Athletics

Several MLB owners ripped the Oakland Athletics for fielding a non-competitive team and hoarding revenue-sharing money to turn a profit this season.

“The idea of revenue sharing is not to make money, it’s to field a competitive team,” one owner told Jon Heyman of the New York Post. “That money is supposed to go toward player salaries. [The A's] took the money and put it in their pocket.”

The A's are making $9 million via revenue sharing this season and $20 million in 2023.

Rather than use that money to acquire players, Oakland spent its offseason jettisoning first baseman Matt Olson, third baseman Matt Chapman and starting pitchers Chris Bassitt and Sean Manaea in trades. The team signed just two players, second baseman Jed Lowrie and catcher Stephen Vogt, for a combined $1.7 million.

The A's were included in the revenue-sharing program on a temporary basis due in large part to their struggles landing a new stadium in the Oakland area. The RingCentral Coliseum opened in 1966 and has been the franchise's home since 1968; it's the fifth-oldest stadium in Major League Baseball.

While ballparks like Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium have undergone major overhauls aimed at modernizing the historic fields, the Coliseum is widely regarded as a relic. The park has an extensive history of stadium issues causing game delays, including sewage leaks and power outages.

Some within MLB point out that the Athletics are still losing money despite the revenue-sharing system, thanks in large part due to investments made in attempting to find a new stadium and a lack of revenue at the Coliseum. The A's are averaging only 8,283 fans per game this season, by far the lowest mark in baseball.

Oakland currently sits at 22-43 and is 18 games out of first place in the AL West.

The fire sale in Oakland is likely to persist as Athletics right-hander Frankie Montas continues to generate interest from around Major League Baseball. 

The New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees are among the teams that have been linked to Montas recently, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. 

The news comes after The Athletic's Jim Bowden reported in April that Montas was likely to be dealt "long before" the August 2 trade deadline as the A's continue to shed payroll and talent in hopes of building for the future. 

Montas has been Oakland's best starting pitcher this season. The 29-year-old has posted a 3.67 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 53 strikeouts in 49 innings across eight starts. It follows a 2021 campaign in which he made 32 starts and punched out 207 batters in 187 innings. 

If Montas is traded, the A's rotation will be down to Cole Irvin, Daulton Jefferies, Paul Blackburn and James Kaprielian. They have combined for a 7-10 record and 3.71 ERA this season.

Oakland has already dealt pitchers Chris Bassitt and Sean Manaea in 2022. In addition, the team also parted ways with third baseman Matt Chapman and first baseman Matt Olson. 

The teams that have expressed interest in Montas shouldn't be surprising. 

The Yankees have been one of the best teams in the league this season, having posted a 28-10 record, and are hoping to reach the World Series for the first time since 2009. Gerrit Cole and Luis Severino sit atop the team's rotation, but adding Montas could be a game-changer. 

Beyond Cole and Severino, the Yankees feature Jordan Montgomery, Jameson Taillon and Nestor Cortes. All have pitched well this season—especially Cortes, who sports a 1.35 ERA—but Montas would create depth and allow manager Aaron Boone to get creative. 

The Mets rotation has dealt with its fair share of injuries, including to Max Scherzer (oblique) and Tylor Megill (biceps), and it's still unclear when ace Jacob deGrom (shoulder) might return to the lineup. 

Bassitt, Carlos Carrasco and Taijuan Walker could use help while the injured trio sits.

Minnesota is in an injury pinch, too, so Montas would be an incredible pickup for the club. Bailey Ober (groin), Chris Paddack (Tommy John surgery), Kenta Maeda (elbow) and Randy Dobnak (finger) are all on the injured list, and the Twins need a proven pitcher who can join a group that includes Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Dylan Bundy and Chris Archer. 

Chicago, meanwhile, is less in need of a rotational piece, but Lance Lynn remains on the injured list and Montas would help lock down the rotation alongside Lucas Giolito and Dylan Cease. The same can be said for St. Louis,, which is without Jack Flaherty and could use the depth. 

The pitcher who co-leads the American League in WAR with Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander is probably not the one you think.

It's not New York Yankees sensation Nestor Cortes, who's seeing Verlander's 1.38 ERA and raising him a 1.35 ERA. Nor is it Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman, whose relatively modest 2.40 ERA comes with a comical strikeout-to-walk ratio of 54-to-2.

Rather, the one AL hurler who's been as valuable as Verlander in 2022 is...Paul Blackburn?

That's his name, all right. I would say "don't wear it out," but probably only the most diehard Oakland Athletics fans are guilty of repeating Blackburn's name this season. And judging from the team's attendance, those are the only fans showing up to watch the A's.

All the same, the 28-year-old righty is performing like a true No. 1 starter. In seven starts, he's gone 4-0 and logged a 1.67 ERA through 37.2 innings. Though he's struck out only 29 batters, he's otherwise dominated the three true outcomes by permitting only five walks and one home run.

Since all this is coming from a guy whose previous five seasons in the majors produced a grand total of 30 appearances and a 5.74 ERA, you probably have questions. So, please allow me to guess what they are and attempt to answer them.

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Where Did This Guy Come From?

Put it this way: Without Blackburn, Mike Montgomery might never have been a Chicago Cub and, by extension, been the guy to record the final out of the 2016 World Series.

The Cubs originally drafted Blackburn out of Heritage High School in Brentwood, California, with the 56th pick in the 2012 draft. Largely on account of his above-average curveball and ability to throw strikes, he went into 2016 ranked by Baseball America as the organization's No. 19 prospect. He then further boosted his stock with a 3.17 ERA in 18 starts through July for its Double-A affiliate.

That's when the Cubs decided to cash Blackburn in, sending him to the Seattle Mariners in a four-player deal that brought Montgomery back to the North Side. The rest, as they say, is history 108 years in the making.

Just months later in November, the Mariners flipped Blackburn to the A's for Danny Valencia. Baseball America only considered him the team's 23rd-best prospect going into the subsequent spring, but he made an impression on Bob Melvin. The former A's skipper told reporters it "wouldn’t surprise me at all" if the then-23-year-old Blackburn debuted in 2017.

That event indeed came to pass on July 1, 2017, and it begat the start of a successful 10-start run that saw the Bay Area native pitch to a 3.22 ERA over 58.2 innings. Best of all was when he got to take it to the Mariners with 7.2 innings of one-run ball in just his second start.

"Your first start is kind of an out-of-body experience, and then your second start is about performing," Melvin said. "And certainly against the team he was with, got traded from, gets to pitch against them ... a really, really good performance from him."

Alas, Blackburn's fun run ended with a literal bad break when he got hit by a comebacker on the right wrist on Aug. 22. That proved to be his final appearance of the season.

So it went in 2018, when he came down with a forearm strain in spring training and didn't make his first appearance until June. Though his arm recovered, he was hardly able to sustain his productivity from '17 as he got lit up for a 7.16 ERA over six appearances with Oakland.

Blackburn subsequently made only five appearances in the majors across 2019 and 2020, and the A's even designated him for assignment in February 2021. He stayed in the organization, but only resurfaced in the majors to get knocked around again for a 5.87 ERA in nine starts as a fill-in for Chris Bassitt after the veteran righty was struck by a line drive in August.

Blackburn seemed ticketed for a similar role as an emergency option in 2022, but that changed when the A's opened up two rotation spots with trades of Bassitt and Sean Manaea.

Blackburn might have earned one of those the old-fashioned way, but that's not exactly what happened. He served up nine runs on 13 hits and five walks in 8.2 innings during the spring, and thus only opened the season in Oakland's rotation because injuries took James Kaprielian and Brent Honeywell out of the running.

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So, How's He Doing This?

As for how Blackburn went from just lucky to be in the A's rotation to competing with Verlander, Cortes and Gausman for the AL Cy Young Award, to understand it requires an appreciation for the craft of pitching.

At no point during his prospect days was he billed as a prototypical major league ace, and he still doesn't resemble one now in spite of his ace-like numbers. He's sitting at an average of only 91.7 mph even after improving his fastball velocity. His whiff rate, meanwhile, is barely above average in the 52nd percentile.

Yet one thing Blackburn has always had is a deep arsenal of pitches. And even more so in 2022 now that he's added a slider with well-above-average movement vertical and horizontal movement, thereby expanding his repertoire to six distinct offerings:

“I think it’s just going to give me more swing-and-miss to righties," Blackburn said of his new slider. "I feel like that’s just kind of what I’ve needed to get done over the last couple years and I haven’t been able to do that."

So far, so good. The 26 sliders Blackburn has thrown to right-handed batters have yielded six swings and misses and only one hit on four balls in play.

His best pitch even in the worst of times, Blackburn's curve is holding opposing batters to one hit in 22 at-bats in its own right. Between that and his slider, it's fair to say that his ability to spin the ball is a key part of his success.

Paul Blackburn, Nasty 3 Breaking Ball K (with Two Swords). ⚔️⚔️ pic.twitter.com/GifEUnXHRU

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 10, 2022

Blackburn has also spoken about throwing his curveball, slider and his other secondary pitches with a "fastball mentality." With a certain aggressiveness, in other words, which especially shows in how he's throwing first-pitch strikes a career-best 64.8 percent of the time even as he's only leading with his sinker in 35.2 percent of 0-0 counts.

Blackburn is also just plain throwing more strikes the old-fashioned way. At 47.0 percent, his rate of pitches in the strike zone is the highest it's ever been. It's not as easy to measure the quality of his command, but he's clearly adept at working on the outside of the zone against both left-handed and right-handed batters:

All in all, Blackburn's approach to pitching contains multitudes. The effect is not unlike if the A's had simply kept Bassitt, who similarly thrives on a deep repertoire and unpredictable sequencing and location patterns, and changed his name to Paul Blackburn. 

“He mixes all of his pitches, throwing to locations, keeping guys guessing, keeping everybody off-balance, pitching to contact, being efficient," A's catcher Sean Murphy said of Blackburn. "All the good things you could say about a pitcher.”

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But Can He Keep This Up?

If this question can be taken more specifically to mean "Can Blackburn maintain an ERA in the 1.00s?" then the answer is a pretty blatant no.

Even still, the forecast doesn't seem to be for a regression back to the utter ineffectiveness that defined Blackburn's last four seasons.

His 2.94 expected ERA may be a fair deal higher than his actual ERA, but it's still good for 14th among all pitchers who've had at least 100 balls put in play. At No. 15 is none other than Bassitt. At No. 12, just ahead of fellow A's hurler Frankie Montas, is reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes.

This speaks to just how harmless the majority of balls in play off Blackburn have been. Slightly over half (50.9 percent) have been ground balls. The 21 fly balls off him have averaged just 303 feet in distance, a full 10 feet below the leaguewide average of 313 feet.

If anything, those numbers understate the difficulty that batters have had driving the ball against Blackburn. By launch angle, his average mark of 3.2 degrees is behind only Framber Valdez and Logan Webb. There's also virtually no difference between his actual (1.0) and expected (0.9) home runs allowed.

It also helps Blackburn's cause that A's manager Mark Kotsay isn't tasking him with writing checks that his arm can't cash. He's maxed out at 88 pitches and has gotten a third trip through the lineup in just five of his starts.

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How Long Will He Remain an A?

Unfortunately for A's fans, there just isn't any avoiding this question any time the team produces a new star.

Unless you count Marcus Semien despite his value-killing walk year in 2020, you have to go all the way back to Barry Zito in 2006 to find the last time the A's actually held on to a star player until free agency called his number. Since then, many others—up to and including Bassitt, Manaea, Matt Olson and Matt Chapman this past winter—have left town via trades during their arbitration years.

As he's under club control through 2025, this won't necessarily be Blackburn's fate in the near future. But at the same time, anyone who says it can be ruled out completely has too much faith in the organization's commitment to fielding a competitive team.

The A's deliberately punted on contending when they held their fire sale after the Major League Baseball lockout lifted in March, so it's no great surprise that they are in the AL West cellar with a 16-23 record. Once Montas is inevitably traded, Oakland's timeline for returning to contention figures to get even longer.

It's conceivable that the A's will be a contender again before Blackburn's club control is up, yet the complication there is that he's eligible for arbitration for the first time next year. That will result in his salary being measured in millions rather than thousands. If they want to keep their payroll below the $50 million threshold, the A's might not find that palatable.

It thus wouldn't be surprising if the A's shopped Blackburn this winter or even this summer. As a controllable late-bloomer on a team that's going nowhere fast, he has a profile similar to that of Doug Fister when the Mariners traded him to the Detroit Tigers in 2011.

No matter when it happens, a trade of Blackburn would give A's fans yet another reason to be fed up with the organization. The silver lining for everyone else, though, is that such a thing would bring greater exposure to a pitcher who deserves to have it.

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Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.

Starting pitcher Frankie Montas is likely the next star player to be on the move as the Oakland A's continue their roster teardown. But at least one team reportedly won't pursue the right-hander.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the Chicago White Sox have moved on from negotiating with the A's and that Montas wasn't even the pitcher they were trying to acquire.

"Reports of the White Sox’s involvement were exaggerated," Heyman wrote. "The South Siders made an attempt to land Indiana product Sean Manaea, but sources say of any talk regarding Montas: 'That ship has sailed.'"

Heyman added there is "nothing hot" regarding Montas at the moment and that Oakland could choose to hold on to him until the Aug. 2 trade deadline. The team would likely require a substantial package to deal Montas, who "is seen as a potential superstar by some," per Heyman. 

Montas has made two starts in 2022 and has a 1-1 record. He's pitched 11.1 innings with 12 strikeouts and a 4.76 ERA. 

The 29-year-old is a rising star who looks like he is on his way to becoming an ace of a starting rotation. He went 13-9 last season with a 3.37 ERA and 207 strikeouts in 187.0 innings of work. It was his first time recording 10 or more wins in a season.

Montas made his major league debut with the White Sox as a relief pitcher in 2015. Chicago traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers later that year, and the Dodgers sent him to Oakland the following summer.

In addition to trading Manaea, the A's gutted their core this offseason by shipping away Chris Bassitt, Matt Olson and Matt Chapman in exchange for prospects. It wouldn't be a surprise if Oakland continued to make moves throughout this season.

The Oakland Athletics might be on the verge of trading away another key player from their roster.

Univision Sports' Mike Rodriguez reported Monday that the Chicago White Sox "are very close" on a deal for Oakland right-hander Frankie Montas.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported the White Sox and A's were discussing a swap but that Chicago was reluctant to include Andrew Vaughn in the trade.

The A's have already shipped Matt Olson, Matt Chapman and Sean Manaea out, so it might only be a matter of time before Montas is in a different uniform.

The 29-year-old struggled in his first start, allowing five earned runs over five innings in a 9-5 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Opening Day. But he's coming off a 2021 season in which he finished 13-9 with a 3.37 ERA and a 3.37 FIP in 32 appearances.

Montas would be a solid addition to Chicago's starting rotation behind Lucas Giolito and Dylan Cease. There's also a need for arms at the moment with Lance Lynn recovering from knee surgery and Giolito going on the 10-day injured list with an abdominal injury.

Sending Vaughn to Oakland would be a steep price to pay, though.

The 24-year-old struggled as a rookie, batting .235 and slugging .396 in 127 games. With a full season in MLB under his belt, he's now beginning to look like the hitter who had 50 home runs in college.

Vaughn went 4-for-10 with two homers and six RBI in Chicago's first three games.

"Vaughn worked on exactly what I talked to him about at the end of the year," White Sox hitting coach Frank Menechino said to The Athletic's James Fegan. "And I didn't talk to him all offseason (due to the lockout). And he came back and it's very noticeable the changes he made and the stuff that he learned from last year. I'm looking for a really good year from Vaughn."

As much as Chicago could use pitching relief, pursuing Montas at the price the A's could potentially demand might be a case of emphasizing the short term at the cost of the future.

The San Diego Padres are the latest team to take advantage of the Oakland Athletics' offseason fire sale. 

ESPN's Jeff Passan first reported the Padres acquired Sean Manaea from Oakland on Sunday. 

Per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand, the Padres will also receive right-handed pitching prospect Aaron Holiday, with Oakland getting Euribiel Angeles and Adrian Martinez in return. 

Oakland has gutted its roster this offseason in a drastic effort to reduce payroll. Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Chris Bassitt were all traded last month. 

Manaea signed a one-year, $9.75 million contract to avoid arbitration on March 22. He was going to be the highest-paid player on Oakland's roster in 2022, but that distinction now belongs to Stephen Piscotty. 

With Sean Manaea headed to San Diego, Stephen Piscotty now owns the highest salary on the Oakland A’s ($7.58 million).

— Danny Vietti (@DannyVietti) April 3, 2022

Passan suggested this deal could open the door to another trade because the Padres will have a surplus of starting pitching when the trade becomes official. 

San Diego's rotation heading into Opening Day consists of Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, Blake Snell, Mike Clevinger and Nick Martinez. Ryan Weathers and Mackenzie Gore are also challenging for a spot in the starting group this spring. 

Clevinger, who is returning from Tommy John surgery, could be the odd man out to start the season. He has allowed eight earned runs on seven hits in 1.2 innings during spring training. 

The addition of Manaea will give the Padres the luxury of taking it slow with Clevinger. 

Manaea is much better than a surplus arm for San Diego. The 30-year-old tied for the American League lead with 32 starts in 2021. He finished the year with a 3.91 ERA and 194 strikeouts in 179.1 innings. 

Holiday was a 13th-round pick by the A's in 2021. The Philadelphia native didn't give up a run in 5.2 innings of rookie ball last September. 

The A's will get two decent prospects back in the deal. MLB.com ranked Angeles as the No. 12 prospect in San Diego's system; Martinez checked in at No. 26. 

Angeles was signed as an international free agent in 2018. The Dominican Republic native hit .329/.392/.445 with four homers and 64 RBI in 105 games at second base across two levels last season. 

Martinez, 25, is a right-handed pitcher who finished 2021 at Triple-A. He had a 3.38 ERA and 122 strikeouts in 125 innings across 26 appearances.

The Oakland A's have a pair of starting pitchers drawing trade interest from other teams in Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea. But it doesn't appear that the team is ready to part ways with the hurlers.

According to Jon Heyman on MLB Network, "interested teams are getting the impression" that the A's are prepared to hold onto Montas and Manaea into the 2022 season and may not deal them at all.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported earlier on Wednesday that Oakland is "focused on trading" Manaea and "waiting to decide how to proceed" with Montas.

The A's have been purging their roster of former All-Stars through trades this offseason. Oakland sent first baseman Matt Olson to the Atlanta Braves, starting pitcher Chris Bassitt to the New York Mets and third baseman Matt Chapman to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Despite finishing 86-76 last year, the A's need a rebuild after cutting costs. According to ESPN, the three trades shaved $30 million from the team's projected payroll.

Montas and Manaea both started 32 games last season. Montas led Oakland with 187.0 innings pitched, 13 wins, 207 strikeouts to go with a 3.37 ERA. Manaea wasn't far behind him with 179.1 innings, 11 wins, 194 strikeouts and a 3.91 ERA.

Per Spotrac, Manaea has the highest cap hit on the A's roster for the 2022 season at $9.75 million. Montas is set to make a little over $5 million this year. If Oakland were to trade both of them, it would save the team nearly $15 million.

The Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins are among the teams expressing interest in Oakland Athletics pitchers Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas.

Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported Manaea and Montas are "available" in trade talks as the A's conduct a "fire sale."

Oakland already traded first baseman Matt Olson to the Atlanta Braves and third baseman Matt Chapman to the Toronto Blue Jays for prospects as the team starts a rebuilding process.

Manaea, 30, is eligible to be a free agent after the 2022 season. The lefty went 11-10 with a 3.91 ERA and 1.23 WHIP while striking out 194 batters in 179.1 innings last season. He is due an arbitration salary currently estimated at $10.2 million, though it's possible his new team will negotiate a long-term contract.

Montas is younger (28) than Manea and comes with an extra year of team control. He doesn't hit free agency until after the 2023 season. The righty is coming off a stellar 2021 season that saw him put up a 13-9 record with a 3.37 ERA and 1.18 WHIP while striking out 207 batters in 187 innings.

The small-market A's qualified for the postseason three of the previous four years but faltered to an 86-76 record in 2022. The build-up-tear-down cycle has become the norm for the franchise since its "moneyball" rise in the early 2000s but has to be frustrating for fans as the team angles for a new stadium in Oakland.

The New York Yankees are reportedly in trade talks with the Oakland Athletics ahead of the 2022 MLB season.

FanSided's Robert Murray reported Wednesday the teams are discussing a deal that could include a standout A's starting pitcher, Sean Manaea or Frankie Montas.

The Yanks feature solid rotation depth, but they could use another high-end starter to pair with ace Gerrit Cole if they're going to keep pace in the highly competitive American League East.

Montas would fit the bill after a strong 2021 season. He compiled a 3.37 ERA and 1.18 WHIP with 207 strikeouts in 187 innings across 32 starts.

It represented a terrific bounce-back year for the 28-year-old Dominican Republic native, who posted a 5.60 ERA in 11 starts during the coronavirus pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. He finished 2019 with a 2.63 ERA in 16 starts.

The right-hander said Tuesday it could take some time to reach peak form this year given a shortened spring training following the 99-day lockout.

"To be honest, I'm not trying to go out there and, like, rush stuff," Montas told reporters. "I think it will take a lot of starters until during the season to get to where they want to be—throwing six, seven, eight innings. I think it's probably going to take one or two outings during the season for starters to build up."

Manaea, 30, wouldn't be an addition on the same level as Montas, but he'd still provide a boost to the New York starting staff.

The lefty posted a 3.91 ERA in 2021, which was in line with his career average, and he struck out 194 batters in 179.1 innings.

Given the Athletics' roster reconstruction, which has featured the departures of first baseman Matt Olson, third baseman Matt Chapman and starting pitcher Chris Bassitt in recent days, it wouldn't be a shock if Oakland moved both Montas and Manaea as well.

Meanwhile, there's another player to keep in mind amid the conversations between the Yankees and A's: catcher Sean Murphy.

The Yankees on Sunday dealt Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela to the Minnesota Twins for third baseman Josh Donaldson, infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa and catcher Ben Rortvedt. That left Rortvedt and Kyle Higashioka atop their catching depth chart.

Murphy, a 27-year-old native of Peekskill, New York, has 28 home runs in 182 career games and would answer one of the few lineup questions left for the Yanks.

A deal of prospects for Murphy and Montas or Manaea would significantly boost the Yankees' outlook for 2022.

The Toronto Blue Jays announced Wednesday that they acquired third baseman Matt Chapman from the Oakland Athletics for four players.

According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, the A's will receive a bevy of prospects for Chapman in the form of pitchers Gunnar Hoglund, Zach Logue and Kirby Snead, as well as shortstop Kevin Smith.

Per MLB.com, Hoglund is the Jays' No. 4 prospect, Smith is No. 9, Logue is No. 27 and Snead is not inside the top 30.

The 28-year-old Chapman is a one-time All-Star and is widely considered one of the best defensive players in baseball, having won three Gold Gloves, two Platinum Gloves and one Wilson Overall Defensive Player of the Year award.

Trading Chapman is the latest in a string of big moves the A's have made this offseason in an apparent attempt to rebuild.

Last week, Oakland dealt starting pitcher Chris Bassitt to the New York Mets for a pair of pitching prospects in J.T. Ginn and Adam Oller.

They followed that two days later by sending slugging All-Star first baseman Matt Olson to the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Cristian Pache, catcher Shea Langeliers and pitchers Ryan Cusick and Joey Estes.

In Chapman, the A's are losing one of their most talented players, as well as one of their glue guys due to his hard-nosed playing style.

He's spent each of his five MLB seasons in Oakland, and during that time he has hit .243 with 111 home runs, 296 RBI and 338 runs scored.

His best all-around season came in 2019 when he played elite defense and hit .249 with a career-high 36 home runs, 91 RBI and 102 runs. He finished sixth in the American League MVP voting.

Getting on base was an issue for Chapman last season, as he hit just .210 with an on-base percentage of .314, but he did club 27 homers and drive in 72 runs, which still gave him some value at the plate.

Even if Chapman's production doesn't return to 2019 levels, Toronto is set to receive a huge upgrade at the hot corner compared to last season.

In 2021, Santiago Espinal, Cavan Biggio and Joe Panik all saw extensive action at third base for the Jays.

Espinal and Panik are light-hitting guys better suited for utility roles, while Biggio can play second base and the outfield.

The Blue Jays missed the playoffs last season with a 91-71 record despite having one of the most stacked lineups in baseball, and it was mostly a case of playing in an American League East that had four teams with at least 90 wins.

Toronto is looking to run it back this season with an equally good lineup anchored by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez and Chapman.

As for the A's, a return to the playoffs in 2022 after missing out with an 86-76 record in 2021 seems unlikely.

Bassitt, Olson and Chapman were three of Oakland's best players, and barring additional trades, the Athletics will have to rely heavily on the few core players who remain.

Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea are still present to anchor the starting rotation, but the lineup is a shell of its former self, and it is clear Oakland is playing the waiting game for its prospects to reach the big leagues.