A’s send 3 prospects to Nats
The Oakland A’s got one more deal in before the MLB trade deadline today.
The A’s made a trade with the Washington Nationals on Friday, with Oakland acquiring catcher Yan Gomes and utilityman Josh Harrison plus cash. In exchange, the A’s sent three prospects to the Nats. The deal has been officially announced by the A’s, but it was first reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN and Shayna Rubin of the Mercury News.
The three prospects going to Washington are catcher Drew Millas and pitchers Seth Shuman and Richard Guasch, all of whom were playing for High-A Lansing.
Oakland gains two veteran role players who are both having strong 2021 seasons and both have All-Star berths on their past resumes. Both of them turned 34 years old this month, and they’re both two-month rentals whose contracts will expire at the end of the season.
In Gomes, the A’s get an upgrade for their backup catcher spot. He was an All-Star in 2018 for Cleveland, then won a World Series ring with the Nationals in 2019, and continued hitting well for Washington the last two years.
- Gomes, 2021: .271/.323/.454, 105 wRC+, 9 HR, 5.5% BB, 20.0% Ks, .348 wxOBA
The MLB average for catchers is a 90 wRC+, and Oakland has only gotten a 57 wRC+ from backup Aramis Garcia. According to Statcast, Gomes’ .348 xwOBA is higher than everybody on the A’s except Olson, Lowrie, and Canha.
On the other side of the ball, Gomes has a reputation as a plus defender, with positive DRS metrics for his entire career including this summer, and a high rate of throwing out base stealers. Statcast gives him poor marks for pitch framing the last couple years, but he’s also shown aptitude for that skill in the past.
Gomes spent a couple weeks on the injured list earlier this month due to a strained oblique, but he returned to action on Thursday and appeared in both halves of a doubleheader — he started the first game and hit the go-ahead homer to win it for the Nats, and then he pinch-hit in the nightcap. Before that injury, his last trip to the IL came a half-decade ago, in 2016 for a shoulder.
More details coming! Keep hitting refresh.