11:45 am: The two teams have announced the transaction.
11:02 am: The Athletics and Dodgers agree on a trade lefty will send Adam Kolarek and minor league outfielder Cody Thomas from LA to Oakland in exchange for an infielder Sheldon Neuse and minor league righty Gus Varland, Reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (via Twitter
Kolarek, 32, will be an instant boost to an Oakland bullpen that has lost Liam Hendriks and Joakim Soria | this winter and could still lose Yusmeiro Klein (still a free agent). Kolarek has evolved into a groundball specialist capable of utterly overwhelming left-handed hitters in recent years, pitching to a combined ERA of 3.07 and 3.61 SIERA with a below average strikeout rate of 17.4 percent but a strong walk (5.7) and ground-ball (63.3). percentages. He’s controllable for four seasons and won’t be eligible for arbitration until next winter, so he’s a cost-effective addition to an A-team that has aggressively slashed payroll this winter and shuns real spending.
The short-term piece returning to LA is 26-year-old Neuse, who made his MLB debut at Oakland in 2019 but didn’t appear in the Majors last season. Neuse saw sparse action in his short debut, taking 61 trips to the plate, hitting .250 / .295 / .304 with a 31 percent strikeout percentage. It wasn’t a particularly encouraging debut, but Neuse put in big marks in his last season of Triple-A ball, hitting .317 / .389 / .550 with 27 big flies – good for a 126 wRC +.
Neuse has seen second base for some time, but his best position is probably third base, which meant he was blocked by Matt Chapman in Oakland. His presence gives the Dodgers something of a fallback option just in case Justin Turner eventually decides to sign elsewhere, but the Neuse takeover is unlikely to shut the door on a reunion with Turner in any way. Nose still has a few minor league options left, making him the type of depth the Dodgers often stock: a previously high-draft pick that’s now a bit old to be a prospect, but has some defensive versatility and a solid track record of the higher minors the board.
As for the minor league pieces in the trade, the A’s will take over Thomas, a 26-year-old outfielder in the corner with lots of power but some swing-and-miss tendencies that limit his overall advantage on the plate. The former 13th round hit .236 / .308 / .443 (108 wRC +) in a Double-A environment that turned out to be a wasteland in 2019, hitting .285 / .355 / .497 a year earlier in Class -A advanced.
Thomas was not selected in this year’s Rule 5 Draft, illustrating that he is far from a premium prospect, but he is a near-MLB bat with a career of .219 ISO (slugging minus average) among the minors. It is conceivable that he could appear as a big league option in 2021-22.
Varland, 24, was the fourth round of athletics in 2018 and still has only 64 1/3 professional innings to his credit. He was not among the top Oakland players, although FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen gives him the potential for an above average heat and slider – albeit with work to do in terms of control and third-pitch improvement. Varland pitched just 26 1/3 innings at the Class-A Advanced level in 2019, working on a 2.39 ERA and 4.00 FIP with a 27-to-8 K / BB ratio and 37 percent ground ball speed.