The trade
Reds get: Sam Moll, LHP
A’s get: Joe Boyle, RHP and international bonus pool money
Marc Carig: Last week, our Ken Rosenthal flagged the Oakland A’s Sam Moll as a trade target. Turns out Ken knows what he’s talking about. The A’s have 30 — 30! — wins as the trade deadline approaches. That’s a .280 winning percentage for those scoring at home. With a big league roster this deficient, flipping anyone on it for anything of potential value moving forward constitutes a nice little win.
Moll, 31, has a 4.54 ERA over 37 2/3 innings spread over 45 appearances. The 5-foot-9 southpaw is walking 4.5 batters per nine innings, right in line with his career marks. And he’s a typical lefty, in that he smothers lefty hitters (.557 OPS against), though righty hitters not so much (.780). But this season, his strikeout rate has climbed to 11.0 per nine. His slider is his bread-and-butter pitch. He’s also cheap with four more years of club control. That adds up to the closest thing to victory in Oakland this summer: a plane ticket out of Oakland.
The hard-charging Reds get themselves some bullpen depth, and all it cost them was a lottery ticket in 2020 fifth-round pick Joe Boyle and international bonus pool money, which can be used to procure more lottery tickets. Boyle is the 28th-ranked prospect in the Reds system according to MLB Pipeline. The soon-to-be 24-year-old stands 6-7, weighs 240 pounds, and you guessed it, owns an 80-grade fastball. What he does not own is 80-grade command. At Double-A Chattanooga this season he’s walking 8.0 batters per nine innings. One would think a move to the bullpen is next. Maybe if he learns some control, he’ll someday get his very own cheesy closer entrance in Las Vegas.
Our Eno Sarris likes this deal for the A’s.
Reds: B-
A’s: A-
(Photo of Moll: Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)
