Last week, the Detroit Tigers placed Brandon Inge, by far their longest-tenured player, on waivers.
Brandon Inge: Good Enough To Play Every Day For A’s?
Sunday afternoon, Inge cleared waivers and the Oakland Athletics pounced. Once the formalities are concluded, Inge will join the A's after nearly 15 years in the Tigers' organization.
Jane Lee (via MLB.com):
The deal ... is pending a physical, so it’s unknown whether Inge will be in Boston on Monday for the club’s three-game series opener against the Red Sox. But once in uniform, it’s safe to assume his place in the everyday third-base role, following an early round of musical chairs at the position that saw a lack of production from Josh Donaldson, Eric Sogard and the recently acquired Luke Hughes. Combined, A’s third basemen had a .127 average with a .374 OPS, two home runs and six RBIs entering the day.
I will guess two things:
Guess #1 - You know that Brandon Inge is a good fielder and a poor hitter.
Guess #2 - Before this month or perhaps this spring, you’d never heard of Josh Donaldson, Eric Sogard, or Luke Hughes.
Is Everyday Inge better than the incumbent troika? It’s difficult to say. We do know that Inge will make the manager’s job quite a bit easier. Instead of agonizing over which replacement-level third baseman to write into the lineup every day, Bob Melvin can simply go with Brandon Inge almost every day and spend his intellectual energies elsewhere.
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