What is Billy Beane Doing in Oakland?

Is the A’s trade of Josh Donaldson to Toronto a sign that general manager Billy Beane is ready for a fire-sale in Oakland after three failed-trips in the postseason?  Or is there a method to the madness?

Whatever Billy Beane is thinking he’s doing, he better hope it works.

The A’s general manager responsible for bringing Oakland back into the perennial playoff conversation – winning two American League West titles and last year’s Wild Card appearance – made another questionable move on Friday night that could mark the sign of a team going for it all and a team ready to rebuild.  The question is, who’s who?

Behind blurred lines, the A’s traded All-Star third baseman Josh Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night in a five-player deal that gives Oakland Brett Lawrie to handle duties in the hot-corner in 2015, along with several minor league prospects in pitchers Kendall Graveman and Sean Nolin and shortstop Franklin Barreto.

Yet, doesn’t it feel like we’ve all seen this movie before?  Recently?

Beane traded away Oakland power hitter Yoenis Cespedes at the trade deadline last year in exchange of Jon Lester in a deal that was supposed to propel Oakland to the World Series, but instead had them sputter in the Wild Card as Oakland stumbled to a 16-30 record after August 9, losing what was a four-game lead in the AL West to the Angels who wound up with the division title.

But after all of Beane’s moves backfired in his face, it seems as if the A’s three-year World Series run is over and that Beane and company are going back to the drawing board and are ready to rebuild.  At least in the player’s minds.

Athletics’ outfielder Josh Reddick believes that the team is now in rebuilding mode, saying:

“It’s sad any time you see your best player go, not just as a player but as a person.  And he’s out three-hole hitter and best defensive player.  He was big for our team.”

After struggling in his first season in the bigs in 2012 (.241, 9 HR, 33 RBI in 75 games), Donaldson became a presence for the A’s at the plate, crushing 53 home runs, hitting .277 the following two years with 191 RBI.  His Wins Above Replacement rating jumped to 8.0 in 2013 and 7.4 last year and his solid play was recognized and rewarded in 2014 as Donaldson was named to the American League All-Star team.  He finished second in WAR rating along with recording a .363 on base percentage and an .840 on base plus slugging in the last two years.

During Donaldson’s time with the A’s, Oakland went on to win a pair of AL West titles, winning a combined 278 games from 2012-14, losing in five games in the ALDS to Detroit in 2012-13 and losing to Kansas City in the AL Wild Card last year.

Beane signed designated hitter Billy Butler to a three-year, $30 million deal and acquired first baseman Ike Davis from Pittsburgh earlier this month as baseball’s offseason is getting underway and let Lester, reliever Luke Gregerson and shortstop Jed Lowrie walk.

“We had to take a look at where we are and where we’re headed,” Beane said in a conference call Friday, “and keep in mind we were 11 games behind the Angels and (one game ahead of) the Mariners.  We didn’t think it was possible to add to the current group to make up an 11-game difference.  We thought we had to do something that wasn’t timid.

“Hopefully we (end up with) a team getting better every day as opposed to one that maybe was starting to deteriorate.”

While the loss on-the-field sucks for Oakland and its fans (who loved him), it does make some sense.  Donaldson turns 29 in early December and is due for a huge raise in arbitration which he’ll get this winter.  It’s just possible to say that Beane didn’t want to pay him, or that he’s lost confidence in him, along with the rest of the big parts he traded away.

It’s not like Oakland didn’t get anything worth it in the deal.  Kendall Graveman is a right-handed sinker-baller who turns 24 in late December and shot up from A-ball to the majors in a year, playing at five-different level with solid results all-across, however never made more than 16 starts at any one particular place and is projected to work his way into the back end of the A’s rotation.

However the big prize of the five-player deal that just about ticked off everyone in the Bay Area is soon-to-be 19-year old shortstop Franklin Barreto.  The small Venezuelan kid hit .311/.384/.481 in 328 plate appearances for Vancouver in the Northwest League, racking 29 steals at an 85 percent success rate in a league dominated by 21-year-olds.  He led the league in runs (65) and RBI (61) and he could be the replacement the A’s needed after trading Addison Russell to Chicago in a trade that sent Jason Hammel and Jeff Samardzija to Oakland on July 4.  Hammel is now a free agent while Samardzija is rumored to be on the trading block.

For a team that went all-in in 2014, 2015 seems to be a lost year that could buy this team some time to gel and allow its two young pitching stars in A.J. Griffin and Jarrod Parker time to get back to full strength in the starting rotation.

The questions going forward is not who Oakland will sign, but who they will trade away next and for who.   The window may be closed in Oakland and Beane may in fact be the one who shut it before a winning draft set in the office.  Whether or not this rebuilding phase ends in a year or 10 all depends on Beane’s newest set of moves.

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