Posted By Jeff Fletcher on November 10, 2010 5:19 pm

The A’s got David DeJesus for Vin Mazzaro and minor league pitcher Justin Marks. What follows are my thoughts on the deal prior to listening to Billy Beane at 5:30 pm. I’m just going to go ahead and post them now, so you can see if Billy changes my mind on any of this…

My first thought is that it’s an OK trade because I was never really much of a Vin Mazzaro fan. I just didn’t see why people raved about him so much. Just talked to a scout who told me that Mazzaro has really good “stuff,” but he was a little short in terms of makeup. So it’s a little risky on the A’s part, getting rid of a 24-year-old big league starting pitcher who has potential, for a one-year rental of a DeJesus.

How good is DeJesus? He can hit, and he can get on base. He can also play defense. He’s quite similar to Coco Crisp actually, so now the A’s have two of the same guy, making $6 million apiece, and taking up two-thirds of their outfield.

The A’s are definitely made themselves better with this deal, because the offense and defense have been upgraded and the pitching isn’t any worse, and may in fact be better once you add in Hisashi Iwakuma.

I’m a little leery of the deal because of the opportunity cost, though. The A’s just spent $6 million of the $20 million they had laying around for 2011 additions. I think most A’s fans were hoping that they’d be able to lure one of the big bats with a big chunk of that money. Adam Dunn or Paul Konerko would be ideal. I’m guessing that this cuts into their budget enough that they won’t be able to get a guy like that, so now they are looking at players like Carlos Pena, Lance Berkman or maybe Aubrey Huff. (I’d go for Berkman if I couldn’t get Dunn or Konerko.)

The A’s need someone to be a force in the middle of the lineup. Right now their lineup looks like this:

CF Coco Crisp
RF David DeJesus
LF Ryan Sweeney
C Kurt Suzuki
3B Kevin Kouzmanoff
1B Daric Barton
DH Chris Carter
2B Mark Ellis
SS Cliff Pennington

First thing that comes to mind is that’s a pretty darn good defensive team. And the A’s still have all the important parts of a pitching staff that led the AL in ERA, so maybe they don’t need much. (Look across the Bay at what just won the World Series.) If they could somehow find a way to squeeze a big thumper in the middle of that, it sure would look a lot better. (Maybe Chris Carter becomes that guy in 2011. That would sure solve a lot of problems.)

I’m just going to give Billy Beane the benefit of the doubt and assume that the $6 million he is spending on DeJesus plus whatever he is spending on Iwakuma (maybe $4-7 million a year) is not going to prevent him from getting one more bat somewhere.

By the way, I’m also guessing this means that Rajai Davis is gone. He will be arbitration eligible, so due for maybe $3 million, which is a lot for the A’s to pay for a fourth outfielder. Conor Jackson and Travis Buck are also arbitration eligible, so at least two, if not all three, of those guys will probably be non-tendered. Jack Cust is also arbitration-eligible. The A’s non-tendered him last year, and I’m guessing they will do so again.

(UPDATE: Just got off the call with Beane, and he didn’t really say anything that I hadn’t guessed on my own. He said the A’s are still in the market for some power, and they are probably more likely to go the free agent route than with trades. He said the A’s would not be trading any of their other starters: Cahill, Anderson, Gio or Braden. He also mentioned Bobby Cramer as a candidate for the No. 5 spot, in addition to Iwakuma if that works out and Josh Outman if his rehab from Tommy John goes OK.)