A's GM: "We're Not Shopping Mason Miller"
On Friday's episode of A's Cast, Oakalnd A's General Manager David Forst joined the program to talk about the 2024 season. About 17 minutes into the conversation, the host of the show, Chris Townsend, brought up the recent rumors that Mason Miller could be available on the trade market.
The two joked that Forst's phone does in fact receive incoming calls, so to say that the A's are "taking calls on Miller" is technically accurate, but misleading. Forst decided to clarify previous reports, saying, "Well, we're not" when asked if the team is shopping their closer. The GM even joked that the initial report that came out caused numerous GMs around the league to call him about Miller because they didn't want to miss out.
So has Mason Miller been discussed? Yes. Have the A's been making those calls to move him? No.
"I get texts, I get calls. We have conversations. I'm not shopping Mason Miller. I'm not looking to make trades in May right now. We're still looking at what we've got. Trying to figure out who's going to be here, who's going to get healthy."
Some could interpret this to mean that he's not going to trade Miller until later in the season, and that could very well be what ends up happening in late July. Yet, the way he said it makes it seem as though he's holding off on any trades until a little later in the year, not specifically a Mason Miller deal.
The A's are in a bit of a tough spot right now with nine pitchers on the IL, a number which includes 80% of the Opening Day rotation and two players (Ken Waldichuk and Luis Medina) that would have also been in the mix for starts if they were healthy. These injuries are testing the team's depth in the short-term, so it's difficult to make a move with one of the players that's currently healthy (and productive) that would further strain that depth.
Of course, they could make a trade to acquire some extra depth, or receive some extra arms in a deal, but that would be letting the current situation for the big-league roster dictate the long-term goals of the franchise, which would be to compete again in the near future.
The narrative around the A's is that they trade everyone away, and while that is an earned narrative, they typically don't move guys with another year of arbitration left. Miller will still be pre-arb next season, which means he's going to cost as little on the roster as they can pay him. Those are the kinds of players that have helped the A's succeed in the past. Plus, the longer he stays healthy, the higher the asking price down the line will be.
If the A's end up trading Miller anytime soon, the worry over his injury history would be the driving force of that deal. However, when you couple his talent with what he costs, it's tough to see the A's getting a better value for themselves than Miller.
JASON BURKE
Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum.