Only the Seattle Mariners had worse output among American League teams from their designated hitters than the Oakland Athletics in 2014.
A’s fans say the team took a big step toward rectifying that with the off-season signing of former Kansas City Royal Billy Butler. Butler is a .295 career hitter, but it also turns out, he can play a very serviceable first base -.992 fielding percentage in 394 career games. That’s only .002 below the league average for his career. Stew on that for a second.
How did the A’s get him? 2014 was a down year for Butler and Kansas City is as concerned about small-market finances as the A’s. Losing Butler means losing $12.5 ...