MLB Trade Rumors: Why Oakland Shouldn't Trade for Chase Headley

The Oakland Athletics are one of the hottest teams in baseball, but just because they’ve had some success doesn’t mean that they should go all-in and acquire Chase Headley.

The A’s are winners of nine of their last ten games and most recently swept a four-game set from the New York Yankees. They are currently in the mix for a spot in the playoffs, sitting in a tie for first place in the wild card standings. There is urgency to make the playoffs for the first time since 2006, but a big deadline deal would be the opposite of what the A’s have been working towards.

Oakland has been in the rebuilding process for the last year and a half, working to acquire as many talented prospects as possible with all disregards for who they’re giving up. Just this past offseason we saw GM Billy Beane deal the top three pitchers in the organization—Gio Gonzalez, Trevor Cahill and Andrew Bailey.

Why give up those prospects now for a guy that isn’t guaranteed to get Oakland into the playoffs? It just doesn’t make any sense.

The San Diego Padres have a high asking price for Headley, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney. As CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman tweets, the A’s have interest in Headley, but might be reluctant to give up prospects for him.

Headley would be a great improvement in the Oakland lineup, but they really need a shortstop. The A’s have the worst production at shortstop this season in the American League, according to FanGraphs. Oakland isn’t good, but isn’t really that desperate for an everyday starting third baseman, of which Headley would be.

The A’s don’t really have any top prospects at shortstop or third in the organization, but at least Brandon Inge has somewhat been holding his own at third. Cliff Pennington is really the player who needs to be replaced. The A’s are looking to upgrade at short, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, which is the right move.

Rosenthal lists potential targets as Yunel Escobar and Stephen Drew, both of whom would be interesting acquisitions. Escobar could be under contract through 2015 with a set of team options whereas Drew would be more of a rental player through the rest of the year—there’s a $10 million mutual option for 2013. Trading for either would show which focus Oakland has whether it be to win it all this season or somewhat build for the long-term.

Headley will go through arbitration for the next couple of years and will be a free agent by 2015 at the earliest. With such a high level of production already, that could become very costly for the A’s.

The main drawback is the cost to acquire either of these players. Headley’s cost is very high whereas Escobar’s and Drew’s could be lower by a significant amount.

Making a deal for Chase Headley is an unnecessary move that Beane and the A’s will eventually regret, should they proceed further with trade talks. Instead of dealing for Headley, proposing a trade for Escobar would make much more sense for the position that they’re currently in.