With the trade deadline quickly approaching, the Oakland Athletics sent out their top scout to peruse through the New York Yankees Single-A Charleston River Dogs ahead of a potential deal.
With Jose Quintana now in the north side of Chicago, the Oakland Athletics’ Sonny Gray is the top available starting pitching asset on the market. Despite that, the team is exhausting every potential avenue of interest with their most recent scouting taking place down on the Yankees’ farm.
According to MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal, the A’s top scout recently attended a game at the Single-A Charleston River Dogs. Rosenthal added that the Yankees were “deep” into talks with the White Sox about their lefty Quintana before Chicago got away with larceny by nabbing four prospects from the cross-town Chicago Cubs.
Also, with it being announced today that Michael Pineda is set to undergo Tommy John surgery tomorrow in Cincinnati, the need for another young, controllable starter like Gray makes total sense for the Yankees. After a stint on the DL, Gray is having a solid 2017 campaign; where in 14 games, Gray has gone 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA and 79 punch outs in 84.2 innings of work.
Not only is the need for starting pitching a glaring one for the Bombers, but they also have a cavernous hole at first base that could be filled nicely by the A’s 2017 All-Star Yonder Alonso. The lefty hitting first baseman is hitting at a .268/.369/.556 clip with 21 long balls and 44 RBI this season. Not to mention, that sweet swing would fit oh so perfectly in the Boogie Down.
Here is a list of the players and their season statistics that the A’s are targeting, according to Rosenthal:
- OF Blake Rutherford (.281/.342/.391, 2HR, 30 RBI)
- OF Estevan Florial (.284/.365/.477, 11 HR, 40 RBI)
- SS Hoy Jun Park (.274/.371/.372, 4 HR, 30 RBI)
- RHP Freicer Perez (6-3, 2.83 ERA, 76 K/82.2 IP).
Whether it’s some combination of the above mentioned players or a package of higher level minor league talent, it’s going to take a seemingly astronomical price to convince Oakland to part with either their controllable ace Gray or their All-Star first sacker Alonso. The real question is, will Cashman and the Yankee brass have the stones to pull off such a deal.
We’ll all just have to wait and see.