The Oakland Athletics look to be in the early stages of a rebuild having dealt one of their best players from the last few seasons.
Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported that Oakland traded Josh Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays for Brett Lawrie and prospects:
The A’s later confirmed the move:
Lawrie will be Donaldson’s replacement at third and provide the most help for Oakland in the immediate future. The prospects will help determine the franchise’s long-term success. One of those players will be Sean Nolin.
Nolin will turn 25 on Dec. 26. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press believes that the left-hander could earn a role on the major league roster when the 2015 season begins:
He’s worked his way through the Blue Jays’ organization. After brief stints in the rookie league and with Toronto’s short-season Single-A team, he joined the Buffalo Bisons for the second time in as many years.
In 20 Triple-A starts over the past two years, Nolin‘s gone 5-7 with a 3.17 earned run average. He struck out 87 batters and walked another 45 in 105 innings pitched.
The Blue Jays also brought Nolin up to the big leagues twice when the rosters expanded late in the season. He made two appearances, giving up seven earned runs in 2.1 innings.
Nolin likely would’ve done more for Toronto in 2014 had he not gotten injured.
“I was having a good season in the beginning. I was feeling good, then [the injury] happened and it was a little bit of a low blow, but I had to get it out of my head and get healthy,” he said in July, per Ashley Marshall of MiLB.com. “I guess [the Blue Jays] want me to get a few more innings under my belt and get the confidence of being a big leaguer.”
While not considered a top prospect in the Blue Jays’ system, Nolin was listed as the 12th-best player in the organization by MLB.com. Baseball Prospectus (Baseball Prospectus subscription required) was much higher on the lefty, ranking him fifth.
BP’s Jason Parks wrote that Nolin will mostly likely figure as a No. 5 starting pitcher in the majors with the potential to be a No. 3 option. Parks wasn’t overly impressed with Nolin‘s fastball, which measures in the high 80s up to 90 miles per hour, but he added that Nolin has solid command with an above-average changeup that has “good deception and action in the low 80s.”
FanGraphs‘ Marc Hulet thinks Oakland did well to get Nolin added to the deal:
BP’s Mauricio Rubio praised Beane’s ability to unearth hidden gems and posited that Nolin could fall under that designation:
World Series contenders can’t afford to have holes in the starting rotation, as evidenced by the Los Angeles Angels’ quick exit from the 2014 postseason. The Angels didn’t have much depth and were forced to start C.J. Wilson in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.
Nolin could potentially provide the depth at the back end that proves invaluable as the season goes on. Barring some sort of massive jump in his development, he’ll never win a Cy Young Award, but that shouldn’t stop him from being a productive starter for years to come.
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