The Athletics could potentially be looking to trade away their leading man.
Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers is a trade candidate ahead of the Aug. 3 deadline, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports this week. Heyman notes that the Athletics are “open to anything” when it comes to trades and adds that recent extension talks with Langeliers went nowhere despite the team offering about $80 million to him.
The 28-year-old Langeliers has been a breakout star for the Athletics this season. He leads the team with 22 home runs on the year and has also chipped in 50 RBIs and 53 runs scored on a .260/.328/.493 slash line.
Those numbers were good enough for Langeliers to make the first All-Star team of his MLB career this season. Quality catchers are also hard to come by, placing Langeliers’ talents at a premium right now.
Though the Athletics are once again out of relevance this year at 42-57 (8.5 games out of a playoff spot), a Langeliers trade would still be a relative shocker. Langeliers remains under club control through 2028, so it is far from do-or-die situation for the Athletics at the moment.
That said, the Athletics have already been handing out a number of enormous contracts to their young core hitters over the last several months. With Langeliers in his prime at a physically-taxing position, perhaps the Athletics are thinking about selling high on him.
