Oakland A's Trade Rumors: Making Sense of the Andrew Bailey Trade Rumors

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Despite the A's history of trading star players for packages of prospects, it still came as a surprise to see Andrew Bailey's name pop-up on the trade rumor website, MLBTradeRumors.com, this past Friday.

According to the website, which was reporting from a tweet by Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal, the A's are receiving calls regarding Bailey, however they would need to be "overwhelmed" in order to trade their closer.

Saturday morning a report from The Dallas Morning News' Evan Grant surfaced suggesting that the Texas Rangers are one of the teams that have inquired on Bailey.

According to Grant, and two of his unnamed sources, "the Rangers are among those teams and the A's have at least started looking more in-depth at the Rangers farm system."

Trades don't typically occur within division, although the Rangers did connect with the Mariners last season to acquire Cliff Lee for a playoff push that ultimately saw them reach the World Series.

"If a trade is in the best interests of the Rangers, we don't have a problem trading within the division," Rangers GM Jon Daniels told Grant.

Despite concerns over Bailey's health-risk, he has huge trade value for the Athletics.

Bailey will reach arbitration for the first time following this season, and although he will be due a significant raise from his current $465,000 salary, he will remain under club-control through 2014, making him extremely attractive to contending teams looking past just this season.

While Grant accurately points out that the A's stance that they would need to be "overwhelmed" "essentially means he's available," when that term is used by Billy Beane, it typically means a trade will not occur.

Susan Slusser, A's beat writer for The San Francisco Chronicle, set the record straight through a series of tweets Saturday afternoon.

According to Slusser, "despite what you might read elsewhere, when the Athletics say they'd have to be overwhelmed to trade a player, they almost never do a trade."

She then continued, "there are far more reasons to keep Bailey than deal him, especially the fact he's not a free agent until after the 2014 season."

And finally wrapped up her rebuttal by stating, "so the Athletics really would have to be overwhelmed to deal Bailey, and that means, at the least, a can't-miss young power hitter."

If the A's were to trade Bailey, they do have Joey Devine and Fautino De Los Santos as back of the bullpen guys with the type of stuff to make them effective, if not filthy, closers.

Brian Fuentes also could revert back to closing duties if absolutely necessary. Fuentes did pitch effectively in save-situations earlier this season (12 saves, 3 blown saves, 3.50 ERA, 9.0 SO/9).

The A's are likely to hold onto their two-time All-Star closer throughout this season, however.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the A's are establishing a market for future talks in the offseason to acquire a power bat though.

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