Oakland A's Trade Vin Mizarro & Justin Marks to Royals for David DeJesus

The Oakland Athletics have started the offseason off with a bang.  After making a splash by releasing fan favorite Eric Chavez last week they have made another move this week.  The A's have traded starting pitcher Vin Mazarro and minor-league pitcher Justin Marks to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for outfielder David DeJesus.

DeJesus, a career .289 hitter, has played 8 seasons with the Royals--the team that drafted him in 2000.  He doesn't provide a lot of power as he has only hit 61 career homeruns but is an above-average defender and will definitely hit a lot of extra-base hits.

The Royals had been trying to move DeJesus earlier this year prior to the July 31st trade deadline and was even rumored to be going to the San Francisco Giants but then was injured and had season-ending surgery on his thumb.

He will likely be the starting left-fielder with Coco Crisp and Ryan Sweeney taking up the other two positions.  This trade will move Rajai Davis to the bench which is a better spot for him anyway.

Thursday Giants lineup, Willis signed, DeJesus?

Today’s lineup and some other tidbits so let’s get started on the first day of the rest of the season.

Rowand CF
Sanchez 2B
Huff LF
Posey C
Ishikawa 1B
Uribe SS
Sandoval 3B
Schierholtz RF
Lincecum RHP

According to both San Francisco Chronicle’s Henry Schulman and Mercury News’ Andrew Baggarly the Giants have signed local kid Dontrelle Willis to a AAA contract.

This move is reportedly not related to any trade that may come up anytime soon. It is just to be for depth in the minor leagues.

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Henry Schulman is also stated on his Twitter account that the Royals top player evaluator is at the park tonight.  Looks like Giants may be having conversations with the Royals about David DeJesus.