FanGraphs: A’s Replacing Brandon Inge With Brandon Inge

Look, this is an update about the Oakland Athletics signing Brandon Inge. It’s not going to be the most riveting thing you read all day, unless you only read this update, or unless you only read this update and medicine warning labels. But then some of those medicine warning labels can really make you think. So many side effects! Some of them potentially serious!

But you’re already here, and you’re reading this for some reason, so: Inge is going to Oakland, to displace the guys they’ve had at third base, and over at FanGraphs, Dave Cameron talks about what this means for the team:

The team began the year with Josh Donaldson tabbed as the starter coming out of spring training. Donaldson is a 26-year-old who was a below average hitter in the PCL last year. Not surprisingly, he wasn’t able to hold the job for more than a few days, as Bob Melvin had him split time with utility infielder Eric Sogard. Sogard was bad, but Donaldson was worse, so he ended up back in Triple-A and the team claimed Luke Hughes on waivers from the Twins. Hughes played four games before he was DFA’d to make room for Inge.
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Almost unbelievably, Inge is actually projected to outhit both incumbents, but of course the margin is so small that all three could really just be lumped into the same “awful hitter” category.

Brandon Inge doesn’t project to be markedly different from Donaldson, Sogard, or Hughes at the plate. He has a very strong defensive reputation, which helps, but he’s also nearly 35 and baseball players aren’t like fine wine, for so many reasons. Basically, all this is is another sign that the Oakland A’s really, really, really would’ve preferred that Scott Sizemore not injure himself so badly.