Homer Bailey scratched from start, traded to the Oakland Athletics, per report

The trade deadline for 2019 is creeping up on all of us and by the end of the month, we are all likely to be sick of all of the rumors and speculation as to who is going where. One thing appears to be certain: there are going to be a lot of buyers at the deadline and they will certainly outnumber the obvious sellers.

One such team that is pretty much guaranteed to be a seller at the deadline is the Kansas City Royals. The team currently sits at 32-61 and are in the middle of a rebuild that they honestly should have started a couple of years ago, but here we are. We first got some smoke that a deal was in the works involving Homer Bailey who, at this stage in his career, isn’t a piece that the Royals are planning on for the future. Ken Rosenthal was the first to mention a deal was close.

We did not have to wait long for this trade saga to complete itself as Jeff Passan was quick to get the info out there that the Oakland Athletics were the winners for Bailey’s services.

The Athletics, in the middle of a tough AL West race sitting six games behind the Astros but currently occupying a Wild Card spot, making this move makes all the sense in the world. As Rosenthal noted, Bailey had been productive of late and, as Passan noted, Bailey’s contract is dirt cheap for the rest of the season which is always going to be appealing for the perpetually cash-strapped A’s.

In 18 starts this season for Kansas City, Bailey has posted a 4.80 ERA with 81 strikeouts in 90 innings pitched this season. This season is also the first that he has posted (so far) with a positive rWAR since the 2014 season with the Reds.