Why Won’t Oakland Trade Ben Sheets?
Sifting through trade rumors this season, one thing has been constant: the Oakland Athletics seemingly have no desire to trade Ben Sheets. Sheets signed a one year contract with $10 million prior to the season and there are no options on the contract. The Athletics are currently seven games behind Texas and 3.5 behind Los Angeles in the AL West; if they weren’t already sellers, one would think that Texas’s acquisition of Cliff Lee would push Oakland over the edge.
There are two stipulations in the contract that make the A’s reluctance to deal Sheets so confusing. First off, Sheets receives $0.5M if he reaches 165 innings pitched and another $0.5M for 175, 185, and 195 as well. He sits at 112 IP so far and, although he has a pretty major injury history, probably only needs to make 10-11 more starts to reach the first level of incentives. Given how frugal the Athletics organization has been, it would be surprising for them to allow Sheets to reach these incentives.
The second is a stipulation that wouldn’t allow the Athletics to offer Sheets arbitration if he were to reach type A status (Source: Cot’s Contracts). This isn’t going to be an issue as long as the Elias rankings reverse engineered over at MLB Trade Rumors are even approaching accurate, as Sheets isn’t even close to a Type B at this point. Still, one potential reason for not trading Sheets would be free agent compensation, and that just doesn’t seem like an issue here, nor could it be even if Sheets were to be a Type A.
Of course, you can only draw so many conclusions from what a general manager allows to reach the press. Still, the Athletics just don’t appear to be geared up for a playoff run and should be looking for financial relief as well as young talent for the future. That seemed to be the entire basis of the Sheets signing: if the A’s are in it at the deadline, great, but if not, flip him for some prospects. Maybe the offers for Sheets just aren’t what Billy Beane likes right now, given that his player is having the worst season of his life, as the strikeouts are down and the walks and home runs are up. It’s not terribly surprising that Sheets is having such a poor season at age 31 (he turned 31 yesterday) and coming off a full season of injury rehab. Despite the struggles, the promise of the ace-level performance from 2002-2008 might be enough to draw some suitors, and it would be remiss of the Athletics not to cash in on their asset while they still can.
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Maybe Sheets is secretly one hell of a soccer player.
Oh I get it. Because Billy Beane likes soccer. Do you really think he’s the only GM in the game with an interest other than baseball?
Reactions to this “proclamation” from Oakland have been the same across the internet: “Why not trade Ben Sheets?” If Sheets is someone who cannot be had, a desperate GM might overpay for him. That’s pretty common around baseball to say players are unavailable, I don’t know why Sheets is causing people to lose sight of this.
Lighten up, Francis.
If Sheets is someone who cannot be had, a desperate GM might overpay for him.
Yes, this is totally how it works.
Given how Sheets has been pitching, they’d have to be VERY desperate. Like… Royals in contention desperate. Unlikely.
Maybe it has something to do with maintaining their payroll above the luxury revenue they bring in? Florida was blasted for that this past offseason and the A’s are $4M below them in salary for the 2010 season. Only the Padres and Pirates have spent less on their current rosters.
I don’t think its a big issue
And, there’s always the (good) chance that the A’s are eating salary to make the trade go through and get back better value since so many teams are payroll strapped, which means that the A’s would be covering part or all of the 5M still owed to him rest of season. That would keep payroll measures fairly linear.
Sheets is a great mentor for the younger pitchers and a great clubhouse guy. A trade would be Sheets and what Sheets brings to the clubhouse in exchange for the money savings and a minor prospect. I would think that the only deal that would make much sense for Beane would be to pick up a lot of the money left on Sheets’ deal and get a better prospect in return.
I would wager quite a bit he still ends up getting traded by July 31.
I suspect that if the A’s can get something decent for him, he will be traded.
Another aspect is that the A’s staff has been crushed by injuries, 3 pitchers out for the season, Anderson injured, some turnover in the rotation. Somebody has to pitch and eat up some innings.
“Somebody has to pitch and eat up some innings.”
This. What’s the alternative, bringing your AAAA scrubs up from wherever the A’s minor league team is and letting major leaguers eat them alive?
umm ya?
I believe in some circles this is called: “Giving a career minor leaguer the chance of a lifetime.”
who’s out for the year besides Duchscherer? Right now the rotation is Cahill, Gonzalez, Mazarro, Sheets and Braden. While I admit that’s not great, you could do a lot worst.
Justin, Meloan, and Outman.
Anderson is supposed to be back after one more start. That would give the A’s a sixth starter and would make them more willing to part with Sheets. Both he and Braden are problematic, though, until they’ve actually made a couple starts. I don’t think Billy’s quite given up yet and the A’s are don’t seem to be sellers this year, they seem to be quite willing to spend everything they get in revenue sharing, perhaps to show they’re good citizens in advance of MLB’s decision on San Jose.
Sheets will get traded. That 1 yr $10 contract made no sense without a trade. The question really becomes, is Sheets remaining $3.5 million worth any prospect? Are the A’s willing to pay some of this $$ in order to get a better prospect. The A’s are basically buying the prospect and how much they spend will determine the quality of that prospect.
People always want what they can’t have. Perhaps this is classic Beane, subconsciously upping Sheets’ value by saying he isn’t available.
I dunno, outside of two shitshow starts in a row at the end of April and beginning of May I don’t think it’s fair to say Sheets has been poor at all. In his other 17 starts he’s put up a 3.50 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. After tonight’s game against Boston he’s now gone 14 straight since that early May debacle of at least 6 and no more than 4 earned, rocking a K:BB over 2.5 during that stretch. I’m not saying those are Cy Young numbers, or even vintage Sheets, but he’s pitched much more consistently than his overall numbers suggest.
Spot on. I wrote a post about this today, actually (http://atmajors.com/2010-articles/july/the-futility-of-mitre-or-exploring-the-yankees-pitching-options.html) and I’d say that Sheets can be expected to, at the least, improve his walk rate. If he’s traded to the National League, well, there’s an above-average chance that he’ll hurt himself jogging down to first after a sac bunt, but his numbers could be in for an even bigger boost.
I like the idea of the Yankees trading for him because (a) they could use an insurance starter with Pettitte out and (b) when Pettitte does return, they could slide him to the bullpen without much fuss. His history, after all, sort of makes him an ideal candidate for long relief and/or a lighter, middle relief workload. The Yanks can easily afford the $3MM+ owed to him, and even flip a minor prospect or two if the A’s so require.
Why would he put a stipulation in his contract that he can’t be offered arb if he is a type A? How does it affect him if he denies it and signs another contract?
Teams might offer lesser salary terms to a type A free agent because they are losing the value of the draft picks. We saw this with Orlando Hudson in particular a couple of years ago. As a type A, he couldn’t find the type of contract he was looking for because teams countered the value of those draft picks against his salary. The classing of a player as a type A free agent, especially for one who is not considered an impact-type player, lowers his marketability.
I should have said “draft pick”, singular, as the signing team only loses the one pick.
ace level performance from 2002-2008?
eh, what?
Sure, he missed a lot of time, but I’ll take a 3.60 ERA, 1.17 WHIP and 4.20 K/BB from my ace any time.