Adam Dunn traded to Athletics for minor league pitcher
The A’s need help and the White Sox DH may provide a boost of power down the stretch.
The A's have played sub-.500 ball in the second half and are just 12-16 in August since trading outfielder Yoenis Cespedes at the trade deadline. They lost three consecutive games over the weekend to their AL West rival, the Angels, to fall four games behind LA in the division hunt. Their batting has been off in the second half, and for the season their designated hitters have managed to hit for a lower average than Dunn's .220 without demonstrating his prodigious power. Cespedes had been hitting .256 with 17 home runs in 2014 before the trade.
The left-handed Dunn homered in the first game of a double-header Saturday against the Tigers for his 20th longball of the season. With the A's, he stands a good chance at playing in the postseason for the first time in a 14-year career that has also included stops in Cincinnati, Arizona and Washington. Dunn has recorded 460 home runs for his career. A's manager Bob Melvin told the press Sunday that Dunn will be used primarily as a designated hitter.
Sanburn is in his third season of professional ball after being drafted in the second round of the June amateur draft in 2012 out of the University of Arkansas. The A’s moved him from a role as a starter to that of a reliever, where this season he has pitched in 42 games, finishing 23 of them, in Advanced A. Sanburn has a 3.28 ERA, 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings and 3.2 walks per nine innings.
The Giants were believed to be in the chase for Dunn's services, but Buster Olney of ESPN reported Sunday morning that San Francisco was no longer in the hunt.
The White Sox have been active on the trade market lately, moving outfielder Alejandro De Aza to AL East-leader Baltimore on Saturday night.
