According to Buster Olney the A’s are getting close to dealing off Gio.
The front runner is…who knows?
So SOME team is going to get Gio for SOME Prospects soon.
Update: Per Ken Rosenthal the Red Sox are trying to get Gio and Bailey in a “monster deal”, but he feels the Nationals are the one to beat.
I am guessing Gio will be dealt within the next 24 hours, if not by the end of the day.
This past week has been pretty quiet for the A’s. In fact, most of the news surrounding Oakland this past week has been coming from everywhere except Oakland. Gio has been tied to so many teams I lost track!
I will start with the teams I know are out or close to being out of the race:
That leaves the Jays, Rangers, Mariners, Red Sox and Marlins still in the race for him. If the rumors are true surrounding Yu Darvish and the Jays, they will probably be out as well.
The “good” news for the A’s is the Reds did pay high for Mat Latos and this could mean a similar return for Gonzalez.
There is no indication of who the front runner is right now for Gonzalez, but reports indicate that Texas and Boston are both looking to trade for both Gio and Bailey. It’s no secret that the Rangers need help in their rotation if they want to keep up with the Angels next season so I expect them to be the most aggressive in pursuing him, especially if they don’t win the bidding on Darvish.
I believe Brett Anderson said it best
Gio was one of the hottest players discussed at the winter meetings this past week. According to sources, out of all 30 teams in baseball, more teams than not at least asked about the left hander.
There are nine teams we know for sure that have expressed interest in Gonzalez; the Rangers, Jays, Tigers, Nationals, Marlins (shocking), Yankees, Phillies, Reds and Diamondbacks. Billy Beane is said to be asking for a “Dan Haren type deal”, which brought Arizona’s top prospects Brett Anderson, Carlos Gonzalez and Chris Carter to Oakland.
Gio is a Miami area native and has expressed interest being traded to the Marlins or Yankees if he happens to be traded. I do believe these two teams would be the front runners in landing him because they have exactly what the A’s are looking for, it just depends on what they are willing to give up. It’s believed that Beane is asking for a package built around Logan Morrison from the Marlins, but they are more willing to part with Gaby Sanchez than Morrison. If Beane wants a Dan Haren type package in return, Gaby Sanchez will not get this done. From the Yankees we hear Beane is asking for catcher Jesus Montero AND pitchers Manny Banuelos or Dellin Betances, the asking price is a bit steep for the Yankees and they have supposedly said “no” on this offer.
I personally don’t think the Phillies and Tigers have anything worth trading for so those talks will probably die down soon, if they haven’t already. I would like to see one of two things, Beane keeps Gio around and signs him to a Cahill-like extension, or we trade Gio to the Yankees for a package that revolves around Montero. It’s hard to say where he will land at this point with so many teams being involved in rumors.
With Trevor Cahill going to the Diamondbacks we can probably expect more trades to happen in the near future. According to David Forst, the A’s are still listening on everyone except Jemile Weeks and they will continue to try to move forward in any conversations they were having before the Cahill trade.
I believe that Boom-Boom will be traded any day now and I have some predictions of where he will land. The latest rumors have him tied to the Rangers, Mariners, Reds, Red Sox and Royals and I believe right now that the Rangers and Mariners are probably the front runners in landing him. Beane has already said he has no qualms with trading in the division and these two teams have the farms systems to get this trade done.
Bailey, the 2009 rookie of the year, has 75 saves over 3 seasons with a career ERA of 2.07 and a very impressive WHIP of .95. Another great thing about Bailey is he is under team control through the 2015 season. His only downside is he is injury prone, he had Tommy John surgery back in 2004 and missed almost half of last season with an elbow injury.
Rumor has it that Beane had discussions with the Reds regarding Bailey and asked for Yonder Alonso in return but, the Reds felt the asking price was too high. Yonder Alonso was rated the Reds third top prospect in November by Baseball America, so if this rumor holds any truth, the price tag on Bailey is expensive, but reasonable. Boston probably doesn’t have what it takes to get this trade done, and I don’t see the Royals wanting to give up too much for him. I think the Rangers are the most serious and they have one of the best farm systems in baseball and can afford to give up a top tier prospect to make their already ridiculous bullpen even more ridiculous. With Beltre signed at least 4 more years, maybe a guy like Mike Olt could get the deal done. Final prediction: Bailey is a Ranger in 2012 and we get a grade B prospect bat in return.
