5 Reasons Stephen Drew Is the Final Piece to the Oakland A's Playoff Puzzle

The Oakland A's have needed an offensive upgrade at the shortstop position all season long, and it was widely expected that they would address this need by trading for Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew at the trade deadline.

A's GM Billy Beane decided to wait a couple weeks instead. He didn't pull off a trade for Drew until Monday night. 

Drew is arriving at the right time. After losing to the Minnesota Twins on Monday, the A's are now just 9-9 in the month of August after lighting the world on fire with a 19-5 record in July. They needed a boost.

With Drew now in tow, the A's have everything they need to finish off their Cinderella season in style by making the playoffs.

Here's a look at five reasons why Drew is the final piece to Oakland's playoff puzzle.

Note: All stats come from Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

Offensive Upgrade A's Needed at Shortstop

Everyday shortstop Cliff Pennington is hitting .199 this season with a .549 OPS. Adam Rosales is hitting .231 with a .725 OPS in limited action.

So yeah, the A's needed to go out and get some offense at shortstop. They did just that when they acquired Drew.

The first thing you notice when you look at Drew's numbers is his .193 batting average, which would seemingly make him an offensive downgrade rather than an offensive upgrade. His .601 OPS, however, is higher than that of Pennington, and one must keep in mind that a certain perspective is required when looking at Drew's numbers.

The A's happened to acquire Drew while he's in the middle of a slump, but it was just about a week ago that he was one of Arizona's hottest hitters. In his first 10 games in August, Drew hit .270/.386/.568 with three doubles, a triple and a pair of home runs.

That's the kind of production the A's are hoping to get with Drew in their lineup, and they're not crazy to think that they'll actually get it. Drew came into this season with a career OPS of .773, and he posted an OPS over .800 in his last full season in 2010. He has a track record of being an above-average hitter.

Drew just doesn't look like an above-average hitter at the moment because he's still getting back into the swing of things after being out of commission for nearly a full year recovering from a gruesome ankle injury that he suffered last July. Bad luck hasn't helped, as he has a .242 BABIP despite a line-drive rate near 30 percent.

It's a good bet he'll be up to full speed by the time September rolls around, at which point he'll be ready to be a key contributor. It bodes well for the A's that Drew is a career .289 hitter with an .832 OPS in the month of September.

If he does hit like his track record suggests he should be hitting, the entire lineup will benefit.

He'll Make the Lineup Deeper

The A's didn't have too much trouble scoring runs in July, but at no point this season have they been one of the American League's elite offensive teams. Their lineups have tended to feature more than one easy out on a daily basis.

Case in point, the A's have gotten OPS's under .700 from their No. 1, No. 2, No. 8 and No. 9 hitters this season. That's not going to cut it in the offense-crazy Junior Circuit.

Pennington deserves his share of the blame for these numbers, as he's spent much of the season batting in either the No. 2 or No. 9 spot. Bob Melvin figured out a while ago that batting Pennington second in the lineup was a bad idea, and that spot in his lineup has been a revolving door ever since.

That's a problem Drew could solve if Melvin is so inclined. If he is, Drew's presence will combine with Coco Crisp's resurgence (.851 OPS since July 1) to give the A's a formidable duo of table-setters at the top of their lineup.

Or Melvin could stash Drew much lower in the lineup, perhaps in the No. 9 spot where he could serve as a second leadoff hitter.

If that's where he ends up, Drew certainly could not perform any worse than the hitters who have combined to post a .521 OPS batting out of the No. 9 spot in Oakland's lineup this season.

It's possible that Jemile Weeks, who was optioned to Triple-A on Tuesday, could be used as the team's primary No. 9 hitter if/when he returns to the majors. He has a .758 OPS when he bats out of the No. 9 spot, and his speed makes him a perfect fit for the second leadoff man role.

Cliff Pennington Could Be an Asset off the Bench

Now that the A's have Drew, it's going to be interesting to see what they do with Cliff Pennington. With Drew in the mix, he's basically out of a job.

Joe Stiglich of the San Jose Mercury News suggested that Pennington may be designated for assignment, and that's certainly a possibility.

The other thing the A's could do is keep Pennington around and find ways to use him off the bench, and that's not such a bad idea. Pennington isn't much of a hitter, but he's by no means a useless player. He does bring some worthwhile things to the table.

One such thing is his defense. Per FanGraphs, Pennington has a 5.1 UZR and a DRS of +3 this season, to go along with a .979 fielding percentage. He's an above-average defensive shortstop.

Drew can hold his own at short, but he's not as good as Pennington is. He has a UZR of -0.8 (UZR/150 of -4.6) and a DRS of -1. At best, he is an average defensive shortstop.

Pennington could be used as a late-game defensive sub, but that's not the only role he could play late in games down the stretch. His speed makes him a perfect pinch-runner, and the A's could very much use one of those on their bench.

Moves are going to have to be made in order to keep Pennington on the big league roster, but the A's won't be wasting their time if they choose to keep him around. He's a guy who can provide some valuable depth.

Not a Chemistry Killer

The A's are a tight-knit group, and they've only grown tighter and tighter as this season has moved along. Their chemistry is a major part of their success.

The downside of the Drew trade happening so late and so out of the blue was that it caught the team a little off-guard. And judging from the reports, some A's players aren't too thrilled about welcoming a newcomer, especially if it eventually means having to turn around and wave goodbye to Pennington.

"When a person comes in, something has to happen to someone you like, and that's never a fun thing," said Brandon McCarthy, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's why you hope someone comes in and performs right away to smooth that transition. But this is rough, the way we all know how it works. It's not too surprising."

It's not all bad, though. After all, it's not like the A's are being forced to welcome a notorious clubhouse cancer (a la Manny Ramirez). Drew has never had a reputation as a trouble-maker, and Bob Melvin knows this as well as anyone.

Melvin managed Drew for several years when he was managing the Diamondbacks, overseeing Drew's strong showing in the 2007 postseason and his career-best year in 2008. He didn't say much about Drew on Monday night, be he did acknowledge (via the Mercury News) that Drew is going to be a "good fit" in Oakland.

It also helps that Drew played on a Diamondbacks team in 2011 that had the same kind of underdog mentality as this year's A's. He should have little trouble embracing the general vibe of things in Oakland.

And as long as he performs well, his new teammates will have no trouble whatsoever embracing him too.

A's Have All the Other Pieces They Need

We can safely refer to Stephen Drew as the "final" piece to the puzzle in Oakland because all of the other pieces were already in place.

With Drew in place, the A's have an offense that is at least decent. Assuming he hits at the top of the lineup with Coco Crisp, the A's are going to have two very good table-setters in front of a strong duo of sluggers in Josh Reddick and Yoenis Cespedes, who are protected by a classic No. 5 hitter in Chris Carter.

That's a strong first five right there, and the lower end of Oakland's lineup will be a threat if Jemile Weeks returns and establishes himself in the No. 9 spot.

Keep in mind that the A's don't need a ton of offense on any given night. They rank second in the American League with a team ERA of 3.53, and that's thanks to the fact that they boast both a strong starting rotation and a strong bullpen.

The A's have two quality veteran starters in Bartolo Colon and Brandon McCarthy, and rookie starters Jarrod Parker and Tommy Milone have more than held their own this season. With Brett Anderson coming back and Dan Straily heading back to the minors, the A's know that they rotation depth to call on. 

Oakland's bullpen has been strong all year, and it will go back to being perhaps their primary strength if Ryan Cook can dominate like he did earlier in the season.

With a solid offense now supporting a strong rotation and a strong bullpen, the A's have more than enough to finish what they've started.

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