The trading deadline is always a precious chance for losing teams to bolster their talent level for a future run. In the 3 wild card era most teams fancy themselves in contention for a post-season berth, leaving the sellers in the catbird seat.
That is, assuming the sellers have merchandise that their customers want. Therein lies the rub for the 2025 Athletics, who don’t really have players in that “middle” category: expendable to the A’s future core but desirable to a team making a playoff push.
Available Chaff
The A’s certainly have, on the roster, players they are willing to move without disturbing their prospects of success in 2026 and beyond. The question is, are these players a team will offer anything of value to acquire?
Luis Urias
Urias may wind up being the best trade chip who is in the last/only year of his contract. He’s a solid and versatile infielder and there are contending teams in search of upgrades at 2B (e.g., Giants) or 3B (e.g., Yankees).
However, Urias is hardly a “difference maker,” more of a valuable utility infielder to have. Despite a hot start, Urias has regressed back into being a below average hitter (.239/.320/.363, 91 wRC+) with slightly negative defensive stats at 2B (-2 DRS, -1 OAA). He has good career marks at 3B but has only played 35 innings there this season.
Puzzling is that Urias was not in the lineup Friday night, passed up in favor of Miguel Andujar. Coming off of an injury, it would behoove the A’s to showcase Urias as healthy and productive, maybe entice teams if he is riding a hot streak that has moved his stats closer to his career norms (99 wRC+).
No matter how you slice it, though, Urias strives to be average and while that constitutes an upgrade for some contenders it doesn’t move the needle much in terms of acquiring interesting prospects.
Conclusion: The A’s may well, and certainly should, move Urias but expect back a very middling return that won’t challenge the A’s top 15 list.
Miguel Andujar
Speaking of Andujar, if Urias wasn’t being showcased then it appears Andujar was. Sadly, what is mostly being showcased is his flaws.
Andujar is a terrible 3Bman (-7 DRS this season in just 185.2 innings, -36 for his career in the equivalent of one full season), so I’m not sure why the A’s would want to remind anyone of it. Undoubtedly any team acquiring Andujar will have sense not to mistake him for being a 3Bman.
At the plate, Andujar has some value as a contact hitter with a nose for RBIs. But there’s no getting around his diminished slugging (.389 this year, .377 last year), and combined with low walk rates (5.1%, 4.1%) he is the epitome of an “empty batting average”.
That being said, he does get hits, batting .286 this season and .285 last season, and a contending team struggling to score runs might want him.
Conclusion: Expect a return commensurate with “a DH without power”. Maybe a lottery ticket…literally.
Gio Urshela
I don’t think other GMs will hang up the phone, as it’s hard to find the “end call” button when you’re laughing hysterically.
Urshela had a nice run from 2019-2022 and even then he was just “decent”. Now he puts the “shell” in Urshela, as in he’s a shell of the mediocre player he once was.
When I say Urshela has no value, I mean he has literally not HRed this season in 134 plate appearances, he is batting .230/.288/.328 for a 69 wRC+ and he is at -6 DRS at 3B despite having played only 296 innings there.
The A’s signed Urshela as a placeholder hoping he could offer average production at a position that was a black hole in 2024. What they ended up with, unfortunately, was another black hole.
Conclusion: No one is going to want Urshela, whom the A’s really should have DFA’d a while back to make room for a younger player such as Brett Harris.
Jose LeClerc
Sadly, LeClerc could have been the prized trade chip right now had he been healthy. He posted elite strikeout rates last season even in a down year and there is always a market for high leverage relievers at the deadline.
However, LeClerc didn’t stay healthy which was first a huge blow to the A’s as they suffered a barrage of bullpen meltdowns. And now it means a potentially good trade chip is about as valuable as a bone chip.
Conclusion: There were probably better uses of $10M than to have LeClerc lean on the rail of the dugout, but injuries happen and so it goes.
JJ Bleday
Bleday is not a free agent for 3 more years, but he slots into the “chaff” section by virtue of how far his stock has dropped.
After banging 20 HRs and 43 doubles in 2024, Bleday just plummeted out of sight in 2025. He hit .191/.288/.358 with a 24.5% K rate (up 5% from last year), looked even more lost in CF if that’s possible, and has been stuck at AAA.
He’s a prime trade candidate because there does not appear to be a spot for him moving forward. Denzel Clarke has taken a stranglehold on CF, while Tyler Soderstrom is the every LFer with Colby Thomas waiting in the wings and now even Devin Taylor looming as a possible “fast mover” from the 2025 draft.
I would think the A’s will jump at the chance to move Bleday, but the trouble is he profiles more as a “good reclamation project” off-season acquisition than a “help us now” deadline deal.
Conclusion: I think the A’s will trade Bleday, but while they could have gotten top value back this past off-season I expect they will wind up making a much smaller deal this coming off-season. I would be pleasantly surprised if the A’s could move him now.
The Wheat
If the upcoming free agents won’t bring back more than an “interesting prospect” or two, the A’s have two choices: make it a quiet deadline and stay the course with the core players they have, or make a splash with a player who is currently part of the team’s core. The candidates:
Tyler Soderstrom
Soderstrom’s name comes up primarily because the A’s have possible replacements ready in Thomas (MLB ready) with Henry Bolte and possibly Taylor not far behind. In other words, the A’s might be able to adequate cover the LF position in 2026 and beyond even if they were to deal Soderstrom.
What’s less clear, though, is whether the A’s would regret letting go of a 23 year old whose bat is good and potentially special. Soderstrom is streaky, but even slumps and all he sits at .259/.336/.456, 118 wRC+ with 18 HR, and sometimes he even seems to know how many outs there are.
But Soderstrom also does come with warts. Not only is he a man without a true position — he has been below average at 1B and LF after being moved off of catcher — he struggles against LHP (.220/.247/.280, 42 wRC+ this season).
But 23 year olds who already give you around an .800 OPS and are on pace for 30 HRs don’t grow on trees and as a result if the A’s make Soderstrom available expect a worthy return coming back.
Conclusion: I don’t know to what extent the A’s see Soderstrom as being (relatively) untouchable, or if he’s fully available for the right return, but he does seem like the most natural “core” piece to move if the team is prepared to move one guy from that group.
Mason Miller
Miller’s name comes up in the media every time trades are discussed, and this deadline is no exception. Generally the A’s have put the kibosh on such rumblings, explicitly stating they are not going to trade him, but we also know everyone can be had for the right price.
Make no mistake about it, Miller can bring back a king’s ransom in trade. He had a lousy May but in April, June, and July he’s been Mason Miller, last year he was Mason Miller, some teams would love to acquire him and move him into the rotation where he has “ace” potential.
There are two reasons, though, the A’s might be reluctant to cash in on Miller’s value. One is that after this season he still has 4 years left on his contract, meaning he is very much a core piece for years to come if the A’s hang onto him.
Also, as you know the A’s bullpen has been godawful and losing Miller would only bring that to a new level. Sure, bullpens are constantly evolving and today’s gascan is tomorrow’s set up man and today’s pillar is tomorrow’s DFA, but that doesn’t change the fact that currently the A’s have a bunch of mediocre relievers and one stud.
Conclusion: I just sense that the A’s front office feels Miller is more valuable here than as a trade chip, based on the comments we have seen in the past (and they have walked the walk). But if they decide to listen to offers, expect the return to include prospects you can get excited about.
Shea Langeliers
There just aren’t a lot of good catchers in MLB right now, which makes Langeliers potentially valuable to a contender trying to get better fast. For all his flaws, Langeliers hits for power and has a strong throwing arm, and he has cut his strikeouts down 8% in 2025 to below 20% (19.2%).
Shea has also never sported an OBP over .300 — this year’s .292 is a career high — and he is also batting a career high .235. And his predictable pitch calling is a thing.
Perhaps the biggest reason the A’s might be reluctant to deal Langeliers is that they don’t have a ready replacement in house. Daniel Susac was drafted as a “bat first” catcher but after a torrid June he is 5 for 32 with 13 K in July. We’ve seen Jhonny Pereda and Willie MacIver and while both have something to offer neither is a primary catcher, as isn’t Austin Wynns.
Conclusion: I don’t see the A’s leaving themselves a hole at catcher, so it’s difficult to envision a Langeliers trade right now. But if they were to, you can expect a good return.
So there you have it: potentially a very quiet deadline with a minor trade or two of “chaff for lottery” or a splash where you really hope the A’s are at their scouting and trading best for what they are losing.
What do you think the A’s will do? What do you think they should do? Those can, of course, be two very different things which is why the next 12 days will be both fascinating and worthy of much girding.