Cespedes Trade, Downfall of the A’s?

On July 31st the Oakland Athletics were not only the AL West division leaders, they were also the team with the best record in baseball (66-41). It appeared that no one was going to stop them as they began to dream of finally winning a world series and finish off the amazing story of “Moneyball”. But many fans were upset and others shocked by the trade the A’s made that day.

The Athletics shipped Yoenis Cespedes out to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for lefty starter Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes. At first the trade seemed fair for both sides. After all, the A’s were getting a staff ace in Lester and would join a rotation that already included Sonny Gray, Jeff Samardzija, Scott Kazmir, and Jason Hammel.

Things aren’t going as planned for the Athletics though. Since the Cespedes trade, the A’s have a record of 13-19 and are currently 5 games behind the division leading Angels. Sure Oakland has great pitching, but they saw a decrease in offense that affected the team mightily.

Lester has started 7 games for the A’s and has a 3-3 record with a 2.59 ERA. Meanwhile Cespedes has played 30 games with the Red Sox and has hit for a .288 batting average with 4 home runs and 24 RBI’s.

This trade could go wrong very quickly for the Athletics. If the playoffs started today, the Athletics would be in the wild card one game playoff against the Detroit Tigers. Let’s consider the fact that Jon Lester will be a free agent at the end of the season. If the Athletics do win a wild card spot, but lose the one game playoff, then Lester will most likely leave the Oakland A’s and what would have appeared like the trade that would take Oakland all the way would become a failure.

Rumors have been thrown around that Jon Lester has a good relationship with Theo Epstein and would consider signing with the Chicago Cubs. Another team that Lester will consider will be his former team the Boston Red Sox.

The A’s recently traded for veteran slugger Adam Dunn and this trade shows how they might have made a mistake when they traded Yoenis Cespedes. Dunn became the best piece available at the time and the Athletics jumped on him to try to fill the hole Cespedes left.

Making it to the playoffs now becomes key for the Athletics. If they can get into a 5 game series in the postseason in won’t be fun to for the opposing team to face their pitching staff, but as of right now it appears that the A’s will be playing in the wild card game and in one game anything can happen.

This whole season could be a waste for the A’s if they have an early exit. Not only would they lose the chance of a world series, but they could lose Lester as well and Cespedes has already been lost.

Photo Credit: Ben Margot/Winslow Townson/Associated Press.