A's agree to minors deal with Thames

*Photo from Federal Baseball*

   The motto of the Oakland Athletics has been to search for bargain deals where it is possible to find them. That may be the only kind of deal you can have these days, but they are still sticking to their guns. The Athletics and 1B Eric Thames have agreed to a minor league contract, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

   Although they won't say it publicly, you can bet that this move is insurance to shore up first base for the Athletics, who had been fielding calls and were said to be intent on trading incumbent first baseman Matt Olson, who has put together a string of all star caliber seasons for the A's. Thames signs with his hometown A's, as he is a native of San Jose.

   Oakland signed Thames after he spent a year with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan's NPB league. He only played 10 games for the Giants after he tore his achillies tendon trying to field a ball in left field. It's the second return to the majors for Thames, who spent a few seasons with the NC Dinos of the KBO in between 2012 and 2017.

   The last time Thames played in the majors was the short 2020 season with the Washington Nationals. In that time, Thames finished the year with a .203 batting average and .617 OPS, slugging .317 and hitting 3 home runs to go along with 12 RBI's, playing in 41 of the 60 regular season games for a Nationals squad that missed the playoffs.

   In his major league career, Thames has a .241 batting average and .792 OPS, hitting 96 home runs with 235 RBI's, slugging .467 in 605 games, split between 4 different teams. In just one postseason game, the 2019 NL Wild Card game against the Nationals, Thames hit a solo home run and doubled in 4 at bats.