Give Billy Beane credit for thinking outside of the box. What do you do with an overpaid veteran outfielder like Mark Kotsay? How about pay most of his salary and pick up a young, promising reliever in Joey Devine?
Kotsay will provide a veteran option for the Braves, who are very thin in centerfield after losing Andruw Jones to free agency this year. He’s highly injury-prone, but he’s easily worth a $2M gamble. Uncharacteristically, Beane ate a lot of contract to get this move done, but the Athletics are able to handle this move financially in this rebuilding year. Oakland signed former Kansas City outfielder Emil Brown as a stopgap for this season.
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January 15, 2008 at 2:41 pm
redsoxtalk
Also included in the deal to Oakland was pitcher Jaime Richmond. He’s a righty with good size who is kind of a soft tosser who’s put up extremely low walk rates and overall good numbers at the lower levels. Could develop into something, but just a player at this point.