Last November, an under-the-radar waiver claim of Brent Rooker landed the A’s an eventual All-Star slugger. About a year later, they're looking to strike gold again with a similar move. Earlier this week, the A’s claimed third baseman/outfielder Miguel Andujar off waivers from the Pirates.
It wasn’t long ago that Andujar enjoyed a breakout 2018 campaign with the Yankees that saw him finish runner-up to Shohei Ohtani in American League Rookie of the Year voting. Since then, however, he has been unable to replicate that level of performance, dealing with both injuries and defensive struggles.
Andujar did show some encouraging signs of recapturing some of that form this past season by slashing .338/.404/.536 with 16 homers, 30 doubles and 86 RBIs in 103 games with Triple-A Indianapolis. Those strong numbers in the Minors earned him a big league opportunity with the Pirates, which he responded to by slashing .302/.351/.528 over 17 games in the final month of the regular season.
A’s general manager David Forst, who met with Andujar’s agent at the annual GM Meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz., this week, spoke highly of the 28-year-old.
“He had a fantastic year at Triple-A for the Pirates,” Forst said. “This is still a young man. He obviously was highly regarded when he came up with the Yankees. It’s a hard place to come up in New York and a lot of attention was paid to his defense at the time and whether he could play third base. I think we believe he’s still a Major League hitter.
“He’s done a nice job transitioning to the outfield. He played both left and right field in Triple-A last year. He’s played some at first base as well, which is a nice option to have because we’re very left-handed at first base between [Ryan] Noda, [Seth] Brown and [Tyler] Soderstrom. I think the bat is a really good fit for us. It’ll remain to be seen where he fits overall on the roster. But there’s a lot of people here who believe he is a Major League hitter.”
Here are some other topics Forst touched on while speaking from the GM Meetings: