A's to acquire Holliday from Rockies

A's to acquire Holliday from Rockies

The A's are closing in on a deal that would send star outfielder Matt Holiday from Colorado to Oakland, SI.com has learned. It isn't known yet which players will be sent to Oakland in the surprise deal.

The A's have pulled off some shocking trades before when no one expected it, but this might be an all-timer even for them. The small-market team previously shocked baseball with trades for Kevin Appier in 1999 and Johnny Damon in 2001, but those deals occurred in years where the A's were a contender.

Oakland owner Lew Wolff has recently told confidants he's tired of losing, and this may be the first step toward contending again. Although, they better do it soon, as Holliday is eligible for free agency after the 2009 season. He is to make $13 million in '08, a princely sum for an Oakland player. The A's could also consider trading Holliday, perhaps at the deadline, if they so desire.

The Rockies offered Holliday $68 million guaranteed over four years (plus a fifth year option that could have taken it to $85 million), but Holliday, knowing he can expect to double that next winter on the free-agent market, rejected the offer. The Rockies like Holliday, but they didn't want to meet Holliday's expected request for a deal of eight years or longer because of their experience with a deal of similar length for first baseman Todd Helton.

Holliday is due to become a free agent after the 2009 season. He has spent his entire five-year career with the Rockies, is a two-time All-Star and helped them reach the 2007 World Series. He batted .321 with 25 home runs and 88 RBIs in 2008 in 139 games. It was his fourth straight .300 season, but his power numbers represented a noticeable decline from the previous two seasons when he averaged 35 HRs and 125 RBIs while playing in at least 155 games both years.

Previously, the Phillies and Cardinals were among the teams reportedly pursuing a trade for Holliday, but the Cardinals pulled out of the running over the weekend.

The A's? Really?

I don't believe it



Usually the A's trade away stars


Not acquire them

11/10/08 9:24 PM EST
Blockbuster may spawn follow-up deals
While Holliday, Street could help new clubs, both could be flipped

By Tom Singer / MLB.com

Man bites dog?

Not quite, perhaps, but Oakland general manager Billy Beane, far more renowned for sending established players the other way, has certainly taken a big bite out of the nascent trading season with his apparent acquisition of Matt Holliday.

If reports are correct, Beane will be landing the three-time All-Star for a couple of upside 2008 rookies -- outfielder Carlos Gonzalez and left-hander Greg Smith -- and a 2005 Rookie of the Year -- closer Huston Street. Gonzalez and Smith had both been acquired in December's trade of Dan Haren to Arizona.

Once Colorado general manager Dan O'Dowd committed to trading Holliday, who rejected a preseason five-year offer and will be a free agent following the 2009 season, his cell phone entered vibration mode.

Now the Cardinals, Phillies and possibly Yankees will have to turn elsewhere for left field help. Or, perhaps, start working on Beane himself.

The deal will be finalized once Holliday and the other players involved pass the requisite physical exams. But there is no reason to subject Beane to a mental exam.

He injects into Bob Geren's soft lineup a 29-year-old lifetime .319 hitter who has collected 95 home runs and 339 RBIs -- and one batting title -- in the last three seasons.

Such a bat, along with Holliday's reputation for being a sound fundamental player, had other GMs banging on O'Dowd's door. So Beane may have also ratcheted up the demand for Holliday -- should he wish to trade him on during the coming season.

Denver could be a sieve for Street. If O'Dowd indeed plots to trade on the 2005 Rookie of the Year, as some reports are indicating, he won't have a shortage of takers. Numerous teams are actively in the market for a closer -- foremost among them the Cardinals, the Mets and the Indians -- and O'Dowd can get a head start with the ones which had called him about Brian Fuentes prior to the July 31 non-waiver Trade Deadline.

Or, Monday's conditional deal may have been the first step in a transition for the 2007 NL champs, as they move to a greater emphasis on pitching.

Coors Field may seem an unlikely place for that, but Clint Hurdle's club ended the 2008 season with a solid top-of-the-rotation (Ubaldo Jimenez and Aaron Cook combined for 28 wins and a sub-4.00 ERA). Smith adds another 200-inning arm, and the Rockies expect to add more frontline pitching in an eventual trade of third baseman Garrett Atkins.

The Angels, Phillies, Indians and Dodgers are all eager for a third baseman.

Or Street could be a keeper, in a bullpen needing to replace Fuentes' 30 saves.

In any regard, it's reasonable to assume that the 75 percent of polled Colorado fans who didn't think the Rockies got enough in return for Holliday may have jumped the gun just a tad.

For the time being, at least, Holliday empowers the A's with the big middle-of-the-order bat they lacked last season, when they were last in the Majors with a .242 average and last in the AL with 646 runs.

Oakland also plodded through eight different left fielders -- Jack Cust was high with 77 starts there -- during a 75-86 season, its poorest in a decade.

Holliday also empowers his new franchise off the field: A's ownership is waging a very public campaign for a relocated home in Fremont -- a community 22 miles from Oakland -- and such a high-profile move toward contention scores big public relations points.

If the Holliday gambit fails for the A's, he could turn out to be a half-season rental. Should the A's not be in a contending position approaching next July 31's Trade Deadline, Beane won't have trouble swapping the free agent-to-be for another cache of prospects.

Should that happen, of course, it would merely be a case of the dog again biting the man.

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.