Cespedes Signs With A’s. What The H E Double Hockey Sticks?

Its pretty much been flying around the internet this afternoon, but I will link MLB Trade Rumors as the source for Yoennis Cespedes finally deciding to sign a contract with a team. Drum roll please………..

The Oakland A’s?

Not sure how this one makes a ton of sense for Cespedes and his crew, geographically, financially, or otherwise, but that is where he lands. The good news for Cespedes is that if he doesn’t play well, there isn’t going to be anyone there to boo him, and if there is, they are too far away from the actual game action for him to here it.

It’s actually not that terrible of a signing for Billy Beane and company. After all, if he is good, he could fetch a nice haul on the trade market later on, and he does fit in well with the whole rebuild thing if he isn’t ready right away. He should compete with Seth Smith, Coco Crisp and Josh Reddick for playing time, and could even start the year in the minors if the A’s see fit.

The strange thing about the signing is that it very likely means they still finish well below the Angels and the Rangers for the division race, so it kind of seems like throwing money in the well without getting the wish.

The A’s got Cespedes for an average of 9M dollars per year for four years, which is a pretty good chunk of change for them to spend. I don’t think that was out of Detroit’s ballpark financially, but they may have not wanted to commit that kind of money to him after signing Fielder to over 200M dollars last month.

Oh well, I’ve always contended that the Tigers should be more interested in Jorge Soler anyway. He is younger, going to be cheaper and has just as much, if not more, potential than Cespedes.