A's Acquire (De)Jesus!

Yesterday the Oakland Athletics traded starter Vin Mazzaro and starting prospect Justin Marks to the Royals for outfielder David DeJesus.

David DeJesus is owed only $6M this year on the last year of his contract and since the Royals have no plans to compete this year, it's understandable that they'd want to trade him.  What I don't get is why they would trade him now.  DeJesus has consistently been a solid albeit unspectacular player, but last year he was having one of his best seasons before getting hurt.  If the Royals got an equally good player or a solid prospect in return I would understand, but it's not like their haul, Vin Mazzaro, is all that good.  

On the surface Mazzaro seems like a nice acquisition-- they need starting pitching, he's young (24) and he did pretty well last year (4.27 ERA in 122 1/3 innings).  But if you dig just a little bit deeper you'll find that he's not all that good.  He only struck out 79 guys and walked 50, and his component ERAs were pretty pedestrian: 5.13 FIP, 4.72 xFIP, 5.41 tERA.  In a small sample size last year pitching in a very pitching friendly ball park Mazzaro looked like a young solid pitcher.  In reality however, Mazzaro is just a mediocre pitcher.  When that many balls are being put into play luck just plays too big of a role.  Mazzaro may very well have years like 2010 but more often than not there will be years that will look like his peripheral numbers suggest he should pitch.  

The Royals have been down this road before when they acquired Kyle Davies and Brian Bannister, except to get those guys the Royals didn't have to give up an every day player in his prime, they gave up Octavio Dotel and Ambriorix Burgos.  

I'm not sure how DeJesus figures to fit in on the A's roster but they can play this in a couple of ways.  They can mix and match him among their crowded OF as they try to sneak into the playoffs, they can showcase him for a trade in July, or they can just wait it out and receive draft pick compensation next year whether or not DeJesus plays well.  In all of those scenarios the A's will likely get a better player back than the one they gave up. 

This isn't a game changing move, but it does illustrate how the A's acquire valuable pieces like it's second nature while the Royals easily give them away.