A major trade on November 10? Good stuff.
According to the A’s official Twitter feed, Oakland has acquired outfielder David DeJesus from the Royals in exchange for right-hander Vin Mazzaro and minor league left-hander Justin Marks.
DeJesus has been involved in trade rumors for a couple of seasons now and the Royals, aiming to form a younger big-league roster, finally pulled the trigger Wednesday.
The 30-year-old DeJesus turned in a solid .318/.384/.443 batting line, 23 doubles and five home runs over 352 at-bats for Kansas City this year while also playing solid outfield defense. He should provide a noticeable improvement to Oakland’s batting order, which wasn’t very productive in 2010.
Mazzaro posted a pedestrian 4.27 ERA and 1.45 WHIP this year, striking out only 79 batters in 122-plus innings, but the 24-year-old sinkerballer projects as a fine No. 3 starter and will be of help to the Royals once they’re ready to compete a few years from now. Marks, 22, registered 136 strikeouts over 129.1 minor-league frames in 2010 and also has a promising future as a big-league lefty.
The A’s could afford to dump some of their pitching surplus because they won the rights to Japanese righty Hisashi Iwakuma this fall and clearly expect to work out a deal.
Kansas City boasts one of baseball’s most talented farm systems and should be in the mix for the American League Central crown by 2014 assuming all goes right with their long list of prospects. Mazzaro fits that long-term plan for success. DeJesus, solely because of his age, did not.