Did The A's Win The JJ Bleday Trade with the Miami Marlins?

Looking back at the A's surprising trade before the 2023 season, which team won the JJ Bleday and A.J. Puk swap?

Jul 21, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; Oakland Athletics center fielder JJ Bleday (33) during the fourth inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Just two off-seasons ago, the A's made a surprise trade by sending off their former No. 2 prospect, A.J. Puk, to the Miami Marlins. In exchange, the A's received Miami's No. 2 prospect and former Vanderbilt star, JJ Bleday.

It was truly shocking to see the A's deal away Puk after a season where he was a big part of the team's bullpen. In 66 innings for the A's in 2022, Puk posted a 3.12 ERA, where he struck out 76 batters and only walked 23.

The southpaw was one of the best arms in the bullpen that year alongside fellow lefty Sam Moll, and right-handers Dany Jimenéz, Domingo Acevedo, and Zach Jackson. Puk had the lowest ERA on the entire pitching staff that year among pitchers who threw at least 50 innings.

There were no trade talks surrounding the young left-hander going into the 2022-2023 off-season. On February 11th, just days away from when pitchers and catchers would report, A's general manager David Forst surely made a surprising move by trading Puk.

Puk's stint in Miami didn't go quite as well as his 2022 season in Oakland. In the full season he played with Miami in 2023, the southpaw pitched ten fewer innings than in 2022 and held an underwhelming 3.97 ERA, but still struck out 78 batters.

A.J. Puk would start his 2024 campaign with the Marlins but had a rough first half. In 44 innings, he posted a 4.30 ERA and had a career-low 9.2 strikeouts per nine. This prompted Miami to trade away the once-promising left-hander.

The Marlins shipped Puk off to the Diamondbacks in exchange for a pair of minor league position players, Deyvison De Los Santos and Andrew Pintar. Both prospects are ranked inside the top 25 in Miami's farm system currently.

In return for A.J. Puk, The A's landed former Vanderbilt stud JJ Bleday. Bleday was first selected by the Padres in the 39th round out of high school in the 2016 MLB Draft. He elected not to sign, and would attend Vanderbilt where he would have a very successful college career. Just a few years later in the 2019 MLB Draft, The Marlins selected Bleday with the fourth overall pick.

After a few years in the minor leagues in the Marlins' system, Bleday earned a big-league promotion in 2022. That season, Miami gave the young outfielder 238 plate appearances. It was just his first taste of the big leagues, but he had a pretty disappointing season. He batted .167 with a .586 OPS in his 2022 campaign. That would be the end of his time in Miami, as following his 2022 season, the Marlins sent him to the A's.

Bleday's first season in Oakland was not much better. He had 303 plate appearances in his 2023 campaign, where he hit .195 with an OPS of .666, and he doubled his home run count from his previous season with 10 home runs. Bleday proved that his defense was playable, and showed some power.

In 2024, Bleday went into the season as the everyday centerfielder. He ended up proving to be a solid middle-of-the-order bat for the A's, as he raised his OPS all the way up to .762 with 20 home runs, once again doubling his home run count. Defensively, he led all American League outfielders in put-outs and led Major League Baseball in games played at centerfield.

JJ Bleday has clearly shown that he's an above-average everyday centerfielder. The Marlins got just a year and a half of a roughly average left-handed reliever and shipped him off after a rough first half. Looking back, it looks like David Forst made a pretty good decision in acquiring the talents of JJ Bleday, and it's likely the club has no regrets about that trade at all.