On Friday the Oakland Athletics sent All-Star third baseman Josh Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for four players. A's general manager Billy Beane discussed the controversial trade.
It was speculated the Athletics were going to make a deal this offseason, but many didn't expect Donaldson to be moved. He's been the team's best player over the past two seasons and finished top-10 in the MVP voting over that time frame. Starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija, outfielder Josh Reddick and first baseman/outfielder Brandon Moss were among those who were believed to be involved in a trade.
Oakland received third baseman Brett Lawrie, minor league pitchers Sean Nolin and Kendall Graveman and 18-year-old shortstop prospect Franklin Barreto. Lawrie is still a young talent and has much MLB experience despite injuries shortening his past two seasons; Nolin and Graveman are considered MLB-ready and will eventually help fill the void left by Jon Lester and; Barreto is a good replacement in the minors for shortstop Addison Russell, who was shipped to the Cubs in July.
"We wouldn't have done it unless all four of these guys were in the deal," Beane told MLB Network. "Each one represents sort of a need ... we spent a lot of minor league capital in the last couple of years trying to give this current group as good a chance as we possibly could, and now looking forward I think we need to be cognizant of the next couple of years."
"Me and Alex [Anthopoulos] communicate quite a bit and we have a really good relationship ... I knew he was serious when [the discussions] started and it really gained momentum over the last few days. They were reluctant to give up those four players and we weren't going to do it without them."
Beane likely felt it was a good decision to send Donaldson to Toronto because he received an experienced third baseman in return and others who can help the club in the future. After all, Donaldson was the player who would have gotten them the most in a return, so if Oakland is looking toward the next few seasons then the trade was a good decision in Beane's eyes in that respect.
The team is now reportedly in talks with the Atlanta Braves about acquiring outfielder Justin Upton and catcher/outfielder Evan Gattis and they're dangling Samardzija as a part of that deal. It seems as if they're looking for another power bat to replace Donaldson, so they're apparently not disregarding the 2015 season.
But Samardzija has garnered interest from at least 10 teams (including the Red Sox and White Sox), which leaves Oakland with a lot of potential trade partners and options to fill their roster. Beane also said, "What we thought we had to do was something that wasn't timid."
It seems as if he'll continue that philosophy this offseason.
