On Friday night before the Oakland Athletics sent Josh Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays, it was initially believed the A's were packaging Jeff Samardzija in a major trade. Well, that could still be the case.
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweeted last night prior to the Donaldson move that the "Athletics are close to a fairly significant deal that involves Jeff Samardzija." What happened shortly thereafter ostensibly proved this to be wrong, but A's beat writer John Hickey has tweeted about a similar development.
Sources told Hickey that Oakland is talking with the Atlanta Braves about outfielder Justin Upton and catcher/outfielder Evan Gattis, who are both being actively shopped by the team. The A's are supposedly dangling Samardzija in a potential deal. President of baseball operations John Hart has made Upton and Gattis available in hopes of shedding payroll and acquiring young talent.
Atlanta is also looking for starting pitching help since there's no guarantee they'll be getting back Ervin Santana or Aaron Harang. They also face some issues heading into 2015 with Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy coming off of Tommy John surgery. The Braves met with Jon Lester last week, but it's unknown how serious their interest is because the Red Sox and Cubs have already made sizeable offers to the left-hander.
If the Athletics are offering Samardzija, which is certainly believable since they just acquired two young starters (Sean Nolin and Kendall Graveman) who are MLB-ready, the Braves might be considering getting either Upton or Gattis off their hands. Upton is owed $14.5 million next season and will be a free agent in 2016 while Gattis arbitration-eligible next offseason and should be due a big raise.
Atlanta seems to prefer spending money on pitchers rather than power hitters. Samardzija is arbitration-eligible this offseason and arguably had his best season in 2014, compiling a 2.99 ERA with 202 strikeouts and only 43 walks in 219 2/3 innings (33 starts). It was only his third full season as a starter, so the 29-year-old right-hander's future is looking up.
On top of that, the NL East is wide open. The Washington Nationals were the only team in the division with a winning record last season, so if the Braves can bolster their pitching staff and have Samardzija join Julio Teheran, Mike Minor, Shelby Miller and Alex Wood to start 2015, they could make a case for contention in the division.
As for the Athletics, with the acquisition of Upton the team can fill a void in left field and Gattis can do the same, unless they want to put him at catcher. It would also give them another power hitter to replace Donaldson. Although Samardzija believed to be the centerpiece of these trade talks, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal speculates it's more likely the team deals a left-handed hitter, such as Brandon Moss, Josh Reddick or John Jaso, and waits for Samardzija's value to increase throughout the first half of the 2015 season.
This is a good point because the Braves could ask for Moss or Reddick and put one of them in right field and leave Upton or Gattis in left (if they don't trade both of them). Whatever the case, both of these teams are on the same page as they continue to tinker their rosters.
