The Oakland Athletics have nearly stripped their team of any matter of major league-proven players.
However, it turns out that there are a couple of outfielders still on the roster with a solid amount of major league experience: Ramon Laureano and Seth Brown.
Laureano is likely at rock bottom of what he will bring in a trade. He’s three seasons removed from his last solid major league campaign — not to mention a suspension for the use of performance-enhancing substitutes.
This leaves outfielder Seth Brown as Oakland’s last and best trade chip heading into yet another rebuilding season in 2023. Of course, Oakland Athletics fans — already beaten into submission by the mass-departure of talent over the past several years — are once again not pleased.
Seth Brown came up with the Oakland Athletics in 2019, hitting .293 in 26 games. The left-hander hasn’t come close to that batting average since, but has seen his power numbers bloom, with 20 home runs in 2021 and 25 homers in 2022.
Brown was a bit of a late bloomer, having not made the majors until he was 26. He will turn 31 midway through the 2023 season, not exactly fitting in with Oakland’s seemingly infinite youth movement. On the other coast, there are quite a few Tampa Bay Rays fans that are certainly interested.
Likewise, north of the border, there’s also quite a bit of interest in Seth Brown.
Why do the Oakland Athletics want to trade Seth Brown?
With their major league roster basically stripped to the nub, is a Seth Brown trade out of Oakland already a fait accompli? The Oakland Athletics, just two seasons removed from the last of three consecutive playoff appearances, stumbled their way to a 102-loss season in 2022.
A season after ridding themselves of Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, and Chris Bassitt, the Athletics traded Sean Murphy to the Atlanta Braves this past December.
Brown and shortstop Nick Allen are all that remain of the original Athletics signees that are projected to play for Oakland in 2023, according to Fangraphs. Even Laureano was originally signed by the Houston Astros.
The bulk of Oakland’s 2023 roster projects to be players traded to the Athletics after having originally been signed by a different team. On Oakland’s projected pitching staff this coming season, only left-handed reliever AJ Puk was originally drafted by the Athletics.
Oakland finished dead last in the American League West in 2022, with the Athletics’ 60-102 record placing them 46 games behind the division-winning Houston Astros.
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