the Tribe. Along with a possible trade of these players, the Indians have been linked to trading for Atlanta Braves’ outfielder Justin Upton. With all these options, the Indians look like a team with plenty of more moves to come.
14 Comments
In a vaccuum, I like the acquisition (provided Moss is a .265 hitting 25+ HR guy who isn’t a total hack defensively). Without doing something else meaningful with Swisher and/or Bourn…I’m going to give it an “incomplete” grade for now.
I like the trade. However, I don’t know that this opens up Bourn. Corner outfield and center field are two different things. And I’d rather not move Brantley back to CF if we can help it.
I agree with you and nj0 that this likely signals a follow-up trade. However, I don’t think it’s a bad thing if we stand pat with it either. I like Moss as a decent bounce-back guy and he has good power. He’s a lefty, but he can hit lefties.
What this move really does is likely signal an end to Raburn’s time with the team unless we make a bigger, bolder move (Aviles would be the utility IF, Murphy the utility OF, everyone other significant player has a starting spot).
In the immediate future, the Indians have to clear some space on the 40 man roster. Waiver wire acquisitions Nick Maronde and Charles Brewer could be the guys DFA’d. So could reliever Brian Price.
Long-term, Moss should be DH or 1B. He’s not a very good defender in right, and the team’s defense is bad enough as-is. Since Santana should be untouchable, this means trying to get out from Swisher’s horrid contract. If the Indians are content to put him in RF, then David Murphy probably has to go, but he *might* fetch something on the trade market.
Sad to see Wendle go. He was a productive prospect who had opened a lot of eyes. But with Kipnis entrenched and one of Lindor/Gonzalez/JRam likely also taking SS and the utility spot, he was unlikely to get a good shot here. Oakland has a lack of depth in the middle infield, so they’re a great spot for him.
Im usually against trading for injured players, makes me think they know the injuries are worse than the we think. Good deal if he can play RF at least 1 year and get us draft compensation after arb years though.
This was my immediate thought too. As much as anyone likes Joey Wendle, it seems like he is a pretty weak prospect even for a one-year rental of Brandon Moss. It makes me think that the A’s already know something. But it’s not a bad trade… I’m glad it was done. Just keeping my expectations low.
I’m coming around on standing pat. Depth is good, especially considering how much injury issues we have had. But if we don’t move Swisher or Murphy, that probably means we’re done adding payroll through free agency this year.
We won’t get draft compensation unless we tag Moss in 2016. If we do, he can accept the tag offer which, as a guess, will be like ~$16M by then. Barring a late career, Bautista-like resurgence, Moss won’t be worth that.
The advantage with Moss is that he’s in his 2nd arbitration year. If he stinks, we can non-tender him next year and let him walk. We won’t get anything in compensation, but at least we won’t have to pay him like we do contracted guys such as Swisher and Bourn.
As for his bounce back possibilities, I don’t know man. Hips are dicey. Also they were betting on Murphy to have bounce back year after getting him last year. The year before that was Stubbs.
I think this is just some depth and a flyer chance at that. I know we have to value pick and choose a bit, so I get it (and I’m good with the trade), but I think they need to make another move (and will make a move) to move the needle.
Murphy did have a bounceback year. Last year was just a little below his career norms. If we were expecting much more from Murphy than what we got, then our FO were fools.
Murphy ’13 .220/.282/.374 – 78 OPS+
Murphy ’14 .262/.319/.385 – 102 OPS+
Murphy Career .273/.335/.433 – 104 OPS+
I disagree with the bounce back. And I think the FO was hoping for more of an every day player, and that they were hoping they would get the 2012 model (or the 2008-2012 versions).
In 2012, he hit .304 (OPS of .380), scored 65 runs and drove in 61, with a WAR (I hate this stat but since stat guys go by it) of 3.2.
In 2013, his numbers were decidedly down (WAR of .2), thus the value grab.
In 2014, his WAR was -.6…worst in his career. He scored 40 runs, drove in 58 (close to his average). He only hit 8 HRs (down from his 13-16 norm). His slugging was .385 (down from his .440-.460 norms)
His WAR is so low because his defense was abysmal. If we want to talk about his drop-off on defense, then I would agree. I was discussing his hitting and that is the only item you brought up.
I put OPS+ on the end there because it is adjusted to the player’s ballpark. Arlington is a notorious hitter’s park and inflates numbers. We cannot expect him to achieve the same power numbers at the Jake as he did in Arlington.
Here are his OPS+ numbers by the year:
’14 – 102
’13 – 78
’12 – 126
’11 – 92
’10 – 111
’09 – 101
’08 – 105
2014 was right in line with the expected range in 2008-2012. It would have been fantastic to have the 2012 version, but you cannot expect to get a guy’s best year.
In the field, ugh. I don’t trust the defensive metrics completely, but I trust my eyes coupled with them and both say he was bad.
Good move for the Tribe. They picked up some power while giving away minimal talent. They must be eyeing another move because that outfield is crowded now. My guess is they are looking for suitors for Bourn or Murphy. They probably want to dump Bourn but it will likely be Murphy. No one will take Swisher, no way.
I’m not sure how they hold on to both. I expect Murphy to be gone as he’s the much easier contract to move and there is absolutely no reason to play him with Moss now on the roster.