The Athletics traded Josh Donaldson for Brett Lawrie and prospects. The A's traded an all-star 3rd baseman with 4 years left on his contract and 2014 stats of a 7.4 WAR (Baseball-reference) and a average 5.74 NP/O, so Billy Beane (the A's GM) must have really liked who he got in return. Those players were, 3rd base replacement Brett Lawrie and prospects, Kendall Graveman, Sean Nolan, and Franklin Barreto. Brett Lawrie is a promising 3rd baseman who has been injured often. He has not proven himself nearly as good as Josh Donaldson but there is a good case to be made that his 1.7 WAR and 5.29 NP/O in 2014 were significantly damaged by his injury. Lawrie is also only 24, 4 years younger than Josh Donaldson. This combined with the fact that 3 prospects were a packaged with him gives the A's a potentially incredible future with this trade, however prospects and less proven major leaguers like Lawrie are more risky than a proven incredible 3rd baseman in his prime. In conclusion although on the surface this trade seems bad for the A's if the prospects pan out and Lawrie stays healthy this could prove itself a great move for the A's, and in a world where every team in the majors understands to some degree Billy Beane's sabermetric "moneyball" approach that gave him such a great advantage in the early 2000s, his new risky approach may be the new way for a low payroll teams to make it. |
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