A's to Sign Jace Peterson to Two-Year Deal

The A's also traded for a righty reliever from Colorado

The A's dipped into the free agent market earlier than usual on Tuesday, agreeing to terms with 32-year-old utility player Jace Peterson on a two year deal. The terms of the contract have yet to be reported, and the deal is subject to Peterson passing a physical. Robert Murray of FanSided was the first with the news. 

Peterson has played in nine seasons at the big league level and has a career 83 OPS+. The last three seasons he has been much better with the bat, tallying a 104, 95, and 98 OPS+, essentially grading out as league average. Last season in 112 games and 312 plate appearances, he hit .236 with a .316 OBP and also hit a career-high eight home runs.

What the A's are getting in Peterson is a league average bat, and that's an improvement over most of their roster in 2022. It's also notable that he got the most action last season at third base, getting into 86 total games at the position, and starting 67 of those. He tallied seven Outs Above Average in his time at third base, which was nearly as good as Manny Machado's nine OAA in 500 fewer innings at the position. Machado also ranked third among third baseman in that category with Peterson sixth. 

With Peterson coming aboard, the likelihood of the A's also bringing back Chad Pinder are pretty slim, because Jace has played every position on the diamond outside of catcher. Over the last three seasons, Pinder has totaled OPS+ figures of 91, 98, and 86, but his defense, at least by the metrics, hasn't been great. 

Peterson bucks the trend (slightly) of recent A's additions that strike out 20% of the time or less. Last season he K'd 25.9% of the time, but for his career he has a 22% strikeout rate. His walk rate was at 10.1% in 2022, and sits at 11.2% for his career, leading to his nickname "On Base Jace."

Since the signing is not technically official, the A's roster currently stands at 38 heading into Wednesday's Rule 5 Draft. 

The reason it's at 38 is because the A's also made a trade on Tuesday, acquiring right-handed reliever Chad Smith from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for 2020 second rounder Jeff Criswell. 

Smith is 27 and relies mostly on his mid-90's sinker and mid-80's slider combo, but also mixed in a changeup against lefties a few times in his brief stint with Colorado in 2022. He tallied 18 innings and a 7.50 ERA, walking 15 and striking out 23. His xERA, or expected ERA, was just 3.91. His ground ball rate has consistently been over 50% in the minors, and has even pushed 60% at a couple of stops. With the Rockies he finished with a 55.6% ground ball rate. 

Walks hadn't been an issue for him in the minors prior to his call-up, giving up just 2.8 BB/9 across 35 innings in Triple-A this past season. The A's have to like his slider, which gave up an opponent's batting average of .100 (.130 xBA) and had a whiff% of 56%. He also only threw it 31.8% of the time. It's a good looking pitch, as you can see from this video on Baseball Savant. 

By and large, it was a few bad outings that led to Smith's inflated ERA. In his second big league outing he allowed six earned to the Marlins, and then was touched up a few outings later for three runs on the road against the Reds, who have another one of baseball's most hitter-friendly parks. 

Smith is going to be an intriguing player to watch when spring training rolls around to see what adjustments he makes now that he's in the A's system. They could be thinking a more slider-heavy approach would be effective, or working on incorporating that changeup more often to keep batters off his sinker. Either way, he has one solid offering, and the goal will be to keep hitters off of that slider. 

Smith has two options left, so while he is on the 40-man roster, he doesn't need to make the Opening Day roster.