Impending free agent Matt Holliday, on whether or not the A's will trade him:
They have not approached me or my representation at all. I would assume that being a smaller-market team that is into developing young players currently, that they will probably either trade me at some point or take their draft picks at the end of the year. It's sort of the understanding that I have. So we'll just kind of see what happens. I'd like for this to work out. I've had a great time with my teammates and have really appreciated the way this organization has treated me in this first couple of months.
The guys have been great, and I see a lot of potential in this team, but we obviously aren't playing very well. So I would say if it looks like we're not going to be able to get back into the race or get healthy, I think every player wants a chance to win, and I'm no exception. I'd love to play in the postseason again. So if it looks like we're not going to be able to make it to the postseason and they can get some good players for me, I'd be OK with getting a chance to go try to make it to the postseason and play in October.
Oakland trading Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Smith, and Huston Street to get Holliday from Colorado this offseason never quite made sense to me, because the A's seemingly weren't yet at the stage where adding one veteran bat could put them over the top and Holliday was likely to see his numbers plummet away from Coors Field.
Sure enough, the A's are in last place at 20-30 and Holliday is hitting .278/.369/.444 compared to .319/.386/.552 in five seasons with the Rockies. They'll recoup some value by either dealing Holliday or taking compensatory draft picks when he walks as a free agent, but the 25-year-old Street has pitched very well for the Rockies and the 23-year-old Gonzalez is hitting .348/.429/.652 with 59 RBIs in 46 games at Triple-A.
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Holliday's numbers may look worse than usual but that's largely due to his poor start to the season. Since May 1 he's hitting not all that far off from his numbers with the Rox.
In regards to whether his signing makes sense, let's not forget the A's also signed Orlando Cabrera and Jason Giambi, both of whom have failed to live up to even the lowest of expectations. Mark Ellis, Eric Chavez, Nomar Garciaparra, Joey Devine, and Justin Duchscherer have combined for 151 PA and 0 IP. Injuries kill small market teams like the A's because they simply can't afford depth.
With the team in the cellar, the Holliday signing doesn't look like the best move, but when you look at what "could have been", gambling and taking a shot at the weak AL West wasn't a bad idea. At least the A's won't come out of it totally empty handed.
In the comment above it should say he's hitting .304 / .418 / .500 since May 1. Got deleted by the comment software for some reason.