[Purple Cowboy]

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The financial situation of the team – a $35 million payroll on a $30 million budget – made having such a dreadful pitching staff a little easier to at least understand. Harder to understand is a healthy cash reserve that has hardly been dipped into. The club has been shy in terms of splashing the cash in recent years but we were going to need to do something big this offseason to start bringing fans back to the ballpark. While looking over the pitching staff yesterday with the new Manager, my assistant, and the Head Scout, Hance, Herb, Gaspar and I joked that new Pitching Coach Calvino Sanchez was going to have to work miracles for us in 2021 unless there were some big changes.

By the end of our analysis we were able to identify one major area for change: having so much money tied up in so many losses. Clearly the worst part of the pitching setup wasn’t the “my dead grandmother can throw harder, and she’s dead” velocities, it was that Rich Harden and Ash Stapely combined for $12 million and 41 losses. Throw the $740,000 due Stacy Renteria next season into the mix and we are locked in to pay nearly $13 million next season for pitchers who combined for 62 losses in 2020. If we could trade two or all three players we could really free up some precious funds for the looming free agent period. Speaking of free agents, spot starter and long reliever J.P. Howell and his $930,000 will be off the books next year as we will not offer him a contract extension. Cult hero Ed Sourley wouldn’t be back either even though he was on the league minimum of $350,000. So loosely we’re already thinking about replacing five slots on the pitching staff. Next week when we start negotiating contract extensions with our own players is when we’ll also make some preliminary trade proposals and start to get the first glimpses of what 2021 is going to offer.

But first it was time to start looking at the position players. I was surprised by the fact that the club had five catchers on the 40-man roster. One of the young men looks like a Rule 5 Draft protection as he is still with AA club Midland RockHounds and the other four all saw some time with the A’s last year either at catcher or DH.

Catchers

#52 Tanyon Meagher 23, $350,000, bats Switch, throws Right (.199 0HR 27RBI 286AB 22BB 88K)
Young Tanyon Meager was the 244th overall pick in the 2015 draft and has spent his 5-year professional career in our organization, breaking into the Major League setup in 2019. Although you wouldn’t know it from his .199 average or 88 strikeouts last year Meager is actually a decent contact hitter and a pretty good catcher with a solid arm. He started 74 games at catcher last year which was 20 games more than platoon-mate Colby Sunday. He doesn’t have much power and his .286 OBP along with the impatience makes him a good bet to be gone before 2021.

#57 Colby Sunday 32, $350,000, bats Right, throws Right (.256 8HR 35RBI 242AB 13BB 62K)
Scrappy Colby Sunday was a 10th round pick of the New York Mets in 2010 and was traded to Toronto before ending up with Oakland in 2018. In 2020 while playing in a platoon with Tanyon Meagher he hit more homeruns than he did in 2019 when he had 200 more at-bats. He’s an average catcher and a below average hitter. Sunday doesn’t figure to play a major role in 2021 and is arbitration eligible this winter. It might be nice to keep the veteran around as a backup but if we did that he’d probably have to accept a demotion to the River Cats and clear waivers. I don’t think the waivers part will be the problem.

#12 Cornelius McInally 23, $350,000, bats Right, throws Right (.290 3HR 18RBI 107AB 1BB 30K)
Talk about impatient, it doesn’t seem like young Cornelius McInally is ever going to draw a lot of walks in a season but according to our Head Scout he has a chance to develop into an above average hitter of the ball. He’s already a superior defensive catcher with a good arm. McInally was drafted in the 4th round of the 2015 draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates and was acquired by Oakland on a minor league deal in 2016 after being released. His 107 at-bats and 25 starts at catcher with the A’s in 2020 were the first at-bats and starts in his Major League career. An auto re-sign making the minimum, I don’t see any reason why McInally couldn’t be one of the big club’s catchers going into next season.

#49 Thomas Goodloe 22, $350,000, bats Right, throws Right (.318 2HR 20RBI 198AB 23BB 34K)
Slow as a turtle with four broken legs, Goodloe is another late-round draft pick to make good getting scooped up by Oakland in the 18th round in 2016 and making his Major League debut last year. Goodloe is an average catcher with little power but is an above average hitter with the best plate discipline of the four catchers on the Major League roster. Goodloe only played 9 games behind the plate last year, appearing 41 times as the designated hitter. He’s developing well and will probably challenge McInally for the starting catcher position next year.

On The Farm
Slow-developing 24-year old Steve Lesswick is the fifth catcher on the 40-man roster and is the best catching prospect in the organization. He’s got a below-average arm but could develop into a quality hitter. He’s presently with AA Midland RockHounds and was a 14th round pick by the A’s back in 2015. Lesswick’s RockHounds teammate Aaron Rice, also 24, is the best defensive catcher in the organization with a cannon for an arm. Rice is eligible for this season’s Rule 5 Draft so a decision will have to be made on his future because I think someone might try to snag him. The organization is otherwise filled with catchers that will never see the Major Leagues.

Analysis
I wouldn’t say I’m pleased with the catching situation but at least it’s covered. We’re paying minimums all around so that's a positive and many of these players still have room to develop. Unless something too good to be true presents itself we will not need to strengthen the catcher position this winter.