Jeff Passan announced today that the Oakland Athletics have traded two PTBNLs to the Texas Rangers for LHP Mike Minor.
Minor had a great season in 2019, posting a 4.25 FIP in over 200 innings of work, but the veteran lefty has struggled coming out of the gate in 2020. He has a 4.83 FIP over his first 35.1 innings of work. His fastball has dropped two full ticks of velocity, which could be a major reason why, but his fastball still has elite spin (currently sitting in the 97th percentile), and his breaking balls still have plus movement. There are a lot of things the A’s could do with Minor. They could have him replace Mike Fiers in the rotation, they could have him piggyback with Sean Manaea who is struggling after the third inning, or they could move him to the bullpen in a role like he had with the 2017 Royals. We will have to wait and see what they do.
