Elephant Rumblings: A’s agree to deal with Trevor Gott

The right-hander joined the last-place A’s in hopes of earning a bigger payday.

The Oakland Athletics agreed to a major league deal with Trevor Gott today, according to Keith Law of the Athletic. The value of the contract isn’t known yet.

The 31-year-old righty spent the first half of the 2023 season with the Seattle Mariners, putting up solid numbers in relief, throwing 29 innings with 32 strikeouts, 8 walks, and a 4.03 ERA/2.98 FIP that was larger driven by a sky-high .343 BABIP. Never thrifty (except the time below), Steve Cohen’s New York Mets found that production desirable enough that, on top of sending over a recently DFA’d southpaw reliever, he allowed Jerry Dipoto to throw in struggling swingman Chris Flexen just to shed his $3.9 million salary. The Mets immediately designated Flexen for assignment.

Gott put up slightly worse numbers in New York but was largely what the Mets knew they were getting, which made their decision to non-tender him on an even lower total $2 million salary fairly puzzling. Nevertheless, he’ll have step into the A’s mostly unproven bullpen with a good shot to be 2024 Trevor May, at least on the field (hard to live up to his personality).

Mark Kotsay will likely start with a closer by committee with Gott alongside one or two of Mason Miller, Lucas Erceg, and Dany Jimenez. If he can separate himself from the competition with reliably strong results, he can rack up saves to either secure himself an even better payday next offseason or get dealt to a playoff contender at the deadline. Either way, it’s a win for both parties.

In order to sign Gott, the A’s will need to designate a player for assignment since their 40-man roster is full. It’ll likely be a pitcher as there are now at least 20 players fighting for ten spots on Oakland’s pitching staff — three in the rotation and seven in the bullpen. Adrian Martinez, Devin Sweet, and Angel Felipe are lowest on the depth chart so it’ll likely be one of them.

A’s Coverage:

• 2023 Athletics Season in Review: Shea Langeliers
• Athletics, Gerardo Reyes Agree To Minor League Deal
• Oakland Ballers Add First Baseman

MLB News & Interest:

• Max Scherzer Undergoes Back Surgery
• Dodgers, Tyler Glasnow Finalizing Extension
• Royals To Sign Michael Wacha
• Royals Finalizing Two-Year Deal With Hunter Renfroe
• Braves Acquire Matt Carpenter, Ray Kerr From Padres
• Braves Plan To Trade Matt Carpenter
• Pirates Sign Rowdy Tellez
• Pirates, Andrew McCutchen In Talks On Reunion
• Pirates Acquire Edward Olivares From Royals
• Rosenthal: What I’m hearing about Dylan Cease and the starting pitcher market ($)
• Resetting the MLB trade candidates field: The 7 players most likely to be dealt this winter ($)
• Jesús Luzardo Drawing Trade Interest
• Guardians Designate Alfonso Rivas For Assignment
• David McKinnon Signs With KBO’s Samsung Lions

Best of X:

Different philopophies for sure.

They may not have their star, but they might have found a fan-favorite.

Quick, someone use AI to generate a recruiting pitch from Catfish Hunter.