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The Oakland Telegraph
31 May 2027
Oakland get Bradford and Gott as Casadilla and Soto depart
By Tré Dingday, panicky trades correspondent
He could wait no longer. This past 1-6 week, which included only narrowly avoiding a 4-0 sweep by the hapless New York Yankees, was clearly the final straw. Paulie Beane's Oakland A's sit at 19-27, 12.5 games back of the lead in the American League West, and, after four straight world championships, are nearly out of the race with barely a quarter of the season gone.
Insiders say his finger had been twitching on the trigger for a couple of weeks, and finally he's pulled it. Beane likes trading with the National League so that any mistakes don't immediately come back to haunt him, and today completed a pair of trades with Arizona and Atlanta. Coming to the Coliseum is a man who will compete with Bill Williams for daftest name on the roster, left fielder Brad Bradford (28/L/3.5*, drafted 2017 rd 1 by Pittsburgh). "I know the parents in this case are Mr and Mrs OOTP Random Name Generator, but crikey do mums and dads give their kids silly names sometimes", said Paulie Beane, apparently without irony. Bradford was an all-star in 2023 and 2025, and adds more reliable contact for equally strong defense, compared to the departed Isael Soto, who moved the other way in the trade. Soto got 10 home runs in a week towards the end of last season, but was struggling to get 10 hits in a month this term.
Also coming to Oakland, in a trade unusual for the club in that it didn't replace a player with a younger man, is experienced reliever Trevor Gott (34/R/4.5*). He takes the spot of the increasingly hittable Franyel Casadilla, who bravely heads to Atlanta. Casadilla has in recent years lost the knack of Beane's favoured groundball pitching, and once he started struggling (his ERA is 4.56 this year despite an unsustainable .186 BABIP), his card was marked.
Also joining the A's is minor league reliever Ricardo Morin (23/R/3*, drafted 2024 rd 4 by Arizona), who was a low draft pick but has developed quickly in the minors and has great stuff.
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