After the A’s traded for Drew Pomeranz I thought the A’s were done making moves because it looked as though the 25-27 man roster was ready for the start of Spring Training. However, in the A’s traded Jerry Blevins to the Washington Nationals for minor league prospect Billy Burns. The trade is very interesting because I believed Blevins was going to be the much needed second lefty specialist (in addition to Sean Dolittle) in a division that now contains Robinson Cano, Prince Fielder, Logan Morrison, Josh Hamilton and Kyle Seager.
With Blevins out of the picture it appears Dan Otero is the front runner to assume the fifth spot in a very good bullpen. Otero is a sinker ball (sits 90-92 mph) pitcher and has performed better against lefties than righties, which isn’t that surprising as the sinker has a lot arm-side movement (i.e. it breaks away from the left handed hitters bat).
Another dark horse for the bullpen is newly acquired Fernando Abad who was acquired from the Nationals two weeks ago. Before last year his fastball sat 90-91 mph, but in 2o13 his velocity ticked up and he was sitting 93 mph and touched as high as 97. In terms of his secondary offerings he throws a knuckle curveball that is a solid weapon against lefties, especially when he’s locating his fastball. If I were going to pick between the two I say Abad gets the slight edge over Otero. However, towards the end of the Bob Melvin was putting Otero in more high leverage situations towards the end of the year.
Another popular trend on Twitter is Pomeranz will become the next lefty reliever in the bullpen, which is highly unlikely for 2014. I’ll admit I said yesterday his floor is an eighth inning power reliever, but the A’s are going to try to keep him as a starter because 180 innings is more valuable than 60. For a deep sleeper, do not sleep on Jeremy Barfield because he is left handed and has a low to mid-90s fastball, slider and split-finger. It’s very possible he could follow the same path as Doolittle.
Overall, this seems like a small salary dump as Blevins is expected to make $2-3 million dollars in arbitration this year. Also, Blevins’ services must have been seen superfluous as they have internal options within the organization. Based on the scouting reports I’ve read Burns is gamer who possess one elite tool (speed) and is an above average defender in center field. Even though his numbers in the minors were good last year, do not forget he was old for the level and this year will be a big test for him in triple-a. I can’t wait to see him play.
