The Justin Duchscherer-to-the-A’s thing makes sense to me. He’s cheap and he’s familiar and even if things get sideways sometimes this season, he’d be easy to trade or release.
But Adrian Beltre?
It’s being reported that the A’s are talking to him too (Buster Olney says it’s a “serious look”). Which seems kind of nuts given that he’s a Boras client who thinks he’s due a minimum of $10 million over several years. Are the A’s really going to do something like that? Though the unraveling of the Mike Lowell trade might have made Beltre’s assumed landing spot a bit more complicated -- which may have inspired Billy Beane to place a phone call --I’d be shocked if him and Oakland went anywhere.